Lot n° 33
Estimation :
2500 - 3000
EUR
CHAPELAIN Jean (1595-1674)
poet; founding member of the French Academy, where he played an important role, notably by drafting its statutes.
6 L.A.S. "Chapelain", Paris 1664-1670, to Carlo DATI, in Florence; 11 pages in-8 or in-4, 3 addresses with fragments of red wax seals; the first two in Italian.
Nice set to the secretary of the Accademia della Crusca that Chapelain designates on the addresses as "Primo Umanista nello
Studio Fiorentino".
[Carlo DATI (1619-1979), philologist and Florentine scholar, was admitted very young to the Accademia della Crusca, of which he became in 1663 the secretary, and of which Chapelain was a member]. May 23, 1664. "Sin da quel tempo che mi furono communicate certe Regole ed Osservazioni di V.S. Illma intorno alla lingua Fiorentina l'ho havuta in concetto di Letterato fra li primi di quella tanto celebrata Accademia della Crusca, e divenuto parziale del suo merito ho ampliata la fama sua in questa Corte, tra quei de nostri
Francesi che si dilettano delle Composizioni
Toscane"... He thanks Dati for the sending of his works: a sylva in white verse on the Peace, on the occasion of the marriage of the very illustrious King, really beautiful poem, a choice of speeches of eloquent Tuscans of which he himself, enriched with his very learned preface which made him see the height of his knowledge and gained the universal applause of the connoisseurs, as well as a mathematical speech marked by the character of the most cordial friendship which takes nobly the defense of the attacked reputation of a virtuoso... April 2, 1666. He took it into his head to have Dati registered on the list of the famous people of letters to whom King LOUIS XIV has made presents for three or four years, and his approaches to the minister
COLBERT were successful: he thus sends a bill of exchange with instructions to write thanks to the King, to Colbert and to Mr. Le Besgue, treasurer of the Buildings of the King... February 23, 1667. He transmits a bill of thanks from CARCAVI [mathematician friend of Descartes and Pascal], for the present of the Lives [of the ancient painters] on large paper, and asks him to send to this mathematician "the excellent works which are printed in Florence daily especially of Physics, Experiences, Astronomy Geometry matters which are of his taste and which are treated in the Assembly of the Physicists established by the King where he holds a considerable rank"... March 25, 1668. After a new gratification that Colbert obtained for him from the King, it is necessary to recognize that "the Prince and the Minister are well munificent": Dati should follow the example of Ottavio FERRARI who published and sent a Latin panegyric of the King... August 18, 1669.
The copies of his panegyric and his sylves reached him by the channel of Dell' Ara, and would have been transmitted to Colbert for LL.MM. and the Princes if the arrival of the G.P.
of Tuscany had not occupied Dell' Ara, delaying the binding... March 28, 1670. He reassures him: "our
Ministers go to the solid and do not lose time in compliments. Your esteem has been preserved to you both entirely and you must have received the proof of it at this hour [...]. The King never wished anything from you except that you cultivate your beautiful talents"... CARCAVI wrote to him through Graziani "that he could not resolve anything on the proposal that he did not have prints of this Metalloteca and some notebooks of the writings that accompany them and that you could send them only to Modena, dou
Mr. Graziani would make him only hold them by Mr. the Abbot Vittorio Siri"...
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