I have accepted with great pleasure the invitation extended to me by my friend Armando Orlandi to present the work of my father, Carlo Alberto Pagni, on Beethoven. In the last years of his life my father sought a publisher who might be interested in printing the book, though he was fully aware that he had not written it with the intention of publication, but rather as a way of gathering together, as the curious man he was, all that he had read throughout his life concerning the Master of Bonn.

A passionate physician, a student of the history of chess, but above all a great admirer of Beethoven, my father did not wish—as is clearly stated in the introduction—to write a treatise of musicology or yet another biography of the genius. Accustomed in his professional work always to the use of bibliographical research, he produced instead a curious text, one not to be read in a single breath, but rather left perhaps upon a table at home, to accompany the reader in listening to the music of the Master and in discovering the more curious traits of his personality.

Thanks therefore to Armando, and my best wishes to all for a fruitful reading.