Elisabetta Mazzei Pini to Thomas Jefferson, 18 December 1817
From Elisabetta Mazzei Pini
Livorno 18. Dicembre 1817.
Stimatissimo Signore
Dal Sigre Console Appleton essendoci stata comunicata una Sua Lettera nella quale ci notifica d’aver Ella avuta la bontà di rimetterci una Cambiale sopra Parigi di trecento ottanta Pezzi Duri e 52. Centesimi per un Anno di Frutti1 del Capitale, che trovasi presentemente nelle di Lei Mani,2 la qual Somma si è esattamente incassata, includendoli la ricevuta di detta Somma. Dall’Istesso Sigre Console, ci viene pure partecipato che VS. desidera ritenere questo Capitale per qualche altro tempo. Non potendo essere meglio impiegato che da VS. potrà prevalersene per il tempo che Ella giudica a proposito pregandola Soltanto a avere la compiacenza di farci passare i frutti annui di detto Capitale, e se non li fosse pregiudicevole unire ai medesimi quella porzione di Capitale che Lei senza scomodarsi sarà in grado di poterci mandare.3
Rendendoli mille grazie per le infinite bontà che Lei à avuto per noi, le rinnoviamo i sentimenti della nostra gratitudine, ed abbiamo l’onore di confermarci, piena di stima
| Elisabetta Pini |
| Nata Mazzei |
Editors’ Translation
Leghorn 18. December 1817.
Most esteemed Sir
Consul Appleton communicated to us your letter in which you notify us that you have had the goodness to send us a draft on Paris for three hundred and eighty pesos duros and 52 cents, the interest for one year on the capital that is currently in your hands. We have collected this sum and enclose a receipt. From the same consul we have learned that you wish to retain this capital for some time to come. As it cannot be better employed than by yourself, you may take advantage of it for as long as you deem appropriate. We only ask that you have the goodness to send us the annual interest on the said capital, and, if it would not be detrimental to you, combine with it that portion of the capital that you can send us without inconveniencing yourself.
With a thousand thanks for the infinite goodness you have shown us, we renew our feelings of gratitude and have the honor to confirm ourselves, full of esteem
| Elisabetta Pini |
| née Mazzei |
RC (DLC); dateline above closing; endorsed by TJ as received 13 Mar. 1818 and so recorded in SJL. Dft (ItPi: AFM); on verso of a reused address cover to Andrea Pini, with unrelated notes in an unidentified hand; in Andrea Pini’s hand, unsigned; dated 15 Nov. 1817; endorsed by Pini: “Jeferson Spedita di Lv / cg Il 15 Novembre 1817” (“Jefferson Sent from Livorno [Leghorn] consulate-general, 15 November 1817”); with additional notation in an unidentified hand: “Al Ladro Dei eredi dello Fpo dello Sigre Andrea Pini” (“To the thief of Filippo’s heirs from Mr. Andrea Pini”). Translation by Dr. Jonathan T. Hine. Enclosure: Receipt from Elisabetta Mazzei Pini, Leghorn, 18 Dec. 1817, indicating that she has received the above sum from TJ through Thomas Appleton, “per un Anno di frutti del Capitale che si trova nelle mani del detto Sigr Jefferson resultato dalla vendita fatta in Richmond dello Stabile appartenente al defunto mio Padre Filippo Mazzei” (“being the interest for one year on the capital in the hands of the said Mr. Jefferson resulting from the sale in Richmond of the building belonging to my deceased father, Philip Mazzei”), and that the receipt is written in triplicate (MS in DLC; in Andrea Pini’s hand, signed by Elisabetta Mazzei Pini). Enclosed in Appleton to TJ, 20 Dec. 1817.
Elisabetta Mazzei Pini (1798–1868), the only child of TJ’s friend Philip Mazzei and his second wife, Antonia Antoni Mazzei, was born in Pisa. In 1816 she married Andrea Pini, with whom she had three children who survived to adulthood (Guelfo Guelfi Camajani, Un illustre toscano del Settecento: Filippo Mazzei [1976], 209–10; Margherita Marchione and others, eds., Philip Mazzei: Selected Writings and Correspondence [1983], 1:xlii–xliii, 3:362).
Andrea Tozzi Pini (d. 1836), diplomat, served the Russian Empire from 1798 until 1826. By 1810 he was provisional consul general to Alexander I and a councillor of the Russian Imperial College of Foreign Affairs in Leghorn, positions he still held when TJ wrote to him in 1823. Pini retired due to illness and died in Pisa (ItPi: AFM; TJ to Andrea Pini and Elisabetta Mazzei Pini, 8 Oct. 1823).
1. Dft reads “quanto prima i frutti di un anno” (“as soon as possible the interest for one year”) instead of preceding seventeen words.
2. Remainder of sentence not in Dft.
3. The start of a new paragraph is here canceled in Dft: “Il Sigr Console è incaricato” (“The consul is charged”).
4. Dft ends here.
Index Entries
- Appleton, Thomas; and P. Mazzei’s estate search
- Italian language; letters in, from; E. M. Pini search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; and P. Mazzei’s property search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; debt to P. Mazzei search
- Mazzei, Philip; Richmond property of search
- Mazzei, Philip; TJ’s debt to search
- Pini, Andrea Tozzi (Elisabetta Mazzei Pini’s husband); and P. Mazzei’s estate search
- Pini, Andrea Tozzi (Elisabetta Mazzei Pini’s husband); identified search
- Pini, Elisabetta Mazzei (Philip Mazzei’s daughter; Andrea Pini’s wife); and P. Mazzei’s estate search
- Pini, Elisabetta Mazzei (Philip Mazzei’s daughter; Andrea Pini’s wife); identified search
- Pini, Elisabetta Mazzei (Philip Mazzei’s daughter; Andrea Pini’s wife); letters from search
- Richmond, Va.; P. Mazzei’s property in search
- women; letters from; E. M. Pini search