The Istituto Liszt has recently acquired a set of 5 letters written by Liszt to the noble woman marquise Maria Martellini at the end of the 1830s. Another letter to the same addressee, kept in the Archives of the Fondazione Scaramagà (Trieste) and published in 1987 by Marina Petronio, is re-published here and profusely annotated.
A rich network of notes is provided for each of the six letters, with the intent of systematically clarifying the relationships that are behind each letter. Research in private and public archives has enabled the author to illustrate the family history of outstanding persons, to give news about famous buildings and institutions and to offer an extensive overview of the society Liszt frequented in Florence and in other towns of Tuscany during his first journey in Italy.