As an Italian fine art publisher and puzzle maker, the brand Ricordi traces its roots to 1808, when Giovanni Ricordi founded a small printing company. During the following years Casa Ricordi grew to become the major publishing company for Italian music. It acquired the whole musical archive of Teatro alla Scala in Milan and represented such big composers as Rossini, Puccini, Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti etc. With the incentive to protect the author’s rights and his own editor’s rights, Giovanni Ricordi put the basis of what became later known as the “author’s rights”, guaranteed in Italy and afterwards on an international level. After World War II the company underwent a complete restructuring, as the headquarter was bombed and destroyed. Many sectors were reorganized and foreign subsidiaries were founded.
As a result there came into existence Societè Anonime des Editions Ricordi (1913) in Paris, an English Ricordi (1928) in Chesham, a German Ricordi (1966) in Munich, a Canadian Ricordi in Toronto (1954). Meanwhile most of the them have ceased their activity, and in 1999 there was a first spin off of the editorial division from the music one. After the whole music division had been sold to Bertelsmann in 2009 there was a second spinoff focused on two basic divisions: Fine Art Jigsaw Puzzles and Educational Posters, which gave birth to the current Ricordi.
