Giulio Ricordi
Illustration — Giulio Ricordi Giulio Ricordi (19 December 1840 – 6 June 1912) was an Italian editor and musician who joined the family firm, the Casa Ricordi music publishing house, in 1863, then run by his father, Tito, the son of the company's founder Giovanni Ricordi. Upon his father's death in 1888, Giulio became the head of the company until his death.
Giulio Ricordi

lithography by Mancastropa · Amilcare Ponchielli, Nuove Edizioni 1985, p. 161. · Public domain
- Born
- 1840
- Died
- 1912
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Italy
- Occupation
- editor · composer · music publisher · businessperson · journalist · publisher · painter
- Fields
- opera
- Known for
- Villa Margherita Ricordi
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Giulio Ricordi Giulio Ricordi (19 December 1840 – 6 June 1912) was an Italian editor and musician who joined the family firm, the Casa Ricordi music publishing house, in 1863, then run by his father, Tito, the son of the company's founder Giovanni Ricordi. Upon his father's death in 1888, Giulio became the head of the company until his death.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Giulio Ricordi. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
museum · fd78ed96-6199-4863-be2d-c5216bc0aed8 · wikidata · Q225820 · wikipedia · Giulio Ricordi
In this article
Biography
Biography
Under the pen name Jules Burgmein, Ricordi contributed a very great deal to the prestige of the Casa Ricordi as it also produced several magazines (La gazzetta musicale, Musica e musicisti and Ars et labor), and various other once famous publications (La biblioteca del pianista, l'Opera Omnia di Frédéric Chopin, L'arte musicale in Italia, Le Sonate di Domenico Scarlatti). Ricordi was also publisher of the later operas by Giuseppe Verdi, having established a relationship with that composer as a young man. In 1853, Ricordi built a mansion, Villa Margherita Ricordi (Coordinates 45.994321N 9.238636E), in Griante on the shore of Lake Como. Visits by Verdi to this mansion may have been related to the successful strategy of luring the aging composer out of his retirement with the composition of his two final works, Otello in 1887 and Falstaff in 1893. • Illustration — 1900 group portrait at Verdi's house in Sant'Agata with various family and friends. Verdi is in the middle, and Giulio Ricordi is standing second from the right, with his wife seated below him. But he also promoted younger composers of merit. These included Amilcare Ponchielli, Alfredo Catalani, Carlos Gomes, Umberto Giordano, and, above all, Giacomo Puccini. To Puccini in particular, he became something of a father-figure, feared (and often needing to be censorious over Puccini's dilatory work habits) but deeply trusted.
Depictions in media
Depictions in media
• The play After Aida — a 1985 play-with-music by Julian Mitchell — depicts Ricordi's struggle to get the retired Verdi to collaborate with a young librettist, Arrigo Boito, on a project, which resulted in Otello. • In November 2001, Tell Giulio the Chocolate is Ready, a radio play by Murray Dahm, was produced and broadcast by Radio New Zealand. The play is based on the letters of the Verdi-Boito correspondence and explores the genesis and production of Verdi and Boito's opera Otello including the role played by Giulio Ricordi. The play and broadcast included those sections of the opera as they appeared in the correspondence (such as Iago's Credo).
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
He also worked under the names Jules Burgmein, xyz and J. His recorded languages were Italian, Milanese and French. He was the child of Tito I Ricordi. He married Giuditta Ricordi Brivio. One child is recorded: Tito Ricordi. Other recorded relations include Nanni Ricordi.

Giulio Ricordi
book by Frederick James Crowest · Verdi: man and musician

Portrait of Giulio Ricordi, publisher (1840-1912). Photo by unknown, before 1912.
Archivio Storico Ricordi · Archivio Storico Ricordi, Collezione Digitale Ricordi
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1840–1912
The full dated record · 3 entries
1840
Giulio Ricordi was born on 19 December 1840.
1900
Lettera autografa Giulio Ricordi all'architetto Camillo Boito Milano, 28 maggio 1900 (1900) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
1912
Giulio Ricordi died on 6 June 1912.
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Giulio Ricordi
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q225820: Giulio Ricordi
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Giulio Ricordi”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Literature
Literature
Luigi Mancinelli, Giulio Ricordi y Francesco Tamagno, figuras fundamentales en la recepción del primer Puccini en España: el estreno de Edgar en el Teatro Real (1892), Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana, 2020
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Giulio RicordiMetaBrainz Foundation
VerifiedInstitutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q225820: Giulio RicordiWikimedia Foundation
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
18,717 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Giulio CromerArtist
- Giulio LicinioArtist
- Giulio PittarelliArtist
- Giulio Quaglio the YoungerArtist
- Giulio RosatiArtist
- Giunta PisanoArtist
- Giuseppe AbbatiArtist
- Giuseppe AgellioArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Giulio Ricordi?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.