The Pult family's 18th-century music library

Monday, September 7, 2026

The Pult family’s 18th-century music library, rediscovered in 2023, has recently been added to the RISM catalogue. The music library was re-discovered by Mathias Gredig and Kurt Gritsch during the renovation of the family’s stately home in the Engadin village of Zuoz and is now housed in the Kulturarchiv Oberengadin, Zuoz CH-ZUkaoe. Among Switzerland’s historic family music libraries, it is comparable in terms of size and significance only to the collection of Lukas Sarasin at the University Library of Basel CH-Bu and the library of Queen Hortense de Beauharnais at Arenenberg Castle CH-AR. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the staff of the Kulturarchiv Oberengadin, in particular Mathias Gredig and Kurt Gritsch, for their support and the fruitful discussions during the cataloguing work.
Most of the items in the Pult collection belonged to three members of the family: Jachem Pult (c. 1721–1781), his son Nicolo (1762–1832) and his daughter-in-law Ursula Perini (1768–1846). Jachem was an officer in the service of the Dutch Republic and was stationed in Maastricht. Jachem’s time in the Netherlands explains the provenance of many of the items he acquired, which include not only editions from well-known publishers in Amsterdam, Paris and London, but also rarer works from workshops in what is now Belgium. His musical interests are also characterised by the remarkable number of bassoon duets and sonatas in his possession. As an eleven-year-old boy in Neuwied, it appears that Nicolo acquired an extensive collection of handwritten chamber music. At the time, Neuwied was home to a significant community of the Moravian Church, which also exerted considerable influence in Graubünden, and the Pults family sympathized with the Moravians. Ursula Perini’s music falls within the broad category of ‘house music’ and comprises several collections of strophic songs and piano music which may have been copied by her own hand.

Image: Gian-Nicola Bass, Kulturarchiv Oberengadin.