This essay presents some unpublished letters (1863-1877) of Liszt to the composer Giovanni Pacini and his Roman student Maria Giuli, niece of Pacini, and letters of the same Giuli in which she speaks of Liszt. At the instance of Liszt (and thanks to the intervention of Giuli), Pacini sent to the Hungarian composer the score of his Sinfonia Dante, composed and performed in Florence during the celebrations of Dante’s sixth centenary (1865). One can easily suppose that Liszt’s interest stemmed from having himself composed only a few years earlier Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia, which was performed in Rome just a few months after the exchange of letters with Pacini. Other documents give information about Giuli and her relationship with the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia. All these documents are kept in the Biblioteca nazionale centrale in Rome, in the “Fondo Giovanni Pacini” of the Museo civico in Pescia, and in the Archivio storico of the Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where Giuli was admitted in 1862.
Key words: Franz Liszt, Giovanni Pacini, Maria Giuli, Dante Symphony.