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Johann Peter Kellner was born in Gräfenroda, Thuringia, on the 28 or 29 September 1705, and died in the same German town on 19 April 1772. The scarce information we have about his life is found in the abridged autobiography published in F.W. Marpurg’s“Historische-kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik” (Berlin, 1754-78/R, i, 439-45). It appears that his parents wanted him to be a coal merchant like his father, but he was determined to study music. His teachers were not important names, and he did not attend any university. Kellner’s fame did not extend beyond Thuringia, but he is most likely to have met both J.S: Bach and Handel. Possible contacts with Bach occurred in Leipzig in 1729, and in the same year—during a trip to Halle—with Handel. The link with Bach has never been demonstrated and it is not known how he was able to copy 90 Bachian manuscripts, notably including BWV 535, 538, 540, 549, 550, 578 and 579. Kellner’s copy of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin has generated many controversies, because of the omission of several movements and the complete Partita in b minor, as well as other divergences from the well known original MS, extant in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Kellner’s son Johann Christoph Kellner (1736-1803), who had a more significant musical career than his father and also a remarkable output as a composer, once said—most likely exaggerating—that his father was “a close friend of Bach’s”. Kellner’s musical output includes several works for the organ, harpsichord and 36 cantatas. Unfortunately a complete cantata cycle with obbligato organ, composed in 1753, is now lost. The structure of his cantatas is always the same: Chorus-Recitative-Aria-Choral. A wedding cantata includes a second Recitative before the final Choral, and some Arias have an obbligato part for the organ. His organ works show similarities with the style of Johann Ludwig Krebs, and occasionally show a virtuoso pedal part, as in the Prelude and Fugue in d minor. Other organ works are simpler and in the gallant style. The present publication is the world’s first critical edition of Kellner’s Certamen Musicum, six harpsichord suites first printed in Arnstadt, of which a copy is extant in Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek. This collection includes many obvious engraving errors: Silvestri's corrections follow a clear harmony and counterpoint logic, leaving no doubts whatsoever about the composer’s intentions.