ROSSINI (Gioachino). AUTOGRAPHIC LETTER SIGNED... Lot 23

ROSSINI (Gioachino). AUTOGRAPHIC LETTER SIGNED addressed to Tito Ricordi. Firenze [Florence], December 27, 1853. One large page in-4 on double f.. Dry stamp "Bath" at top left of 2 ff. Minimal tears and traces of binding at inner edge of both ff. which suggest that the letter must have been bound in a book or collection. BEAUTIFUL LETTER in Italian from the composer to his friend Tito RICORDI (1811-1888), Italian music publisher and successor to his father Giovanni, who founded Casa Ricordi in Milan in 1808. In 1842, Tito in turn founded the leading 19th-century music magazine, the Gazzetta Musicale di Milano, which lasted until 1902, expanding the publishing house's influence by opening branches in Naples (1864), Florence (1865), Rome (1871), London (1878), Palermo and Paris (1888). In 1853, after leaving Bologna due to revolutionary movements and popular animosity, G. ROSSINI (1792-1868) took up residence in Florence, in the Villa San Donato put at his disposal by Prince Demidoff.