ALthough I can, and often do, remember the great courtesy and friendliness which I have enjoyed during my passage through Italy, yet there is perhaps no one from whom I could properly say that I have received greater proofs of goodwill than yourself, on so short an acquaintance. For when I went to visit you at the Vatican you received me with the utmost cordiality although I was completely unknown to you, except for anything which Alessandro Cherubini may have told you previously. You afterwards were so good as to admit me to the Library, where I had the opportunity of seeing the rich collection of books and the large number of Greek manuscripts as well, enriched by your annotations. Some of these as yet unseen by our generation, lie waiting, like the souls in Virgil— "enclosed within the confines of a green vale, waiting to take their journey to the world above"—and seemed to demand the helping hand and obstetric skill [μαιευτικ`ην] of the printer; others have already been edited by you, and have been eagerly received by scholars throughout the world. You presented me, moreover, with two copies of one of these as a parting gift.

In addition to all this, I cannot but think that it was owing to your recommending me to his Eminence Cardinal Francesco Barberini that at the public concert [’ακρ`οαμα] which he gave a few days later with truly Roman magnificence, he himself stood at the door to receive me, sought me out in that great crowd, and almost taking me by the hand pressed me to enter, with every mark of honor. When I went next day to pay my respects as his graciousness demanded, it was again you whom I had to thank for procuring me an audience and the opportunity of conversing with him. The great man, who, for all his high rank, is the soul of courtesy and kindliness, granted me an audience which, considering the time and place, inclined to lengthiness rather than brevity.

I do not indeed know, most Learned Holstenius, whether you have singled me out for such remarkably friendly and hospitable treatment, or whether you make a practice of bestowing similar favors on all Englishmen, on account of your three years' residence at the University of Oxford. If the latter is the case, you have chosen a generous way of repaying England for what you learned there [διδασχ´αλια], and one which reflects honor upon yourself, and you merit equal gratitude from each one of us in particular and from our country in general. But if the former is the case, and you have singled me out above all others and held me worthy to be honored with your friendship [ξεν´ιαν ποι˜ε´ισθαι], I congratulate myself on your choice, while attributing the honor to your kindness rather than to my own deserts.

As to the commission which you seemed to entrust to me, of inspecting the Medicean codex, I have referred it my friends, but they show very little promise of accomplishing that at present. They tell me it is a rule of that library that unless one has previously obtained permission nothing may be copied, and that one is not allowed even to make notes. They say, however, that there is one Giovanni Battista Doni at Rome, who has been appointed public lecturer in Greek at Florence, and is shortly expected. It would be easy to obtain what you desire through him, though I should have been very glad if I could have been of some better service in forwarding an object so desirable, since in so honorable and excellent an undertaking you have the right to command the help of all men everywhere and to expect every possible assistance and facility.

For the rest, you will lay me under a fresh obligation if you will convey my most profound respects to his Eminence the Cardinal. I have constantly in mind his great virtues, his zeal for truth, so nobly shown in his encouragement of the liberal arts, and even more his gentle and, so to say, humble loftiness of spirit, which alone knows how to rise by its own humility. One may indeed say of it, as Callimachus said of Ceres, though with a different meaning, "her steps were set upon the earth, but her head reached unto Olympus" [’ιθματα με`ν χ´ερσω κεφαλ`α δ´ε ‘´οι ‘´απτετ‘ ’ολ´υμπω]. His conduct may serve to show other princes what a vast difference there is between the forbidding haughtiness and lordly arrogance which they affect, and true magnanimity. So long as he is alive, no one, I believe, could any longer feel the loss of the Este, Farnese, or Medici families, who were once the patrons of the learned.

Farewell then, my learned friend Holstenius, and wherever I may be in future, count me, I beg you, among those who are most devotedly attached to you and to your interests, if you hold me worthy of the honor.

Florence, March 30. 1639.

Translation by Phyllis B. Tillyard