Collections
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Music Reading Room


Opening hours:

Monday to Friday: 9.30am - 5.30pm
Item requests up to 5pm.

Saturday - Closed


Additional services:
Digital piano available


Contacts
Tel.  21 7982072/56

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General Collections


Printed items
The general collection of printed items is mainly composed of titles that were originally taken from other sections of the BNP – particularly the Fine Arts collection – plus those that have been acquired under the Legal Deposit system and from subsequent purchases and donations. There are more than 9,000 monographs (shelfmarks M.), 469 different periodical titles about music (shelfmarks M.P.P.), some of which are no longer being published, and more than 10,000 scores (shelfmarks M.P.).


However, there are also printed items in some of the special collections – e.g. monographs and individual periodicals in the Ivo Cruz Collection, and printed scores in the Collection of the National Conservatory.

 

Manuscript items
The general collection of manuscript items (shelfmarks M.M.) contains more than 7,000 musical scores and parts, as well as a small number of text manuscripts. The collection came from a variety of sources. Of special note are the manuscripts from the Houses of the Company of Jesus, which were transferred to the Library following the creation of the Republic, and the collection gathered by Ernesto Vieira (1848-1915). The general collection includes innumerable autographed items by portuguese composers, such as Luciano Xavier dos Santos (1734-1808), João de Sousa Carvalho (1745-97/98), José Maurício (1752-1815), António da Silva Leite (1756-1833), Marcos Portugal (1762-1830), António José Soares (1783-1865), Joaquim Casimiro (1808-1862) and Santos Pinto (1815-1860), among others.

 

The majority of the manuscript scores, however, are actually in other collections (e.g. the Conde de Redondo Collection and the Ivo Cruz Collection).