The music collection of Johann (Ján) Kusser (1626–1695) : a Hungarian émigré in seventeenth-century Stuttgart

In June 1695, Maria Elisabeth Kusser offered the Duke of Wrttemberg her late husband's music collection, describing it as consisting partly of works "from the imperial and other electoral and princely court musical establishments, composed by the best and most celebrated Kapellmeister, and partly also by many superb Italians". Having held major positions in both Pressburg (now Bratislava) and Stuttgart, the extant inventory of Johann Kusser's private music collection (today held in Stuttgart's Landeskirchliches Archiv) features listings for more than 483 individual compositions. This paper examines this important document, which offers valuable clues regarding the ways in which a wide range of sacred music -by both Lutheran and Catholic composers -was disseminated throughout the Holy Roman Empire during the second half of the seventeenth century.