RISM Online Help

Record types

The RISM database has different record types to indicate whether a record is a description of a collection (i.e., with child records), a single item, the content of a collection, or a composite volume. RISM Online shows different icons to differentiate these record types in the search result list.
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Description
A manuscript collection containing different manuscript content items, or the bibliographic record of a print. The content of the manuscript collection or the print is detailed with a list of child records that can be searched from the source record. (A few manuscript collections, however, do not yet have their contents catalogued.
A single item music manuscript, or a bibliographic record of a print with no detailed list of child records.
A content item within a manuscript collection or within a print. The record always belongs to a parent, either a manuscript collection or a bibliographic record of a print.
A composite volume describing an archival aggregate where several manuscript or print items, or collections, have been bound together.

Source types

Source types describe the material characteristics of a source.
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Description
A handwritten manuscript source held in one single library.
A printed source with holdings in one or more libraries.
A source with mixed types (e.g., a composite volume) held in one single library.

Content types

The Content type describes the form of the material within a source. A source may have multiple content types.
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Description
The content is music notation (e.g., staff notation, tablature notation).
The content is a libretto of music work, such as an opera
The content is a treatise that is a theoretical text, with or without music notation examples.
The content is mixed and cannot be identified with one category above.
The content is of another type (e.g., a map or a drawing).

Additional icons

Some additional icons are used in RISM Online to indicate that records have some specific features.
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Description
The record includes one or more musical incipits.
The record includes a link to a digital reproduction of the source. For prints, the link is attached to a specific exemplar, and more than one link can be available.
The record includes a IIIF manifest. The images will be displayed directly in RISM Online.
The record includes a link to a corresponding record in another database also included in RISM Online (e.g., DIAMM).
For the databases also included in RISM Online, the records that have no corresponding RISM record will display an icon indicting the source of the record.
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Description
DIAMM (Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music)
Cantus Database