The Répertoire International d’Iconographie Musicale (RIdIM) is an international project sponsored by the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centers (IAML), the International Musicological Society (IMS), and the International Committee of Musical Instrument Museum Collections of the International Council of Museums.

The official foundation of RIdIM occurred on 26 August 1971, during the meeting of IAML in St. Gall (Switzerland) on the initiative of Barry S. Brook, Geneviève Thibault Comtesse de Chambure, Harald Heckmann, Howard Meyer Brown and Walter Salmen. Since the official establishment RIdIM has been envisioned to fulfill a dual role: to provide complete control over and access to iconographic sources related to music, and to function as a framework for their interpretation. Thus, the main objective of RIdIM is the developing of method, means and research centers for the classification, cataloguing and study of icongraphical sources related to music. It is designed to assist performers, historians, librarians, instrument makers, record manufacturers and book publishers in making the fullest use of visual materials for scholarly and practical purposes.

The cataloguing of iconographic documents significant to music was, until the early 1970s largely a private and uncoordinated affair, and poorly equipped with methodology and research tools. Several systems of cataloguing visual materials had been proposed, but RIdIM took the lead because of its use of new technologies that facilitate the cataloguing of vast numbers of sources. This is how RIdIM followed RISM (1952) and RILM (1966) as the third important international cooperative bibliographical venture in music.

RIdIM centers have been established in Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. Several archives, museums, and other institutions have published inventories and catalogues with iconographic sources of musical subject matter. From 1973 to 1980 annual RIdIM meetings have been held at the Research Center for Music Iconography at The City University New York (CUNY). This tradition continued with the international conferences in Paris in 1985, in Hamburg in 1991, and in New York in 2003. It is a pleasure to announce that the next International RIdIM Conference will be held again in New York in 2008 in collaboration with the Research Center for Music Iconography at CUNY.

Imago musicae, the Yearbook for Music Iconography, and RCMI/RIdIM Newsletter (now RIdIM Newsletter) are the official organs of RIdIM.
RIdIM is governed by the Commission Mixte on the basis of Rules of Procedures that have been approved by both the sposoring society and the Commission Mixte.

Links
International Center
Rules of Procedure
Commission Mixte
Advisory Members
Editorial Center