In 1825, Giovanni Ricordi purchased the complete musical archives of La Scala and in 1839 he bought the copyright to Giuseppe Verdi's music that marked the beginnings of a long working relationship. During the 1840s, Casa Ricordi grew to where it was the largest music publisher in southern Europe and in 1842 the company created the musical journal the Gazzetta Musicale di Milano. In 1864 it expanded to Naples and then to Florence (1865), Rome (1871), London (1878), Palermo and in 1888 to Paris.
During World War II, the company's business premises suffered severe damage from aerial bombardmennt but its collections had already been safely stored away. Following reconstruction after the war, Ricordi was converted to a limited corporation by the family in 1952 and in 1956 it became a publicly traded company.
In 1994, Ricordi was acquired by BMG Music Publishing and is now Italy's largest music publisher.
