1. Werken van Josquin des Prés, hg. von Albert Smijers
In 1919, around 100 years ago and in view of the approaching 400th anniversary of his death, the Vereeniging voor Nederlandsche Muziekgeschiedenis (“Association for Dutch Music History”) commissioned the musicologist Albert Sjmijers (1888-1957) to publish the first complete edition of all the works of Josquin Desprez. With a great deal of financial support from the Dutch state, Albert Smijers set about exploring the sources over the next two years. He collected a total of 5,000 photographs of Josquin sources from European libraries and archives. On this basis, starting in 1922, i.e. one year late, he published the works in individual fascicles, which were later to be bound together into volumes.
The publication of the works in individual deliveries and the different Dutch designations have meant that the logic of the complete edition – depending on the type of binding in the individual libraries – is not easily accessible. Especially in the libraries that have bound the volumes chronologically, an incomprehensible mix of genres can be found per volume. Searching for an individual work without more precise information can thus become very tedious. After Smijer’s death in 1957, his student Myroslaw Antonowycz took over the task of completing the edition. He was later assisted by Willem Elders. This monumental undertaking was completed in 1969 with volumes 1 and 55.
The following specifications are to be distinguished:
Deel (“Part”): The complete edition is sorted by genre. Masses (Deel I to IV), Motets (Deel I to V), Secular Works (Deel I to II) and Miscellaneous.
Bundel (“bundle, fascicle”). Within the individual parts, the works are grouped into fascicles. The works themselves are numbered.
Avleveringen (“Deliveries”): Smijers published Josquin’s works in a total of 55 deliveries. The first volume of “Klaagliederen” was published in 1922; the complete edition was completed in 1969 with a volume of “Supplement & Index”.
In his monograph (Fallows 2009, p. 467), David Fallows has provided a practical overview of how the works should best be bound and has also given suggestions for labelling the volumes. It is also easy to see how Smijers has structured the works according to genres and used the sources as a further criterion for classification within the genres:
| No. | Title | Afleveringen | Year |
| 1 | Missen I: 1-5 (Petrucci 1502) | 10-14 | 1926-31 |
| 2 | Missen II: 6-11 (Petrucci 1505) | 15, 17, 19-20, 22-23 | 1933-50 |
| 3 | Missen III: 12-17 (Petrucci 1514) | 26-32 | 1950-52 |
| 4 | Missen IV: 18-20 & Fragmenta | 33-34, 43-44, 50 | 1952-53 |
| 5 | Motetten I: 1-29 (B1-5: Petrucci 1502-8) | 2, 4, 6-7, 9 | 1923-26 |
| 6 | Motetten II: 30-44 (B6-10: Petrucci 1514-19) | 16, 18, 21, 24-25 | 1936-50 |
| 7 | Motetten III: 45-61 (B11-15: Deutsche Drucke) | 35-39 | 1954 |
| 8 | Motetten IV: 62-70 (B16-18: Deutsche Drucke) | 40-42 | 1955 |
| 9 | Motetten V: 71-96 (B19-25: Verschiedene) | 45-49, 51-52 | 1957-64 |
| 10 | Wereldlijke Werken I: 1-34 (Französische Drucke) | 3, 5, 8 | 1923-25 |
| 11 | Wereldlijke Werken II: 35-65 (Italienische Drucke & MSS) | 53-54 | 1965-68 |
| 12 | Klaagliederen; Supplement & Index | 1, 55 | 1922, 1969 |
2. New Josquin Edition (NJE), hg. von Willem Elders
Willem Elders, a student of Albert Smijers, has been working with an international editorial board on a new edition of Josquin’s works since the early 1970s. Shortly before the publication of the first volume in 1987, he justified the necessity of the New Josquin Edition (NJE) as follows during an opening speech at a Josquin congress in Cologne in 1984:
- The discovery of unknown sources with works by Josquin.
- dealing with the questions of authenticity of numerous works
- the analysis of the (new) source situation and an assessment on which source to base the edition
- the transcription of the scores
- the ordering of the works
In fact, since the completion of the first complete edition, the number of known manuscripts had more than doubled from 182 to 374. Close collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana, which had built up the largest microfilm archive of Renaissance music, had provided the basis for this, along with the preliminary work of Albert Smijers. At the time (Elders 1985, 4), Elders assumed that the number of known works would develop as follows with the source discoveries:
- Masses and mass fragments: Increase from 27 (Smijers) to 41 (Elders)
- Motets: Increase from 110 (Smijers) to 159 (Elders)
- Secular works: increase from 72 (Smijers) to 101 (Elders)
A separation of edition and critical reports should especially give more space to the critical reports.
In addition, the degree of authenticity of the works was classified by the addition of two stars (misattributions), one star (authenticity doubtful) and no star (authentic work). The editors’ decision not to publish editions of works that have been judged to be misattributions is still controversial today.
| NJE | TITLE | YEAR | EDITORS |
| 1 | The sources | 2013 | Willem Elders en Eric Jas |
| 2 | Facsimiles from sources of compositions attributed to Josquin | 2007 | Willem Elders in collaboration with Marnix van Berchum |
| 3a | Masses based on Gregorian chants 1 | 2003 | Willem Elders |
| 3b | Masses based on Gregorian chants 1: Critical Commentary | 2003 | Willem Elders |
| 4a | Masses based on Gregorian chants 2 | 2000 | Willem Elders |
| 4b | Masses based on Gregorian chants 2: Critical Commentary | 2000 | Willem Elders |
| 5a | Masses based on secular monophonic songs 1 | 2010 | Martin Just |
| 5b | Masses based on secular monophonic songs 1: Critical Commentary | 2010 | Martin Just |
| 6a | Masses based on secular monophonic Songs 2 | 2014 | Jesse Rodin |
| 6b | Masses based on secular monophonic Songs 2 – Critical Commentary | 2014 | Jesse Rodin |
| 7a | Masses based on secular polyphonic songs 1 | 1997 | Thomas Noblitt |
| 7b | Masses based on secular polyphonic songs 1: Critical Commentary | 1997 | Thomas Noblitt |
| 8a | Masses based on secular polyphonic songs 2 | 1995 | Barton Hudson |
| 8b | Masses based on secular polyphonic songs 2: Critical Commentary | 1996 | Barton Hudson |
| 9a | Masses based on secular polyphonic songs 3 | 1994 | Barton Hudson |
| 9b | Masses based on secular polyphonic songs 3: Critical Commentary | 1995 | Barton Hudson |
| 10a | Masses based on sacred polyphonic songs | 1999 | Willem Elders |
| 10b | Masses based on sacred polyphonic songs: Critical commentary | 1999 | Willem Elders |
| 11a | Masses based on solmisation themes | 2002 | James Haar und Lewis Lockwood |
| 11b | Masses based on solmisation themes: Critical Commentary | 2002 | James Haar und Lewis Lockwood |
| 12a | Canonic masses | 2012 | Peter Urquhart |
| 12b | Canonic Masses: Critical Commentary | 2012 | Peter Urquhart |
| 13a | Mass movements | 1999 | Barton Hudson |
| 13b | Mass movements: Critical Commentary | 1999 | Barton Hudson |
| 14a | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 1 | 2002 | Richard Sherr |
| 14b | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 1 – Critical Commentary | 2002 | Richard Sherr |
| 15a | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 2 | 2009 | Patrick Macey |
| 15b | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 2 – Critical Commentary | 2009 | Patrick Macey |
| 16a | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 3 | 2000 | Martin Picker |
| 16b | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 3 – Critical Commentary | 2000 | Martin Picker |
| 17a | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 4 | 2008 | Eric Jas |
| 17b | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 4 – Critical Commentary | 2008 | Eric Jas |
| 18a | Motets on texts from the Old Testament 5 | 2011 | Leeman Perkins |
| 18b | Motets on Texts from the Old Testament 5 – Critical Commentary | 2011 | Leeman Perkins |
| 19a | Motets on texts from the New Testament 1 | 1998 | Martin Just |
| 19b | Motets on texts from the New Testament 1 – Critical Commentary | 1998 | Martin Just |
| 20a | Motets on texts from the New Testament 2 | 2006 | Martin Just |
| 20b | Motets on texts from the New Testament 2 – Critical commentary | 2006 | Martin Just |
| 21a | Motets on non-biblical texts 1: De domino Jesu Christo 1 | 2007 | Bonnie Blackburn |
| 21b | Motets on non-biblical texts 1: De domino Jesu Christo 1 – Critical commentary | 2003 | Bonnie Blackburn |
| 22a | Motets on non-biblical texts 2: De domino Jesu Christo 2 | 2003 | Bonnie Blackburn |
| 22b | Motets on non-biblical texts 2: De Domino Jesu Christo 2 – Critical commentary | 2003 | Bonnie Blackburn |
| 23a | Motets on non-biblical texts 3: De beata Maria virgine 1 | 2006 | Willem Elders |
| 23b | Motets on non-biblical texts 3: De beata Maria virgine 1: Critical commentary | 2006 | Willem Elders |
| 24a | Motets on non-biblical texts 4: De beata Maria virgine 2 | 2007 | Willem Elders |
| 24b | Motets on non-biblical texts 4: De beata Maria virgine 2 – Critical commentary | 2007 | Willem Elders |
| 25a | Motets on non-biblical texts 5 – De beata Maria virgine 3 | 2009 | Willem Elders |
| 25b | Motets on non-biblical texts 5 – De beata Maria virgine 3 – Critical Commentary | 2009 | Willem Elders |
| 26a | Motets on texts Pro diversis temporibus et festis and on miscellaneous texts | 2012 | Ton Braas |
| 26b | Motets on texts Pro diversis temporibus – Critical Commentary | 2012 | Ton Braas |
| 27a | Secular works for three voice | 1987 | Jaap van Benthem & Howard Mayer Brown |
| 27b | Secular works for three voices – Critical Commentary | 1991 | Jaap van Benthem & Howard Mayer Brown |
| 28a | Secular works for four voices | 2005 | David Fallows |
| 28b | Secular works for four voices – Critical Commentary | 2005 | David Fallows |
| 29a | Secular Works for Five Voices | 2016 | Patrick Macey |
| 29b | Secular Works for Five Voices – Critical Commentary | 2017 | Patrick Macey |
| 30a | Secular Works for Six Voices | 2015 | Patrick Macey |
| 30b | Secular Works for Six Voices – Critical Commentary | 2015 | Patrick Macey with an appendix by Eric Jas |