Transcribing the Archivio's Letter Collection

On July 6, the Archivio Storico Ricordi launched a transcription project in which music experts and music lovers from all over the world are invited to participate. The archive houses more than 30,000 items from the business correspondence between Casa Ricordi in Italy and artists and business partners from the years between 1808 and 1962.

They tell the story of one of the leading music publishers of that period, and shed light on important facets of Italian opera history. Since 2018, the letters have been freely accessible online as part of the archive’s digitization. Now the task at hand is to gradually transcribe the correspondence, much of which is handwritten, to make it accessible for music research and a wider audience.