To Benjamin Franklin from Lorenzo Manini, 8 March 1785
From Lorenzo Manini
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Cremone le 8 Mars 1785—
Monsieur
J’ai eté tres sensible à l’honneur de vos bontés, Monsieur, et je Vous en marque ma satisfaction par la version, que j’en ai fait moi même.3 Ce compliment passe la regle ordinaire, il Vous convient, agréez-le, Monsieur; et si j’ai reussi, procurez moi d’autres occasions d’augmenter, s’il se peut, vôtre celebrité en Italie. Vos Constitutions auront leur tour si tôt, qu’elles me parviendront.4
L’auteur des Lettres Ameriquaines me charge de Vous dire les choses les plus flatteuses de sa part; il est fier de vôtre approbation, et du bien que Vous dites de lui.
Recevez l’hommage de mes sentimens; il ne nuit point à celui de mon profond respect Monsieur! Vôtre Tres Humble et Tres obeissant Serviteur
Lorenzo Manini
Endorsed: M. Manini Printer, Cremona 1785
3. Manini had translated the two bagatelles that BF sent him on Sept. 19, 1784 (above), issuing them as Avviso a quegli che pensassero d’andare in America e Osservazioni sulle buone creanze de’ selvaggi dell’ America settentrionale (Cremona, 1785). BF’s copy is at the APS. The booklet opens with a dedicatory letter from Manini to BF dated Jan. 25, 1785, responding to BF’s letter of Sept. 19: he thanks BF for his praise of Le Lettere americane and its author, and expresses his gratitude by translating BF’s two pamphlets. Manini is eager to receive the book that BF charged Castiglioni with delivering (Constitutions des treize Etats-Unis de l’Amérique) and will translate it as quickly as possible. All of Italy will welcome BF’s practical lessons to Europe, which Manini, through his correspondence with BF and through his press, is able to spread among his compatriots. This dedicatory letter is reprinted in Antonio Pace, Benjamin Franklin and Italy (Philadelphia, 1958), p. 396.
4. Manini published an Italian translation of BF’s Sept. 19 letter (misdated Nov. 19) in the Cremona Gazette of March 5, 1785, accompanied by a promise to translate Constitutions as soon as it arrived. No translation was published, and no explanation (to our knowledge) was ever offered: Pace, Benjamin Franklin and Italy, pp. 138, 140.