The extent of the music holdings of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg, has never been revealed in print, and, except for a few recent publications dealing with a select number of its extant sources, there has been little comment about the losses it sustained during the Second World War (in 1919 the library's name was changed from ‘Stadtbibliothek’ to ‘Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek’, and in 1983 it acquired its present name ‘Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky‘). Prior to its dispersal and partial destruction during the Second World War, the Hamburg library's music collection compared favourably to other great music libraries of the day such as those in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. That the Hamburg library now possesses only a small quantity of its original holdings is a cause for much lament, but since detailed descriptions survive of all its pre-War materials, musicologists are afforded some remarkable insights into its sources, many of which have escaped scholarly attention; the descriptions are found in a manuscript catalogue compiled by the brilliant nineteenth-century bibliographer Arrey von Dommer (1828–1905). Dommer's catalogue reveals that in the late nineteenth century the Hamburg library possessed an extensive amount of music, both printed and manuscript, and that its collection of British music, though smaller than its holdings of German and Italian music, was very significant—the richness of its British materials reflects the particular interest of the collector Friedrich Chrysander (1826–1901), from whom much of the library's music was obtained.

Under the provisions of the 1709 Copyright Act, Scottish universities were entitled to a copy of each printed work entered at Stationers' Hall, London. This entitlement ceased in 1836 when the five Scottish universities agreed to receive an annual payment in lieu of the privilege of deposit. Amongst the many difficulties thrown up by the well-intentioned legislation of 1709, a peculiarly Aberdonian aspect was that the Act specified only ‘the Four Univerisities in Scotland’ provoking arguments as to which of Aberdeen's two universities, King's College or Marischal College, should be the recipient. Although this was- resolved in favour of King's College, it is clear that friction persisted. As late as 1826 the Aberdeen Censor was urging, ‘I wish the members of Marischal College would look to what has become o’ the Stationers' Hall music'. This seems to be the only reference in contemporary literature to the collection.