Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores several cases in which bishops employed printers directly to print liturgical books, some of which contained music. It also explores the shifting dynamics of a group of German printers active in Spain in the fifteenth century, whose configuration changed over time as members of the group integrated into their new setting or moved on. The book describes the printer's place in the context of a group of related publications. It examines the market for printed music was small and limited by several features. Printed music differed from music transmitted in manuscript or orally in several ways. The printing of music from woodcut must be understood in the context of the printing of other visual material from the same medium. Printers could also print music from moveable type, in single or multiple impressions.