One of the most pressing desiderata in Telemann studies has long been the establishment of a reliable chronology for the instrumental works preserved in manuscript. In the near complete absence of autograph manuscripts for the sonatas, suites, and concertos, such a chronology must be based in part on a study of the numerous manuscript copies preserved at the Saechsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden, one of the two main repositories of Telemann's instrumental music. Although the significance of these sources, once belonging to the collection of the Dresden Hofkapelle and including many secondary copies prepared by close associates of the composer, has long been recognized, little attention has been paid to the circumstances surrounding their creation during the first half of the eighteenth century.
Building upon earlier studies of Dresden watermarks by Karl Heller, Manfred Fechner, and Wisso Weiss, this paper proposes a chronology of the Dresden manuscript sources for Telemann's sonatas, with references to manuscripts of the orchestral suites and concertos. Watermark evidence, supporting study of copyists' hands and stylistic analysis of the music itself, allows for the dating and redating of numerous individual works and collections, including the Six sonates dans le gout italien (shown here to have been composed at least a decade before its Parisian publication in an unauthorized edition) and the well known Essercizii musici (published by Telemann in 1739, but now shown to have been written during the 1720s). The study of Dresden watermarks also contributes greatly to our knowledge of the copying activities of several important scribes, including Johann Georg Pisendel, the Dresden Konzertmeister and a friend of both Telemann and J. S. Bach. Finally, the use in Dresden of several common watermark types, such as the double-eagle mark of the mill in Dubi, Bohemia, can now be pinpointed with greater accuracy.