International Museum and Library of Music - Library

Library

The collection inherited from Padre Martini constitutes one of the most prestigious collections of music repertory printed between the 16th and 18th centuries because of its incunabulums, valuable manuscripts, opera libretti, and for the unique collection of autographs and letters, which are the result of the correspondence Martini painstakingly kept with eminent people, scholars, and musicians of the time. Saved from the Napoleonic confiscations due to the intervention of Stanislao Mattei, Martini’s disciple and successor, the valuable bibliographic patrimony was donated to the Liceo musicale di Bologna in 1816. The Liceo had been founded in 1804 at the ex-convent of the Agostinians in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore. The library grew considerably throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, thanks to the amount of materials produced from the didactic activity of the Liceo (famous students of the Liceo included Rossini, Donizetti, and Respighi and directors Mancinelli, Martucci, and Busoni). The library also grew because of the valuable items and rare volumes that were acquired by Gaetano Gaspari, who was appointed as librarian in 1855. Gaspari directed the library for many years with a unique zeal and knowledge. After many years of hard work and constant effort, he was able to excellently organize and card-catalogue all the library material (also from this period came the posthumous publication, the "Library Catalogue of the Liceo Musicale di Bologna", which bears his name and is now also available online). In 1942, when the Liceo musicale was transformed into a state institution – Regio Conservatorio di Musica – the Comune di Bologna chose to maintain ownership of Padre Martini’s bibliographic patrimony and the attached picture gallery. The Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale was founded in 1959 in order to conserve and make the most of the bibliographic patrimony and portrait gallery.