Why are the Henle facsimile score so expensive? Ive asked my local music suppliers and they do not know? Does anybody here know? http://www.henle.de/en/facsimiles/index.html

Facsimile is the 'exact' copy of the original autograph. A copy that stays true to the original as much as possible... (chech HERE for more info on what the fascimile is).

Now, if you think about it, getting permission from the various sources to get the autograph, treat it with the right respect (which might include art carers, restoration, etc), edit it (which includes graphic artists), scholar it (which includes musicologists), print it (which includes printers, etc) and so on is an awful lot. Compared to getting a score done in Finale or Sibelius (which is the choice of most contemporary publishers, but not sure about Henle itself) the above situation with a fascimile is terribly expensive.

Now, if you take into account that the commercial value of a fascimile is much lower (due to the lack of buying power... No musician, unless a scholar would buy the fascimile, or perhaps a collector) and the fact that the normal scores (edited, printed, etc) are the ones that sell you can reach to your own conclusions.

Cost of production, supply and demand.

Oh come on...

There was a better way to say what I did in 6 words?!?!

Bleh...

Hahahahahah!

Henle has skilled artisans who hand-carve the notation into metal sheets for every page.

That's why I left a doubt note for Henle. I remember seeing a video, although I also remember that this video was... older, still... :-/

Henle changed to computer-based engraving some time ago. IIRC, it was before 2000.

Quite true. I have many facsimiles and at least half a dozen of them are by Henle. They do an excellent job. Not only do they reproduce the manuscript's contents, but the size of the paper used for the manuscript is faithfully reproduced as is the size of the staves themselves. The color of the paper and color of the ink the composer used is also that of the original. All very nice touches.