Appendices I & II[1] provide information about the series title pages and publishers’ catalogues (i.e. advertisements) that feature in many Chopin first editions. Our aims in preparing them have been to determine the chronological order in which STPs and advertisements appeared, to identify and classify identical versions, and to provide clear but concise de­scrip­tions of this important body of material. This has required close analysis not only of the specific contents of the STPs and advertise­ments but also of the additional information within given scores, including the music text itself. Establishing a reliable chronology has been possible in most cases. For the sake of economy and to avoid unwarranted repetition, de­tailed descriptions are located either in the main body of the catalogue or in one of the two appendices as follows: descrip­tions of STPs or advertisements which exist in a single unique version appear within the catalogue proper, whereas mate­rial which underwent a complex evolution or which features in a large number of different impressions is described here.

Appendices I & II are organised by the names of publishers in alphabetical order. In all cases the descriptions are maximally concise while never­theless facilitating identification. Generally one or more lines of the heading have been used for the sake of classification; occasionally, however, a prominent lower line serves as the designating title. In those few instances when an alternative designation is required, the attributed title derives from the content of the advertisement or from the name of the first or last composer in a given worklist. With regard to the second type of material (i.e. designated by embedded text), one must refer to Appendices I & II for details of all the impressions containing a given STP or advertisement in order to find a detailed description or to trace the evolution thereof. Cross-references are provided within these appendices to the loca­tion within the catalogue where material in the first category is described in full. Consultation of the respective sections allows one to gain a comprehensive understanding of the body of STPs and advertisements presented within this volume.

The currencies in which prices are indicated have been specified for the STPs and advertisements published in the German and the Polish editions, as this information is useful in determining chronology. No such indications are required for the French, English or Austrian editions, in which the respective currencies remained unchanged.

Given that the vast majority of publishers’ catalogues were printed on the wrappers of Chopin’s first editions and that relatively few of these have been preserved, the list of advertisements in Appendix II is likely to be incomplete. This is probably also the case with the STP descriptions, some of which include the music of composers other than Chopin and thus may not have been retained in either bound volumes or individual scores deemed to be specific to Chopin himself. A more exhaustive record would be obtained only by closely scrutinising the publicity announcements released by the pub­lishers in question, as well as by studying the surviving scores of each and every work enumerated on given STPs. Both of these tasks lie beyond the scope of this catalogue.

Appendix III provides information about libraries and private collections in an integral list and also arranged by city and by country. When links are selected from within Appendix III, details of Athe specific impressions catalogued within the resource are shown. The order of the digital images provided in Appendix V – which is divided into two parts, i.e. ‘Title pages’ and ‘Publishers’ advertisements’ – corresponds to that of the Catalogue section.

[1] Appendix I excludes common title pages which in effect act as STPs; the sole exception is Breitkopf & Härtel’s IMPROMPTUS|FÜR DAS PIANOFORTE|VON|‌FR. CHOPIN, which otherwise meets the criteria for inclusion. In all other cases the evolution of CTPs can be traced in the main body of the catalogue.