Gli album di Sofia de’ Medici

Albums — collections of musical autographs compiled from the first decades of the nineteenth century by members of the upper classes — are valuable sources to reconstruct the parlour music practices and the relationships interwoven within private society. Recent acquisitions by the Istituto Liszt Foundation through the an­tiques market include some musical autographs — songs and piano pieces — that were in the album of Sofia de’ Medici, daughter of Gian Giacomo, Marquis of Marignano. This paper aims to reconstruct the biography of the amateur noble musician, a composer and pianist also appreciated by Liszt during his stay in Milan. It also traces the possible framework of social, cultural and musical relations — including Donizetti, Nini, Bazzini, Verdi, Belgiojoso — that converged between the 1830s and 1840s within the private cultural space of the Marquises of Marignano.

Keywords: amateur musicians, music publishers, chamber vocal music, Sofia de’ Medici di Marignano, Gaetano Donizetti, Antonio Bazzini, Franz Lisz