Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Duchess of Devonshire to Lady Morgan, 22 March 1823
Rome,
March 22nd, 1823.
My dear Madam,
I should not have delayed so long answering your
interesting letter, if I had not been almost in daily ![]()
| 160 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. | |
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expectation of some part of the information which you was so anxious to obtain
on the subject of Salvator Rosa’s
writings and musical compositions. All that I have yet received was, the day
before yesterday, in a letter from the Abate Cancilliari
to M. Molagoni, one of Cardinal Gonsalvi’s secretaries. I enclose you what he
says. The answer from Baini, about his
musical compositions, I have not yet received. Cammuccini told me that there only remained at Rome two
undoubted pictures of Salvator Rosa, and that there were
two small landscapes at Palazzo Spada. The picture which you mention at Palazzo
Chigi, they seem ignorant of, or to doubt its being what you represent it. The
same of La Lucrezia. I wish
that I could have been of more use to you; and I shall be anxious to see the
Life of
Salvator Rosa when it is published. General Cockburn is still here; and I have
told him how difficult it is to obtain any of the works which you mention. I
was told that some sonnets were published; but I went to De
Romani’s, and he had them not. If anybody can procure the
music, it is Baini. I am very glad that you are not
unoccupied; and I can easily conceive the interest which you have taken in
writing the life of so extraordinary a genius.
We have had a severe winter for Rome; and even to-day,
though very fine here, we saw snow on the Alban Hill. A Marchesa
Farra Cuppa has begun an excavation at Torneto, ancient
Tarquinia, which has excited a great degree of interest. A warrior with his
lance and shield was discovered entire, but the first blast of air reduced it
to dust. She gave me part ![]()
| WRITING THE WORK ON SALVATOR ROSA. | 161 |
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of his shield. A small vase of
a beautiful form and two very large oxen are, I believe, coming to the Vatican
Museum. The antiquity of them is calculated at three thousand years. Other
excavations are making by some proprietors at Roma Vecchia. The first
fouille produced a beautiful
mosaic statue of a fine stag, in black marble. I feel gratified that my
Horace’s satire is approved of.
Pray are there in it two of Pinelli’s engravings and compositions to the Latin text?
If not, I will send them you by General Cockburn. I beg my
best compliments to Sir Charles,
And am, dear Madam,
Your ladyship’s very sincerely,
PS.—A fine statue of a Bacchus has been
discovered, about four days ago, not far from Cecilia
Metella’s tomb.
Giuseppe Baini (1775-1844)
Italian composer, archivist, and general administrator of the college of papal
singers.
Sir George Cockburn (1763-1847)
After a long military career he published
A Voyage to Cadiz and
Gibraltar, up the Mediterranean to Sicily and Malta in 1810 and 1811 (1815) and
was a political supporter of Sir Robert Peel.
Cardinal Ercole Consalvi (1757-1824)
He was Cardinal Secretary of State (1801-23) under Pius VII and represented the Vatican
at the Congress of Vienna.
Horace (65 BC-8 BC)
Roman lyric poet; author of
Odes,
Epistles, Satires, and the
Ars Poetica.
Bartolomeo Pinelli (1771-1835)
Italian illustrator who engraved Roman subjects in a neoclassical style.
Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)
Italian painter whose wild landscapes were much admired by connoisseurs of the
picturesque.
