Johann Sebastian Bach wrote testimonials for alumni of St Thomas ’s School who wanted to apply for scholarships to study at university. Until recently, only one of  these testimonials was known, but not its exact purpose. In the summer of 2008 Andreas  Glöckner  discovered three  further testimonials in the Leipzig University Archive which then shed light on  the overall  circumstances in which they were produced. The fact that Bach, the cantor at St  Thomas’s  produced testimonials for scholarship applicants was previously unknown, as was  the setting up  of a special fund to support poor students from St Thomas’s and Bach’s  participation in making  these awards.<br>
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 These findings therefore represent a wealth of new discoveries and insights for Bach scholarship. It is particularly pleasing that there are now more dated written documents from Bach’s last decade which contain information on the situation of church music in  Leipzig  in the year of Bach’s death.<br>