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Document number: 4516
Date: 20 May 1842
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: AMICI Giovanni Battista
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 30th April 2010

Pregiatissimo Amico

Firenze
20 Maggio 1842.

Ho sperato per qualche tempo di avere il piacere di rivedervi in Firenze, ma la mia speranza si dilegua ora che i vostri parenti abbandonano questa città con rincrescimento dè loro amici che qui rimangono.

Io avrei desiderato di parlare con voi delle vostre scoperte, e di essere testimonio delle esperienze fotogeniche <1> per le quali vi siete già acquistato anche fra noi tanta celebrità. Nell’ I.R. Museo <2> si sono fatti dè tentativi per imprimere le immagini sulla carta, ma quantunque siasi seguita la vostra descrizione stampata, i risultamenti non sono stati abbastanza felici; forse in progresso di tempo si riuscirà meglio. Noi saremo assai contenti se potremo eseguire dè ritratti eguali ai due che mi avete mandati ultimamente i quali sono assai belli, e formano l’ammirazione di molti artisti che sono venuti a vederli da me.

Se fate qualche ulteriore scoperta mi sarà grato di riceverne l’annunzio da voi. Intanto lascio a Miss Fildings, <3> cui consegno queste linee, il dirvi mille e mille cose affettuose per parte mia, e assicurarvi che io sono sempre con vera stima Vostro Servitore

GBatta Amici


Translation:

Florence
May 20 1842

Most valued Friend

For some time I hoped that I would have the pleasure of seeing you again in Florence, but my hopes have vanished now that your relatives are abandoning this city to the regret of their friends who remain here.

I should have liked to discuss your discoveries with you, and to be witness to the photogenic experiments for which you have already acquired, even among us, such fame. Attempts to print images on paper have been made in the I.R. Museum, but although your printed descriptions were followed, the results were not successful enough; perhaps the passage of time will allow for more success. We should be quite happy if we could create portraits to equal to the two you sent me recently which are quite beautiful, and have drawn the admiration of many artists who have come to see them in my house.

Should you make any further discoveries, I would be grateful to hear of them from you. In the meantime, I leave it up to Miss Fildings, to whom I submit these lines, to pass on all my affection and to assure you that I remain with true esteem your servant

G Batta Amici


Notes:

1. Relating to the calotype.

2. Probably the Imperial Regio Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale (Natural History Museum) in Florence.

3. Both Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister, were in Florence, and met Amici, and it is possible that he indicates both sisters. Amici’s spelling of ‘Filding’ is incorrect.

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