For our ensemble, we are often tracking down old manuscripts and facsimiles of partbooks and scores from around 1600-1800... for the less obscure stuff, that isn't too hard... there are modern reproductions (facsimiles) that are basically scans and then reprints of the originals (not the modern copies which are rife with additions and "improvements" from well-meaning but clueless editors...).
... but for some things, we are often looking for a piece of old manuscript that is the only surviving copy... or one of a few surviving copies... held by some public library, private archive, or some trove somewhere... like an archive from a church.
Incredibly hard to get, but thankfully.. with the internet, slightly easier than physically visiting places and delving into ancient boxes. It really is a great age that we live in! Mostly...
Anyway, for the past few months, I have been searching for the second treble part for the set of Ayres by the Italian compposer (based in London) Matteis. These were originally published in the years of 1685 as a single treble with continuo... but in 1687, he republished with a second treble part... to take advantage of the trio sonata form which was becoming quite popular.
My searches had turned up dead ends for the manuscript... the best lead was a British Library copy... but unfortunately, the British library is still trying to recover from the cyberattack that they had a couple of years ago. So a dead end...
... and most of my searches turned up the older 1685 version... the one without the part that I was looking for. Until a loose lead led me to a copy on microfiche at the Australian National Library! Which was within easy travelling distance on the correct continent in the right part of the globe!
So... a little trip to the library was planned... to scout out the microfiche to make sure it was EXACTLY the one that I needed before forking out 125 AUD for digital scans.
Heh... microfiche... the last time I used one of these things was about 20 years ago! And they are sort of similar...
... but very different with the digital interface available on the computer as well! So, instead of seeing the image projected on a screen, it was read to a digital format which would be possible to interact with... including cropping, and then saving to pdf! Awesome!!!!... so, that meant that I could just scan it all myself and save to a USB drive, and save the 125 dollars!
And yes... although the microfiche started with some books from 17th century London... the 8th book in the film had the two partbooks that I needed! If it wasn't so quiet in the library, I would have screamed with joy! We will need these for a concert later in the year... and I was starting to think that I would have to just transcribe them by ear from recordings... but these are the ones, and I even saw the ONE PIECE that I HAD TO PROGRAMME! YESYESYESYESYES!!!!!!! Jackpot... this is what it feels like to win the lottery... now to see what other treasures this library has!
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That is really cool that you were able to find what you needed. A bit interesting that it was still in an analog format even though you used a digital tool to view it. It just goes to show that as much information as there is on the Internet, there is still a ton that exists outside of it.