Founded by Armen Carapetyan in 1946, AIM supports interest in Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque music. The publications of the Institute are used by scholars and performers alike and constitute a major core collection of early music and theoretical writings on music. Since its founding, the Institute has published more than 650 scholarly volumes including the yearbook Musica Disciplina.

The publications of the Institute are wide-ranging and comprise scholarly editions, books, and treatises. The scholarly editions include the complete works of major composers who lived up until the seventeenth century, composers such as Machaut, La Rue, Dufay, Willaert, Clemens, Rore, Compère, Crecquillon, Romero, and others. (See CMM for sacred and secular music and CEKM for keyboard music). Significant research findings resulting from the edition-making efforts are published in the series MSD. Published treatises include the works of influential writers from Guido of Arezzo to Jean Philippe Rameau. (See CSM and MISC). Significant collections of papers appear in MISC. Reference works are published in the series RMS. The Institute is continually accepting new book and edition proposals.