Publisher’s plate numbers are a crucial element in dating 18th and 19th century music, which very rarely carries a publication date. MacLachlan's list supplements the publication “English music publishers' plate numbers in the first half of the nineteenth century” (London, Faber, 1965) by O.W. Neighbour and A. Tyson. He continues...
Printed in Southern Germany c. 1473, the ‘Constance’ Graduale (IB. 15154) is the earliest extant book of printed music using moveable type. The copy in the British Library’s music collection is the only known surviving copy that is complete.
