The British Library holds the national reference collections of music manuscripts and printed music.
The collection of manuscript music amounts to some 12,000 volumes, containing over 100,000 single items. Some of these were acquired with the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753, and these have been supplemented since by many gifts and bequests, and by numerous purchases.
The Library holds around 1.5 million separate items of printed music. Since the late eighteenth century, music published in Great Britain has been deposited under the terms of successive copyright acts. Music received via legal deposit encompasses classical, popular and educational publications. This archive of British publications is complemented by modern scholarly editions purchased from abroad, and by the continued acquisition of antiquarian music.
Most our printed music, music manuscripts, and music archives are available for consultation in our Rare Books & Music Reading Room on Floor 1. Check our opening times.
You can search for printed music using our interim catalogue of books and other printed material. However, details such as copy-specific information and holding notes are not visible. These details may be available in the equivalent entries on Library Hub Discover.
See ‘Requesting items’ for more details on catalogue records for our music collection