The Morrill Music Library is generally considered the finest reference library for medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque music in Italy. It was established as part of the Biblioteca Berenson in 1964 with funds given by F. Gordon and Elizabeth Morrill in honor of Mr. Berenson. Covering all Western music to 1640, its holdings currently number nearly 7,000 reference works and monographs and some 4,500 scores in print. The CD collection contains 1,800 recordings of early music.
The Morrill Library is particularly important for its holdings of original sources on microfilm. Beginning with the donation in 1975 of the Armen Carapetyan microfilm collection, the film collection has been steadily expanded and now contains some 2,500 manuscripts of early music and musical treatises and nearly 2,400 books of early printed music. The Music Library’s rare book holdings include a small but significant collection of manuscripts and editions of early printed music, including a number of unique part books and two Petrucci prints.