The oldest known Iberian square piano. An exceptional piece of furniture, organology, and anthropology at the National Music Museum of Portugal. Restoration, recovery, conservation, and exhibition

Abstract

His article aims to shed light on the oldest Spanish-made table piano known in the Iberian Peninsula, built by craftsman Juan del Mármol in Seville in 1781, now treasured in the permanent collection of the National Music Museum of Portugal at its new headquarters, the Mafra Palace. This is a remarkable piece of incalculable value, part of the furniture of a specific era, key to organology in understanding the evolution of the piano in our geography, and a reference point in Spanish and Portuguese musicology.