Between 183739 Liszt was travelling through Italy with Marie dAgoult. As was the case with the first volume of the Annees de Pelerinage, Schweiz (1835/36) he once again recorded his travel impressions in musical form. He devoted himself to subjects from literature (Petrarca, Dante) andthe visual arts (Raffael, Michelangelo). Many years later Liszt reworke d the pieces, publishing them in 1858 as Annees de Pelerinage, Zweites Jahr, Italien. The central work in this volume is the large-scale so-called Dante Sonata (Apres une Lecture de Dante, see also single edition HN 981). The Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (also available as a single edition HN 982) is just as popular. In 1861 Liszt published an appendix to VolumeII, Venezia e Napoli, which is also available as a separate edition HN 985.
