The Life of William Roscoe
William Roscoe to John Johnson, [1802?]
“My very sincere acknowledgments are due for your obliging
letter of the 1st of October, which should have been sooner answered, had I not
been confined to my room by an attack of nervous fever, from which I am only
just recovered. The interest which you are so good as to take in my researches
respecting the Life of Leo X. encourages me to
state to you, that, with respect to such information as the archives of
Florence can supply, I am already, by the assistance of Lord Holland, possessed of copies of letters,
&c. which compose two folio volumes, of upwards of 300 pages each. These,
with such assistance as I occasionally derive from the respectable Canonico Bandini, will furnish me the
necessary information. Yet, if any thing should occur to me, I shall take the
liberty of addressing myself to the learned Abbate
Fontani, to whose kindness I have before been indebted, and from
whose very able assistance and advice I know I should derive great advantages.
“With respect to Rome, I have not yet had
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an opportunity of obtaining any materials from that
quarter, although the Vatican certainly contains an immense fund of information
respecting the subject of my work. Your assistance in this respect will,
therefore, be considered by me as a great obligation. As my work will contain a
pretty full account of the pontificates of Alexander
VI. and Julius II., whatever
relates to or elucidates either of their public characters will be of great
use. With respect to the pontificate of Leo
X., every thing that refers to it will be of importance to
me,—whether it concerns his political transactions and negotiations, his
encouragement of literature and art, his conduct, both in public and private
life; in short, whatever has any connection with his history, or with that of
any branch of his family. I find, that anecdotes and circumstances, trivial and
unimportant in themselves, often acquire value from comparison with other parts
of a person’s character and conduct; and I wish to collect all I can
respecting this pontiff, in order to enable me to appreciate, so far as is in
my power, his very extraordinary and equivocal character.
* * * * * * *
“I would not, if it had been in my power, have lost a
single day in replying to your letter, as I shall send the first volume of my
work to the press in the course of this winter. Whatever, therefore, relates to
the times of Alexander VI. and Julius II. will be immediately wanted; but
314 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | |
any memorials of Leo X. will be in time, if they arrive
during the course of the next summer.
“The freedom which I have taken will convince you that I
place an implicit confidence in your obliging offers, which are indeed made
with such frankness, that I cannot hesitate in availing myself of them.”
Pope Alexander VI (1241-1286)
He was pope from 1492 to 1503, succeeding Innocent VIII.
Angelo Maria Bandini (1726-1803)
Italian clergyman, author, and principal librarian to the Laurentian Library; he was the
author of
Specimen Litteraturae Florentinae.
Francesco Fontani (1748-1818)
Italian poet and clergyman; he was keeper of the Riccardi Library.
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
Pope Julius II (1443-1513)
The son of Rafaello della Rovere, brother of Pope Sixtus IV; he was Pope from 1503 to
1513.
Pope Leo X (1475-1521)
The second son of Lorenzo de' Medici, he was pope from 1513 to his death in 1521 in
succession to Julius II.