Lot n° 24
Estimation :
1200 - 1500
EUR
CHAPELAIN Jean (1595-1674) poet; founding... - Lot 24 - Drouot Estimations
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), a Florentine philologist and scholar, was admitted at an early age to the Accademia della Crusca, of which he became secretary in 1663, 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 sending his works: a sylve in white verse on Peace, on the occasion of the marriage of the most illustrious King, a truly beautiful poem, a selection of speeches of eloquent Tuscans including himself, enriched with his very learned preface that showed him the height of his knowledge and won the universal applause of connoisseurs, as well as a mathematical speech imbued with the character of the most cordial friendship that nobly defends the attacked reputation of a virtuoso 2 April 1666. He took it into his head to have Dati registered on the list of 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 therefore sends a bill of exchange with instructions to write thanks to the King, to Colbert and to M. Le Besgue, treasurer of the King's Buildings 23 February 1667. He sends a thank-you bill from CARCAVI [mathematician and 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 got 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 18 August 1669. The copies of his panegyric and of his sylvics arrived to 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 waste time in compliments. Your esteem has been kept by both of them and you must have received the proof of it at this time []. CARCAVI wrote to him through Graziani "that he could not resolve anything on the proposal that he should have prints of this Metalloteca and some notebooks of the writings that accompany them and that you could send them simply to Modena, where Mr. Graziani would make him simply hold them by Mr. Abbot Vittorio Siri".
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