International Museum and Library of Music

Nine rooms and six centuries of history

Opened in 2004 and housed in the 16th-century Palazzo Sanguinetti, the International Museum and Library of Music is located along Bologna’s central Strada Maggiore.

The exhibition itinerary unfolds amid rich 18th- and 19th-century frescoes in a palace that is among the finest examples of architecture from the Napoleonic and neoclassical period in Bologna. Through nine rooms, you can retrace six centuries of European music history, among over 80 ancient musical instruments, over a hundred portraits of illustrious personalities from the world of music, a rich collection of musical treatises, books, letters, manuscripts, opera librettos and autograph scores.

The museum allows visitors to discover a unique heritage, thanks to a sui generis collection of instruments, including the buccina, an unusual dragon-headed trombone, and the marine trumpet, which despite its name has little to do with wind instruments and is played with a bow. This is truly an experience not to be missed, in one of Bologna’s most beautiful historical buildings.