A collection of vocal scores and libretti of Giuseppe Verdi's operas, consisting of around 350 items, including many rare editions. It was formed by the music bibliographer Cecil Hopkinson (1898-1977) and used as the basis for his bibliography of Verdi. Additions continue to be made to the collection, the acquisition of which encouraged the Library to collect the scores of Italian operas.

Hopkinson was an English music bibliographer and bookseller. He founded the First Edition Bookshop in 1931 and in 1934 his firm issued the first of a series of around 70 catalogues of antiquarian music editions, manuscripts, and books on music. In addition to his bibliography on Verdi he also compiled bibliographies of the first and early editions of Berlioz (see Hopkinson Berlioz Collection, Gluck, Field, and Puccini. He was a longstanding friend of the William Beattie, Librarian of the National Library.

Organisation

The books have been catalogued individually and have the shelfmark 'HV.'.

Acquisition

The collection was purchased by the Library in 1970 from Cecil Hopkinson.

References

'A bibliography of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, 1813-1901', 2 volumes, C Hopkinson, New York, 1973, 1978.

'The National Library of Scotland: music manuscripts and special collections of printed music', TA Cherry, R Duce, M Simpson and I Maciver, Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 47, No. 1 (January-March 2000), 3-9.

'Hopkinson, Cecil', R Macnutt, (2001, January 01), Grove Music Online.Ed.

Online resources

Digital images of items in the Hopkinson Verdi Collection