The palazzo, collections, and musical patronage of Niccolò Gaddi (1536-1591)

Abstract

This article examines the collection of musical instruments and music books (both published editions and manuscripts) belonging to the Florentine Niccolò di Sinibaldo Gaddi. One of the greatest collectors and patrons of the arts of his time, in the 1570s and 1580s he organized and installed one of the largest private collections of the era in the so-called casa dell’orto. Today it is possible to reconstruct not only the scope of his collections but also the breadth of his incredibly rich library thanks to an unpublished inventory from 1628 and analyses of other primary sources. Around forty musical instruments and a group of 130 volumes of printed and manuscript music books were among the thousands of objects exhibited. The identification of several of them has made it possible to advance new hypotheses concerning the contributions made to the collection by various members of the family.