| Musical Instruments Museums in Italy |
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| Castello Sforzesco – Museum of Musical Instruments – Milan (Lombardy) • www.milanocastello.it |
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Address: Piazza Castello – 20121 Milano |
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The museum is housed in the Castello Sforzesco (Sforza Castle), the residence of the Visconti’s and Sforza’s courts in the 14th- and 15th-century, later turned into barracks and finally restored by Luca Beltrami in the 19th-century. Particularly, the collections are displayed on the two upper floors of the Rocchetta, except the section of antique furniture, which is housed in four rooms on the ground floor of the Ducal Court. The miscellaneous collection includes the Trivulzio collection (12 tapestries woven in Vigevano between 1504 and 1509), a decorative art collection, 17th to 19th-century time pieces, 13th to 15th-century ceramics, 18th and 19th-century European porcelain ware, 15th to 20th-century majolicas, ivory works, enamels, glass works, wooden sculptures and a collection of costumes and accessories made from the 18th century onwards. Remarkable exhibits: a Gothic ostensory (1456) and a glass chalice with the Sforzas coat-of-arms (late 15th century). The musical instrument museum houses more than 600 instruments, among which a superb viola by Giovanni Grancino (1662), a violin by Rogeri (1662) and one by Andrea Guarneri. Among the wind instruments: a 17th-century flute by Bressan; among the keyed instruments: a double virginal by Hans Ruckers (1597) and a cembalo by Vito Trasuntino (1571). The Balla Hall displays 19th and 20th century keyed instruments. |
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| Museo degli Strumenti Musicali Popolari – Roncegno Terme (Trento) (Trentino) • www.museodellamusicaroncegno.it |
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Addresses: Località S. Brigida, 38050 Roncegno Terme (Trento) |
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The Museo degli strumenti musicali popolari (Museum of folk music instruments), in the ancient rectory of Santa Brigida in Roncegno Terme (Trento) more than 500 ethnic and popular musical instruments, representing 49 countries on five continents. You can visit the museum on your own, following the indications of the staff and reading boards near the instruments, or you can book guided tours. If you choose our guided tours, you will be able to admire the musical instruments of the Museum and also to play them. |
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| Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments – Sestola (Modena) (Emilia-Romagna) • museum page |
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Addresses: Castello di Sestola, Via della Rocca – 41029 Sestola (Modena) |
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The museum displays the “Edward Thones” collection, consisting of mechanical musical instruments from the 17th century until today; among them, a 19th-century chiming clock, a slot pianolas, barrel-organs, and music-boxes. There are also a section devoted to sound reproduction and a room displaying pianolas. |
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| Museum of the Ocarina and the Terra-cotta Musical Instruments – Budrio (Bologna) (Emilia-Romagna) • www.ocarina.it |
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Address: Via Garibaldi, 35 Budrio (Bologna) |
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The museum, housed in the auditorium of the former Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament (16th century). It keeps a collection of models, photographic documentation and other evidences concerning the ocarina, the typical terra-cotta instrument devised and constructed by Giuseppe Donati from Budrio in 1853-1854. The small though valuable collection also consists of a series of globular flutes and little terra-cotta instruments from all over the world. |
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| Museo del Violino Fondazione Stradivari – Cremona (Lombardy) • www.museodelviolino.org |
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Address: Piazza Marconi, 26100 Cremona |
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In 1893 was accepted by the city of Cremona, the donation of John the Baptist Cerani, which contains some artefacts belonged to Antonio Stradivari. The most relevant Museum is, however, formed from material from the laboratory of the great Cremonese violin-maker, sold by the heirs of a Stradivari Ignatius Alessandro Cozio count of Salabue (1755 – 1840), considered at that time, the largest collector of instruments arch and expert in this field, and noted in 1920, the figure of centomilalire from Bologna maker Giuseppe Fiorini that gives it in 1930 to the Museum of Cremona. |
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| International Museum and Library of Music – Bologna (Emilia-Romagna) • www.museomusicabologna.it |
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Address: Strada Maggiore, 34 – 40125 Bologna |
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The International Museum and Library of Music of Bologna (Italian: Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica) is a music museum and music library located in the Palazzo Aldini Sanguinetti, in the historic center of Bologna, Italy. The musical instruments displayed in the rooms of the museum originate from the collections of two important Bolognese institutions: the Museo Civico Medievale and the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale. The first floor of the Palazzo is home to the nine rooms of the exhibition, which illustrates about six centuries of the history of European music. There are over one hundred paintings of famous people from the music world, which are a part of the picture gallery started by Padre Giovanni Battista Martini, more than eighty antique musical instruments, and a large selection of valuable historical documents, such as treatises, volumes, opera libretti, letters, manuscripts, original musical scores, etc. |
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| Museum of Musical Instruments – Florence (Tuscany) • web site |
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Address: Galleria dell’Accademia – Via Ricasoli 58/60 – Firenze |
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The collection comprises about fifty instruments, dating from the late 17th to early 19th centuries, formerly belonging to members of the Medici and Lorraine families, which later passed to the Cherubini Conservatory of Florence. Since 1966 they have been deposited on loan to the Accademia Gallery where they are currently displayed.
Among the most interesting instruments on display are a tenor viola by Antonio Stradivari, a cello which formed part of the same quintet of strings made in 1690 for Grand Prince Ferdinando, a violin of 1716 by Stradivari and a cello of 1650
by Niccolò Amati. |
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| National Museum of Musical Instruments – Rome (Lazio) • www.museostrumentimusicali.it |
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Address: Piazza Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, 9/a – 00185 Roma |
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The museum gathers outstanding musical instruments belonging to the ancient world (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) , the western tradition and, non-European cultures (China, Japan, Laos, India, Arabia, Turkey, Persia, America, Africa, Oceania). Divided into thematic sections, the museum presents about 3.000 pieces: 840 of them are exposed in the 18 halls of the first floor, the remaining ones are shared between the second floor and the store. Among which unique examples of eolian harp (a stringed instrument so constructed as to produce musical sounds when exposed to a current of air), travel cymbals, sophisticated boites à musique, 16th-century flutes, processional organs decorated with friezes and architectural motifs of Neapolitan school. Remarkable exhibit: the pianoforte built by Bartolomeo Cristofori who invented this instruments in 1722 and the crystal harmonica produced by Benjamin Franklin in the 19th-century. |
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| Musical Instruments Museum (MUSA) Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – Rome (Lazio) • museo.santacecilia.it |
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Address: Auditorium Parco della Musica Viale de Coubertin – 00196 Roma |
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The Musical Instruments Museum of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (MUSA), holds one of the foremost collections of instruments in Italy. Its most valuable pieces are now on display to the public in its exhibition gallery.
The museum was established in 1895 by what was then the Regia Accademia. At that time a renewed interest in early music and its performance practices had spurred other important European teaching institutions, such as the Paris and Brussels Conservatoires, to set up collections that would enable students and the general public to learn about ancient instruments. |
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