Music section

Description

The Music Section of the Palatina Library, although part of the Pilotta Complex, is located on the first floor of the Conservatory building in Strada del Conservatorio 27, in Parma.
The consultation service for study and research purposes is active on Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 13:30 p.m.

Reading with own books is allowed.
Booking access and the materials you desire to consult 24 hours in advance by writing to the address: b-pala.musicale@cultura.gov.it is raccomanded.

The Music Section of the Palatina Library is the only specialized Italian musical bibliographic institute that has, since its inception, had the legal status of a state public library.

Its heritage, which exceeds 170,000 units, includes manuscript and printed music, librettos, periodicals, correspondence and books of musical literature. It documents, in particular, the musical activity of the city and its territory in the 18th-19th centuries.

The musical collections that constitute the Library are: Archive of the Royal School of Music, Musical Archive of Maria Luigia of Habsburg-Lorraine, Musical Archive of the Dukes of Bourbon, Ψ Collection, Musical Archive of Count Sanvitale.
To this first nucleus have been added, following purchases and donations, numerous other collections containing both manuscript and printed works.

History

The Library was established, thanks to the Royal Decree of 14 July 1889 n. 6431, with the merger of the books and manuscripts of music preserved in the Palatina Library with those of the Archive of the Conservatory. The constituent funds are therefore the Archive of the Dukes of Bourbon and the Archive of Maria Luigia of Austria (coming from the Palatina), the Archive of the ancient School of Music – which later became the State Conservatory – and part of the Sanvitale Fund that Count Stefano had already donated to the school.

The establishment of the Music Section of the Palatina Library, closely linked to the birth of the Conservatory, is also the result of the intense and constant activity that Giovanni Mariotti, Royal Commissioner for the reorganization of the School of Music, carried out in favor of musical studies. It was the final act of his long work that led to the transformation of the School of Music into a State Conservatory and the crowning of an important reform that substantially improved the fortunes of the Parma music institute.

Even before the founding act of the Library, Article 69 of the Statute of the Conservatory of 1888 established a music library in its premises intended to bring together the books and manuscripts of music preserved in the Palatina Library and those of the Conservatory Archives.
Mariotti had not failed to notice the importance of providing the new institution with bibliographic support adequate to its importance, a library equipped with the research and study tools necessary for the training of future musicians, a library of broader scope, specialized and richer than the archive of the old School of Music. The new institution was given the legal status of a public library, so that it would not only support the school, but also be at the service of all.

The first librarian was Michele Carlo Caputo (1838-1928), librettist, writer, historian and music critic, belonging, as established by article 3 of the Decree establishing the Library, to the role of government libraries. However, after 1901, with art. 65 of the Statute of the Conservatory, ignoring the previous law, the management of the library was entrusted to librarians who were professors of music history. The legislative ambiguity and the lack of continuity of a library management negatively influenced the life of the Library and its development.
A happy period for the history of the institute was that of the management of Guido Gasperini (1865-1942), musicologist, teacher and composer, who also left his mark on the musical life of Parma. In addition to founding and directing a Schola Cantorum that brought to light ancient pages of music, Gasperini, a true pioneer of modern Italian musicology, conceived and implemented the establishment of the Association of Italian Musicologists in Parma with the aim of bringing to light and making known to the world of scholars the innumerable treasures of Italian musical art preserved in public and private libraries. One of the first volumes published by the Association was the General Catalogue of musical works, theoretical or practical, manuscript or printed existing in the libraries and archives of Parma (Parma, Fresching, 1911), for many years the only instrument that made it possible to know the funds of the Music Section throughout the world.

Over the years, the Library’s holdings were increased by purchases, donations and bequests. Significant were the purchases in 1899 from the Romagnoli and Dall’Acqua bookshop of 15 manuscript volumes containing 463 sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti which, together with the 15 volumes preserved in Venice in the Biblioteca Marciana, constitute the main source of the harpsichord works of the Neapolitan master and, in 1925, from the Florentine antiquarian Gozzini, of a collection of madrigals and canzonettas, printed in the 16th and 17th centuries, which includes some very rare editions. Bequests and gifts from directors of the Conservatory, such as Giovanni Bottesini, Giusto Dacci, Giovanni Tebaldini, Luigi Ferrari Trecate, and teachers, such as Cleofonte Campanini, Giulio Cesare Ferrarini, Giovanni Bolzoni, Giovanni Rossi, Rosalinda Sacconi and Emilio Usiglio, have enriched the Library’s heritage, which therefore documents not only the musical life of the duchy, but also that of the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.

The legacy of Ildebrando Pizzetti (which includes the maestro’s Roman studio with all his music, manuscript and printed, correspondence, documents, photographs, furnishings and his piano) and the ministerial gifts of the Epistolario of Arrigo Boito and the autograph manuscript of a youthful symphony by Giuseppe Verdi are the most significant acquisitions of the second half of the twentieth century. The continuous enrichment of the funds, together with a better distribution of services and greater institutional and economic stability, make the Music Section one of the most specialized and functional libraries today, attributing to it an important role not only in the cultural life of a musical city like Parma, but also on an international level.

Archive of the Royal School of Music

The Music Archive, which is one of the founding funds of the Music Section, reflects the activity of the School of Music from its foundation in 1825 by Duchess Maria Luigia of Austria until 1888, the year in which it was transformed into the Royal Conservatory of Music.

The Institute, the fourth in Italy in chronological order, was throughout the 19th century a fertile breeding ground for musicians who distinguished themselves in Italy and abroad, spreading the fame of Parma as a city of music throughout the world. The archive preserves several compositions of these musicians – students, directors and teachers – mostly manuscripts, which were a support to the school. There are numerous autographs and editions of talented teachers who brought prestige to the Institute – the famous Wind School whose teachers were Gaetano and Luigi Beccali, Ricordano De Stefani, Giacomo Mori, Raniero Cacciamani, directors Ferdinando Simonis, Giuseppe Alinovi, Giovanni Rossi and Giusto Dacci and students who achieved great fame, such as Arturo Toscanini, whose autographs of the first compositions presented in school essays are preserved.

The archive was also increased by purchases by the School and by private donations, such as the autograph of Corradino by Francesco Morlacchi donated by Count Rossi Scotti of Perugia.
Overall, the Fund, including printed matter and manuscripts, includes approximately 4,700 works. Along with the music, the Music Section also received books on musical literature and the archive of the Ducal Orchestra of Parma. The latter includes protocols, letter copies, documents and correspondence of the Superintendence of the Orchestra from 1816 to 1874. The Institution, linked to the School because the students and teachers were also instrumentalists of the orchestral complex, experienced its best season during the ducal period of Maria Luigia, who gave it a solid legal structure. The Fund of the Royal School of Music therefore also preserves precious testimonies of the history and evolution of the Ducal Orchestra. Among these, the documents related to the presence in Parma of Niccolò Paganini who, in 1835, was charged by the Duchess with the reorganization of the instrumental group.

Maria Luigia Habsburg-Lorraine Music Archive

The Fund is a precious testimony to the passion and musical practice of Maria Luigia of Habsburg-Lorraine, Empress of the French from 1810 to 1814 and Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla from 1816 to 1847. In fact, it documents the entire cultural journey from the years of her education in Paris, where she had Ferdinando Paër as a teacher, to the entire period in Parma. The archive was inherited by Archduke Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine, son of Ranieri, viceroy of the Lombard-Venetian Kingdom, and in 1850 donated to the Parmense Library thanks to the interest of the librarian Angelo Pezzana.

The music, contained in over 600 volumes splendidly bound in red and green morocco with gold impressions and in approximately 135 folders divided by musical genre, bears witness on the one hand to the most advanced musical culture then in vogue in Paris and Vienna, on the other to the musical life of the Duchy of Parma and the intense activity that took place at court.
Different musical genres are represented in the archive: from chamber and symphonic music that was performed during the academies and court balls, to sacred music linked to religious functions in the chapel of S. Ludovico, to theatrical music that reflects Maria Luigia’s passion for opera.

The collection also contains a manuscript volume, Index of the Court Academies from 30 November 1821 to 12 January 1827 , which contains the programmes of the court concerts during which the Duchess herself performed, an excellent amateur harpsichord player, accompanied by nobles, professionals of the Ducal Orchestra or virtuosos passing through the city.

PAOLA CIRANI, Maria Luigia and music , Mantua, Postumia, 1999.
RAFFAELLA NARDELLA, The musical archive of Maria Luigia , in In the service of His Majesty. European tradition and musical practice at the court of Maria Luigia , edited by M. Capra, Parma, Fondazione Monte di Parma, 2000.

Musical Archive of the Dukes of Bourbon

A precious source of both historical and bibliographical-musical interest, the archive, which was part of the private library of the Dukes of Bourbon, documents the activities of the court and the musical interests of the sovereigns of the two branches of the dynasty, Bourbon-Parma and Bourbon-Lucca.

It was acquired by the Parma Public Library (later the Palatina Library) in 1865, following the annexation of the Duchy of Parma to the Kingdom of Sardinia and then, in 1889, transferred to the Musical Section of the Palatina established that year in the building of the “A. Boito” Conservatory of Music.
The archive consists mainly of manuscripts – with the first one being an autograph by Luigi Boccherini – and printed music and offers a broad panorama of musical publishing in the second half of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The documentary sources preserved in the archive bear witness to the different musical genres cultivated over the course of a century by the various rulers of the Bourbon dynasty, who were first dukes of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla from 1749 to 1801, then kings of Etruria from 1801 to 1807 and dukes of Lucca from 1817 to 1847 and, finally, dukes of Parma and Piacenza again from 1847 to 1859.
The scores belonging to Duchess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Lucca, who had a deep passion for music and was also an amateur composer, are recognisable by the monogram MLB stamped in gold on the spine or plates of many bindings.

The large musical corpus includes approximately 5,000 works, among which numerous scores of theatrical works are worth mentioning, which constitute the main manuscript sources for the study of some of the most significant authors of the 18th and 19th centuries (Paisiello, Cimarosa, Rossini, Paër) and several rare and valuable editions.

A part of the Fund (up to approximately 700) has been digitized with the DI.MUSE Project.

Bibliography: PAOLA CIRANI, Maria Luisa, Infanta of Spain, Queen and musician , Viareggio, Grafiche Ancora, 2016.

Bourbon Fund (provisional inventory)

Fund Ψ

The collection consists of books on music and musical literature taken from the non-musical collections of the Palatina Library and transferred to the Music Section after its establishment. It includes an interesting section of musical treatises from the 16th and 17th centuries, including the very rare first edition of Galileo’s Fronimo and the precious Libro de vihuela by Luis Milan, and the section of liturgical books which includes, among others, various 16th-century missals. Despite the indications of the decree establishing the Music Section, manuscripts and incunabula with musical notation are still preserved in the collections of the central office of the Palatina Library.

The original nucleus of the Music Section was later enriched with other works of rare bibliographic value purchased or received as gifts: among these, 15 manuscript volumes of Spanish origin containing 463 harpsichord sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (one of the main sources of the critical edition) and 31 small volumes of madrigals and canzonettas from the 16th and 17th centuries, some of which include unique editions.

In more recent years, valuable acquisitions have been made, such as the autograph of a sonata for mandolin and guitar by Niccolò Paganini (purchased by the violinist Romeo Franzoni), the autograph score of Nerone by Arrigo Boito, the only complete and original source of the work, and a symphony for orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi, also autographed and dating back to his youth.

Count Sanvitale’s Music Archive

The Sanvitale Music Archive consists of a large collection of printed and manuscript music, a precious collection of opera librettos, periodicals and books of musical interest.
Received as a gift in several instalments between 1878 and the early years of the 20th century, it is the result of the variety of musical interests and the particular expertise of Count Stefano Sanvitale (1838-1914) which allowed him, with appropriate and continuous purchases, to constantly enrich the archive.

Of particular interest are the sections of profane and sacred vocal music, which include approximately 900 manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries, coming from the music archive of the Quilici family of Lucca, acquired by Count Sanvitale in 1891.

The prevailing musical form in the secular vocal music section is the chamber cantata, both from the seventeenth century, represented by Alessandro Scarlatti, and from the eighteenth century, of which Johann Adolf Hasse, Leonardo Leo, Benedetto Marcello, Nicola Antonio Porpora and Domenico Scarlatti are the most significant representatives.

The sacred music of the Sanvitale Archive documents the intense religious activity in the 18th-19th centuries in Lucca, which, especially in the 18th century, was one of the most musical cities in Italy and, due to the high number of composers and the great social function attributed to music, rose to international importance. It includes music, almost all manuscript, composed for religious services by the Lucca masters who took turns in directing the musical institutions active in Lucca. Among these, we remember the members of the Quilici family – Domenico (1757-1831), Biagio (1774-1861) and Massimiliano (1799-1889), prolific composers of sacred music – and of the Puccini dynasty – Giacomo I (1712-1781) and Antonio (1747-1832).

Also significant is the instrumental music section, linked to the activity of the count who was among the founders of the Società del Quartetto Parmense and the organiser of musical evenings in his palace, and the rich collection of opera librettos , approximately 7,000 units, dating from the beginnings of opera to the beginning of the 20th century.

This collection includes the librettos relating to the first performances in Parma, precious sources for the history of musical theatre, which Paolo Emilio Ferrari drew upon during his research to compile the theatrical chronology Spettacoli dramma-musicali e coreografici in Parma dall’anno 1628 all’anno 1883 (Parma, Battei, 1884), dedicated to Count Sanvitale who suggested and subsidised the work.

RAFFAELLA NARDELLA, The Sanvitale Musical Collection in the Palatina Library – musical section , degree thesis, University of Parma, academic year 1994-95.
RAFFAELLA NARDELLA, The Sanvitale family and music, in «Al pont ‘d mezz de La Famija Pramzana-pro Parma”», 1997.

Manuscripts Fund

The Fund mainly preserves manuscripts from the Conservatory of Music from 1888, the year of its establishment after the transformation of the Royal School of Music, to the first decades of the 20th century. It includes approximately 1,400 manuscripts of works by the first directors of the Institute, such as Giuseppe Gallignani (1891-1897), Amilcare Zanella (1903-1905), Guido Alberto Fano (1905-1911), Guglielmo Zuelli (1911-1929) and some teachers, including Giulio Cesare Ferrarini, Giovanni Bolzoni and Romeo Franzoni. Of the latter, it is worth mentioning the revisions and transcriptions of some works by Paganini, some unpublished, that the violinist from Parma had managed to acquire.

Among the manuscripts of the Conservatory’s students, some compositions stand out, presented at the end-of-year school exams by Ildebrando Pizzetti, who graduated in composition in Parma in 1901. There is no shortage of manuscripts, of uncertain provenance, from the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, of theatrical works by the most representative authors of the time, such as Cimarosa, Paisiello, Pergolesi, Mayr and Paër.

Rare Funds

The Fund includes printed music, particularly from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, especially representative of the theatrical genre. Overall, the works number approximately 2,800 units. This collection includes gifts from some of the Conservatory’s teachers, such as Giusto Dacci, who was also director of the Institute from 1875 to 1889 and author of many didactic works, Cleofonte Campanini, the famous conductor and great patron of Parma, the violinist Romeo Franzoni, famous above all for the revision of Paganini’s unpublished works carried out on behalf of his son, the brothers Nicola and Domenico De Giovanni, Emilio Usiglio, Italo Azzoni, Giulio Cesare Ferrarini, Giovanni Bolzoni, Rosalinda Sacconi and many others. Therefore, the Fund, in addition to offering a panorama of 19th-century Italian musical printing, also documents local production, preserving the works of musicians who worked both in the didactic and concert fields.

Private funds

Following purchases and donations, numerous other funds have enriched the library’s historical heritage:

the Alinovi Fund , donated by the heirs in 1891, includes around a hundred manuscripts;

the Barilli Fund , donated by Aristide Barilli in 1993, preserves the autographs of Bruno Barilli;

the Bottesini Fund , donated by the heirs, contains manuscript music and, to a lesser extent, printed music, and includes approximately 150 titles, including over 80 autographs by Giovanni Bottesini;

the Fund of the Administrative Commission of the Royal Theatre , owned by the Municipality of Parma, contains around 200 titles, almost all of which are manuscript parts of instrumental transcriptions from the mid-nineteenth century;

the Corradi-Cervi Fund , donated in 1968 by Maurizio Corradi Cervi, consists of 26 manuscripts, almost all miscellaneous, from the first half of the 19th century;

The Pizzetti Fund , according to the composer’s testamentary bequest, includes all the bibliographical and documentary material found in the musician’s Roman studio.

Bibliography: PAOLA CIRANI, The Pizzetti-Tebaldini Relationship in the Correspondence of the Music Section of the Palatina Library of Parma. New Ideas for Research, in “Postumia”, 29/1-3 (2018).

the Sampieri Fund , purchased by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, includes printed and manuscript works from the 18th and 19th centuries;

the Tebaldini Fund , donated in 1928 by Giovanni Tebaldini, is made up of both volumes on musical subjects and music, mainly manuscript;

the Torrigiani Fund , donated in 1893 by Luigi Torrigiani, includes approximately 90 titles of theatrical and instrumental music from the 19th century;

The Corradi Fund, donated in 2015 by the family of the late tenor Gian Paolo (1930-2015), consists of editions used by the artist throughout his career. Among the most significant pieces are some 19th-century opera librettos and scores. (Series A-Opera Scores; Series B-Librettos; Series C-Various Scores; Series D-Theory and Solfeggio; Series E-Scores for Piano or Organ; Series F-Press Review, Concert Programs; Series G-Vocal Polyphony; Series H-Photographs).

Bibliography: PAOLA CIRANI, The luminous career of Gian Paolo Corradi in the lyric pantheon of Postumia , in “Postumia”, 26/1-2-3 (2015), pp. 347-352.

The Ferrari-Trecate Fund , donated to the Music Section of the Palatina Library, contains a large amount of documentation relating to the artistic activity of the musician from Alessandria (1884-1964) who held the position of Director of the Parma Conservatory from 1929 to 1955. ( Series A-Compositions; Series B-Epistolary; Series C-Documents; Series D-Photographs; Series E-Posters and posters; Series F-Printed periodicals; Series G-Parts of works; Series H-Lithographic copies ; Series I-Manuscript copies of various compositions; Series L-Harmony notes; Series M-Miscellaneous; Series N-Press review.

The Acerbi Fund , donated in 2011 to the Musical Section of the Palatina Library by Mr. Emilio Acerbi of Traversetolo, includes a series of music librettos dating from between 1813 and 1937, as well as some volumes of musical and theatrical literature.

Archives and correspondence

The library also holds archival material including:

Epistolario Arrigo Boito: purchased by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage from Luigi Albertini, it collects, together with other material, 440 letters written by illustrious artists who lived between the 19th and 20th centuries;

Sampieri Epistolary: purchased by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, it includes 650 letters addressed by various senders to the Marquis Francesco Sampieri;

Documents of the Royal School of Music: collects, in three volumes, various letters and documents, including writings by Boito, Paganini, Rolla, Puccini, Toscanini;

The Usiglio Fund , donated in 1910 by the musician’s widow, collects documentary material relating to Emilio Usiglio and is made up of 1829 pieces (see Series A1, A2, A3, BCDE, F, G, H, I ).

Bibliography: PAOLA CIRANI, “A great handsome man, conqueror of hearts”. Emilio Usiglio, a forgotten musician from Parma, in “Aurea Parma”, year 91, no. 2 (2007).

The Verdi-Ricordi collection of letters, purchased by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage in 1980, was published in part by the Institute of Verdi Studies.

Bibliography: PAOLA CIRANI, The Verdi-Ricordi correspondence of the Musical Section of the Palatina Library of Parma, in “Postumia”, 22/3 (2011).

The Ca mani collection , purchased by the library, consists of 53 letters and postcards from illustrious musicians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Bibliography: PAOLA CIRANI, An important acquisition of the musical section of the Palatina Library of Parma: the Camani Collection , in Postumia, 16/2 (2005).

Sacconi Bequest. The collection consists of 2651 letters, postcards, photographs and various writings relating to the personal and professional activity of two artists who lived in the nineteenth century, the harpist Rosalinda Sacconi and her husband Innocente De Anna (baritone). Upon Sacconi’s death, the collection was left to the Parma Conservatory, where the artist taught in the last years of her life (see Series A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O).

Bibliography: PAOLA CIRANI, “Let him go to hell sooner than the pol”. Innocente De Anna, “a most distinguished singing artist” on the trail of Verdi , in “Postumia”, 19/1 (2008).

Dacci Bequest. The large collection includes the correspondence of Giusto Severo Pertinace Dacci with colleagues, personalities from the local political world, and various musicians. Much of the documentation concerns the ministerial practice undertaken by Dacci following his removal from the post of director of the Conservatory, after the suppression of the Royal School. (See Series A (A-C) A (D-I) A (L-R) A (S-Z), B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T)

PAOLA CIRANI, Giusto Severo Pertinace Give us, “glory to the elect, but not tribulations to the oppressed” , in “Postumia”, 22/1 (2011).

RAFFAELLA NARDELLA, Giusto, Severo, Pertinace Dacci. A life for the music school, in Arturo Toscanini at the Royal School of Music of Parma: 1876-1885: in the “Special Diary” of the director Giusto Dacci , edited by Gaspare Nello Vetro, Parma, Famija Pranzana-Corale Verdi, 2007.

Società dei Concerti. The Fund includes documents relating to the years 1894-1926, essential for reconstructing the history of a prestigious local association that is now more than a century old, but still active and very lively. Built from thousands of papers, this archive bears witness, albeit incompletely, to the first steps of the institution that brought artists of exceptional importance to the capital of the Duchy, contributing significantly to the cultural growth of the area. (See Series A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, C, D e D bis, E, F, G, H).

LUCIA BRIGHENTI, The Parma Concert Society , Parma, Silva, 2013.
PAOLA CIRANI, For a history of the Parma Concert Society: from its origins to the post-war period , in “Aurea Parma”, May-August 2013, pp. 251-284.

Catalogues

Since 1996, the Library has been part of the Parma Library System, in which it catalogues modern works of musical literature, periodicals and new acquisitions of printed music.

The catalogue cards of the following collections are available online in the OPAC of the National Library Service: Bottesini, Borbone, Regia Scuola di Musica, Sanvitale and Fondo Manoscritti ( collections that can be consulted in the library by appointment only ).

For printed music, the recovery of the previous material has begun but, for now, most of the material is only available in the paper catalogue.

Music
The paper catalogue is divided into a catalogue by authors and a systematic one.
The systematic catalogue, structured essentially by staff, with some sections by genre (sacred and profane music; theatrical works-scores, scores and librettos, jazz) and type of materials (orchestral material, manuscripts, anastatic reprints), was created essentially for practical reasons, to meet the needs of school users.

Musical Literature
The paper catalogue has an authors section and a subjects section.
Electronic cataloging began in 1996 within the Parma Library System and the recovery of the previous work is underway.

Historical catalogues
These are three different catalogues that testify to the progressive enrichment, also thanks to donations, of the library’s heritage. These catalogues also contain non-musical material that has now been transferred to the Palatina Library.

Catalog of books
It is an alphabetical catalog by authors that has the peculiarity of having the cards arranged in reverse order, therefore it is browsed from right to left. It was drawn up by the first librarian, Michele Caputo, in the years immediately following the establishment of the Music Section, between 1889 and 1898.
Staderini Catalogue
This is a catalogue of authors started around 1920 by Guido Gasperini and subsequently increased by the librarians who succeeded him, as demonstrated by the different handwritings.
Catalogue of music librettos
The catalogue, in two volumes, compiled in 1949 by Arnaldo Furlotti and Mario Ferrarini, lists, in order by title, the music librettos of the historical collection. This is formed, for the most part, by donations made to the Conservatory of Music by Count Stefano Sanvitale at the beginning of the 20th century.

Bibliography: PAOLA CIRANI, Mantuan theatre librettos in the musical section of the Palatina Library of Parma , in «Postumia» 24/2 (2013), pp. 169-196.

The catalogue of booklets can be consulted in digital format here .