In January 1782, an important Russian Granduke on a visit to Venice with his wife received in homage a collection of six sonatas for harpsichord. The personage in question was Paul Petrovich, the son of the czarina Catherine, who was destined to succeed his mother in 1796. The author of the sonatas was Baldassarre Galuppi, who had served the czarina in St. Petersburg until 1768. Galuppi had begun his career at the age of 20 as a virtuoso harpsichordist and composer for that instrument (the musical connoisseur Charles Burney called him "a good harpsichordist") and he wrote no fewer than 130 sonatas for the keyboard.