Toffalori Collection

Dionisio Toffalori 1921-2006

He was born in Lazise, near Verona. During the Second World War, he was soldier in the Greek campaign. After 1945, he enrolled as a carabiniere and was sent to Firenze. Here he began to study singing (he graduated at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in 1956) and to collect 78 rpm records. He used to buy from other collectors, scrap merchants and antique dealers. He also collected sheet music, pictures of singers, record players and more generally objects related to music.

The Toffalori Collection was acquired in February 2019 and consists of over 5,000 records, divided into 380 binders. Most of them are 78-rpm records. The collection also includes 33rpm records and magnetic tapes. Unfortunately, it is not accessible due to its poor state of preservation; information on its quantity and content is only available from the catalogue and index.

The collection also included books and librettos that are now in Bologna, in the Biblioteca delle Arti, sezione di Musica e Spettacolo (UniBo). All 1,497 opera librettos have been cataloged in the SBN, and many have been digitized and made available on CORAGO (Repertory and Archive of Italian Opera Librettos from 1600 to 1900).