“I wait for your ‘Life of Leo’ with the impatience of a traveller by night, who expects the moon shortly to rise and direct his way. In the course of last winter I sketched the first volume of my work on the same subject, which places Leo on the pontifical throne; the remainder will, I apprehend, occupy two other volumes, and the fourth will be devoted to the appendix. This arrangement, you will easily perceive, will require much time to complete; and as I consider it rather as the offspring of my leisure than as my occupation, it will be some years before I can hope to lay my researches before the public. In the meantime, I have been assiduous, and not unsuccessful, in my enquiries. By the assistance of Lord Holland, and of Mr. Penrose, the British Resident at Florence, I have received numerous documents from the archives of that place, which have thrown great light on the life and early part of the pontificate of Leo X. These I have already employed in a great degree in my narrative, and I doubt not your learned and judicious work will furnish me with much additional information.”
