The Franz Liszt Memorial Museum and Research Centre provides free access to its virtual collection database for everyone. The Museum primarily houses objects and documents related to Franz Liszt, only a small portion of which are displayed in the permanent and temporary exhibitions. However, the database includes all items, even those not exhibited and unavailable to visitors.
The database not only contains key information about artifacts and documents but also provides downloadable, watermarked images (at 150 dpi resolution) free of charge for research purposes. It features an advanced search function and contains nearly all documents of primary source value.
Franz Liszt bequeathed all his books and music scores collected in Budapest to the Academy of Music. The entire collection is virtually accessible, with every page of all books and scores digitized. On these pages, one can even see Liszt’s own annotations. Exploring Liszt’s estate reveals the pieces he knew, read, played, and taught, as well as the books and scores he kept in his Budapest flat during the last decade of his life, when he served as the first president of the Franz Liszt Academy. Another part of the collection includes Liszt’s original instruments, furniture, personal belongings, photographs, graphic works, oil paintings, and sculptures from Liszt’s era and his contemporaries.
Users can search the database in various ways — by keywords, parameters, or by entire collection groups (for example, instruments).
The reference codes correspond to different collection groups (see abbreviations and their meanings below):
Ms-mus-L — Liszt’s manuscripts and manuscript arrangements of his pieces (Liszt kéziratai, műveinek kéziratos átiratai)
Ep-L — Liszt’s original letters (eredeti levelei)
LH K — Liszt’s library (Liszt könyvtári hagyatéka)
LH Z — Liszt’s sheet music library (Liszt kottatára)
Gr — Graphic works (Grafikák)
Pl — Sculptures (Plasztikák)
Any — Ephemera (Aprónyomtatványok)
AD — Archival documents (Archív dokumentumok)
B — Furniture (Bútorok)
Er — Objects related to Liszt and his cult (Ereklyék)
F — Photographs (Fényképek)
H — Instruments (Hangszerek)
O — Paintings (Festmények)
Ms — Miscellaneous manuscripts (Egyéb kéziratok)
Ep — Miscellaneous original letters (Egyéb eredeti levelek)
Hk — Newspaper clippings (Hírlapkivágatok)
E — Miscellaneous objects (Egyéb tárgyak)