Gli album di Sofia de’ Medici
Profilo di una nobile dilettante di musica
Abstract
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.
