It is with great sadness that I report the passing of my friend and
the most prominent Italian expert on the automatic musical instruments,
Luigi Gerli. Born in 1941 in Milan, he would turn 80 this year.

In the 1970s Luigi contributed greatly to the creation of the Marino
Marini collection of more than 400 automatic instruments (the biggest
Italian collection of its kind), which was first opened to the public
in Savio near Ravenna, Italy. In 2007 the collection was bought by a
banking foundation in Bologna and was moved to Riola di Vergato (near
Bologna), where Luigi continued to restore the barrel pianos, mechanical
organs, music boxes and automata, working as a curator and restorer of
the collection until 2017.

For some decades, he used to work also in East Germany, collaborating
with a local piano industry, as well as exporting historical and modern
German pianos to Italy.

Of a truly Renaissance spirit, Luigi graduated in philosophy and was a
great connoisseur of the history of art and painting; he spoke fluently
many languages, he was an expert on classical Greek culture, literature
and language, as well as a talented pianist (he graduated in composition
in the Milan conservatory). He will be greatly missed.

Anna Katarzyna Zaręba
Bologna, Italy

[   Luigi Gerli during a conference in Bologna in 2011
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/21/03/26/210326_022422_BoSiRivela%20195.JPG 
[   Luigi Gerli
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/21/03/26/210326_022422_LuigiGerli.JPG 

 [ Ms. Zaręba is Assistant Curator at the Museum of San Colombano,
 [ Tagliavini Collection of historical musical instruments, in Bologna,
 [ Italy (Genus Bononiae). Her specialties and interests include early
 [ music, historical keyboard instruments and automatic musical
 [ instruments. In this video she introduces a harpsichord performance
 [ at time 12:38: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCzHE0uiOXg -- Robbie