Opera Librettos Printed Before 1800 . This is the Albert Schatz collection of Library of Congress. It covers the history of opera from its beginning to 19th century. The collection contains 12,240 librettos, including 12,000 opera librettos, and oratorios and cantatas. Many are first editions of 17th and 18th century librettos.
Librettos have their distinct place in the history of music, especially in opera history.
They often furnish the only clues about composers and authors of older operas. The cast lists include biographical data on singers and the dates of the performances, often the first performance. The collection is strong in German and Italian librettos. The Library of Congress has attempted to fill in the gaps to make this collection as complete as possible. . . The collection does not include all the items listed in the Sonneck catalogue.