To Benjamin Franklin from the Comte d’Argental, 24 July 1783
From the Comte d’Argental3
AL: American Philosophical Society
Ce Jeudi 24. Juillet 1783
Le Comte D’argental a Reçû avec autant de reconnoissance que de satisfaction, ce que Monsieur franklin a bien voulu lui Envoyer, il va faire partir celui qui est pour L’Infant4 a sa Destination, il a deja lû le sien dans lequel il à reconnu, la Sagesse, l’intelligence, et les Excellentes vües d’administration de celui qui la dirigé.5
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur francklin Ministre / plenipotentiaire des Etats unis de / L’amerique a la cour de france / A Passy
3. Charles-Auguste de Ferriol, comte d’Argental (1700–1788), minister plenipotentiary of the duchy of Parma, was a man of letters and former conseiller au Parlement de Paris, known for his friendship with Voltaire: DBF; Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter, II, 268; III, 299. This is his only extant letter to BF.
4. Ferdinando di Borbone, Duke of Parma and Infante of Spain (1751–1802), was the grandson of Philip V of Spain and, on his mother’s side, Louis XV of France: Patrick Van Kerrebrouck, La Maison de Bourbon, 1256–1987 (Villeneuve d’Ascq, France, 1987), pp. 467, 469–70.
5. BF gave two copies of Constitutions des treize Etats-Unis de l’Amérique to the foreign ministers, one to be forwarded to their sovereigns. Other Italian diplomats who received copies, but whose acknowledgments do not survive, include the conte di Scarnafiggi (see the annotation of his Aug. 23 letter) and the representative from Genoa, marchese Cristoforo Vincenzo Spinola (Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter, III, 151–2). Spinola forwarded a copy to his government on July 28, calling attention to the commercial treaties: Antonio Pace, Benjamin Franklin and Italy (Philadelphia, 1958), p. 114.