Carlo Botta to Thomas Jefferson, 10 January 1816

From Carlo Botta

Di Parigi 10 Gennaio 1816 Place St. Sulpice N. 8 au coin de la Rue des Canettes.

Signor Jefferson onorando.

Io non so, se nella sua solitudine di Monticello ello si sia qualche volta ricordato di me. Ma so bene, che a me non uscí mai di mente la benignitá, con la quale Vostra Signoría ricevé la mia Storia della guerra d’america. Io le mando quí alligato un mio nuovo Lavoro, che di fresco ho dato alla luce, intitolato il Camillo, o Veio Conquistata. Io lo prego di farle buon viso, non per alcun merito mio, né dell’opera, ma pel reverendo nome di Camillo, e per esser tutta cosa, che tratta di civiltá, e d’indipendenza.

Io lo prego di avermi nel numero de’ suoi piú devoti servitori.

Carlo Botta

Editors’ Translation

Paris 10 January 1816 Place St. Sulpice Number 8 at the corner of the Rue des Canettes.

Honorable Mr. Jefferson.

I do not know if sometimes, in your solitude at Monticello, you have remembered me. But I know very well that the kindness with which you received my history of the American war has never left my mind. I am enclosing here a new work of mine, which I just finished, entitled Il Camillo, o Vejo Conquistata. I ask you to look on it kindly, not because of any merit of mine, or of the work, but on account of Camillo’s revered name, and because it is wholly dedicated to civilization and independence.

Please count me amongst your most devoted servants.

Carlo Botta

RC (DLC); dateline at foot of text; endorsed by TJ as received 21 Nov. 1816 and so recorded in SJL. Translation by Dr. Adrienne Ward. Enclosure: Botta, Il Camillo, o Vejo Conquistata (Paris, 1815; Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library, 1829 description ends , 12 [no. 742]). Enclosed in David Bailie Warden to TJ, 9 Aug. 1816.

Marcus Furius Camillus (camillo) was made dictator of Rome in 396 B.C. in order to conquer the Etruscan city of Veii (OCD description begins Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2003 description ends , 615–6, 1584).

Index Entries

Botta, Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo; Il Camillo, o Vejo Conquistata search
Botta, Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo; letters from search
Botta, Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo; Storia della Guerra dell’ Independenza degli Stati Uniti d’America search
Camillus (Marcus Furius Camillus); works on search
Il Camillo, o Vejo Conquistata (C. G. G. Botta) search
Italian language; letters in, from; C. G. G. Botta search
Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
poetry; sent to TJ search
Storia della Guerra dell’ Independenza degli Stati Uniti d’America (C. G. G. Botta) search

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: Carlo Botta to Thomas Jefferson, 10 January 1816
Author: Botta, Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo
Recipient: Jefferson, Thomas
Date: 10 January 1816

Reference

Cite as: “Carlo Botta to Thomas Jefferson, 10 January 1816,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-09-02-0217. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 9, September 1815 to April 1816, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 343.]

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