ABSTRACT
As is so often the case in the domain of Bach studies, Philipp Spitta was the pioneer in research on the early printed editions. Before the publication of his ground-breaking biography, Bach scholars knew of the existence of the printed editions that had served as primary sources for the publication of certain collections of the composer’s keyboard music but no one had undertaken an in depth study of any of them. Spitta’s research on the Musical Offering1 marked an important turning point. He noted the existence of the oversize dedicatory copy and raised the issue of the survival of the print in incomplete exemplars leading him to the “installment” theory. After Spitta in the years before the First World War, the major contribution to the field was that of Gustav Wustmann.2 The bulk of his study of Leipzig engravers through the eighteenth century was devoted to those artisans active during the time of Bach and his work was of immense value. Because he dealt with engravers as a whole instead of specifically with music engravers he alerted scholars who followed him to important sources for concordances of unidentified engravers responsible for those of Bach’s original prints engraved before 1740.
