Museums of Italy
Musical Instruments Museums in Italy
 

 

Municipal Collections of Applied Art and Prints - Museum of Musical Instruments
MILANO Castello Sforzesco, p.zza Castello
Public property
  Opening Hours:
Open every day, holidays included: 9.30-17.30

Closing days:
every Monday

Admission free

Phone:
02/860160

Web Site:
www.milanocastello.it

Notes:
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.

   

 

Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments
SESTOLA (Modena) Fortezza del Castello, via Castello
Public property
  Opening Hours:
10-12 and 16-19 (in July and Aug.); in the other periods it is possible to examine it on request for schools, groups, etc.

Phone:
0536/62324 (Tourism Office)
0536/62743 (Town Hall)


Web Site:
museum page

Notes:
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.




   

 

Museum of the Ocarina and the Terra-cotta Musical Instruments
BUDRIO (Bologna) via Garibaldi, 35
Public property
  Opening Hours:
Sun. 15.30-18.30, the 1st Sun. in the month 10.30-12.30 and 15.30-18.30 (from Oct. to June) - closed the other days and from June to Sept.

Phone:
051/6928111 (Town Hall)


Web Site:
Budrio Ocarina Museum

Notes:
The museum, housed in the auditorium of the former Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament (16th century), is currently under arrangement; 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.

   

 

National Museum of Musical Instruments
ROMA p.zza Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, 9/a
Public property
  Opening Hours:
Tue to Sun: 8,30 - 19,30

Closing days:
every Monday, January 1st, Christmas Day

Phone:
06/7014796

Web Site:
www.museostrumentimusicali.it

Notes:
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.

   

 

The Educational Museum of Musical Instruments
CREMONA Palazzo Raimondi, Scuola Internazionale di Liuteria, c.so Garibaldi, 178
Public property
  Opening Hours:
open on request for school parties

Admission free

Phone:
0372/38689

Web Site:
www.scuoladiliuteria.com

Notes:
This museum is located in the premises of the school for stringed instruments' makers; it displays musical instruments made by the students (violins, violas and cellos) and replicas of old instruments. A video illustrates the variuous phases of construction of a musical instruments.


   

Museum Stradivariano
CREMONA Via Ugolani Dati 4
Public property
  Opening Hours:
Tue to Sat: 9:00 - 18:00
Sundays and holidays:
10:00 to 18:00

Closed: Monday

Phone:
0372 407770


Web Site:
museum page

Notes:
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.

   

 

Museum of Musical Instruments
FLORENCE Galleria dell'Accademia - Via Ricasoli 58/60
Public property
  Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Sunday, 8,15 – 15,50

Closing days:
Monday, New Year’s Day, May 1st, Christmas Day

Web Site:
museum page

Notes:
Installed in the Palazzo Vecchio, the L. Cherubini Museum of the Conservatory is a valuable collection of musical instruments, it was began in the 17c. by Ferdinando de' Medici and was consequently enriched and enlarged. Lutes, cymbals, wind-instruments, violins and violas (such prestigious names as Amati and Stradivari are present) of various centuries. In addition, the first pianos of Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-172), the "inventor" of this instrument, who attended the Florentine court of Ferdinando de' Medici from 1711 onwards.

   

 

  

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