3930. Robert Southey to [Unknown Correspondent], 9 December 1822

 

MS: Manuscripts and Archives Section, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, Montague Collier Family Papers. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.
Note on correspondent: It has not been possible to identify the correspondent definitively. A strong possibility is Jane Webb, née Blackburne (1775–1860), the wife of William Webb and sister of Francis Blackburne (1782–1867; DNB).


Dear Madam

Accept, I pray you, my thanks for your obliging letter, & communicate them to Mr Webb, for thinking of me when he is so far away, & with so many objects about him to excite his curiosity & attention.

(1)

Webb was travelling in Europe; see his Minutes of Remarks on Subjects Picturesque, Moral, and Miscellaneous, made in a Course along the Rhine, and During a Residence in Swisserland and Italy, in the Years 1822 & 1823 (1827).

I am so well convinced that his desire of being serviceable to me is sincere, that I have been considering how to make him so, as one way of showing myself sensible of his good will. One commission there is which he may be able to execute with little trouble & no inconvenience. It is by procuring for me a book published at Rome in 1791, by P. Pani, a Dominican, & an Inquisitor,

(2)

Tommaso Vincenzo Pani (c. 1730–1814), General Commissioner of the Holy Office 1779–1785 and 1789–1792 and Inquisitor in Bologna 1785–1789. The work Southey (unsuccessfully) sought was an account, supposed to have been published by Pani in Rome in 1791, of the Societé des Illuminés d’Avignon, founded in 1786. The Society practised a mixture of Freemasonry and mysticism. Southey had already discussed this subject in Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella, 3 vols (London, 1807), III, Letter LXVIII.

containing an account of a religious Society at Avignon, & the process against one Ottavio Cappelli,

(3)

Ottavio Cappelli (1736–1800), Italian mystic, who was arrested and imprisoned by the Papal authorities in 1790. He was pardoned and exiled in 1795, but returned to Rome in 1798 and was executed. It is possible that the book about Cappelli and the Societé des Illuminés d’Avignon that Southey was seeking was actually the manuscript account of the indictment of Cappelli drawn up by Pani.

who was one of its members. Its precise title I do not know, – but any bookseller who has the book will recognize it by this account of its contents. If Mr Webb can meet with it he will render me a service, – & I dare say the book is small enough to be allowed room even in a travellers portmanteau.

May I also beg you to make our remembrances to Mr Wilson, & thank him for the Cookery Book, which reached me safely & in good time.

(4)

It is not clear who ‘Mr Wilson’ was, though he might have been John Wilson. Southey owned a copy of ‘W.M.’, The Queen’s Closet Opened, and The Compleat Cook (1659–1661), no. 3040 in the sale catalogue of his library.

I dare say you will wonder what could induce Mr Wilson to send me a Cookery Book, – for I assure you it was for my use, & not for that of the family. He will see in the next Quarterly Review that I have made use of it, – & you will see there why I wish to possess the publication of the Roman Inquisitor.

(5)

Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde (1814), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 1–46, published 15 February 1823. (The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.) Southey recounted the history of the Societé des Illuminés d’Avignon; but he did not mention any subjects connected to cooking (pp. 36–42). Possibly this material was edited out of Southey’s article; or, as The Queen’s Cl…

Miss Coleridge & her mother are on their travels in the south, – otherwise I should have to offer their remembrances to him, & their thanks to you.

Archdeacon Jebbs promotion has indeed given me great pleasure, both on his own account, & because it is not possible that such preferment could be more worthily bestowed.

(6)

Jebb had been appointed Bishop of Limerick, Ardfet and Aghadoe.

I think myself very fortunate in having met him when I was last in town. Such appointments are honourable to those who make them, & tend, as far as human means may avail, to make the Church what it ought to be, – which is one of the surest means for improving the condition of the world.

Believe me Madam
very truly
Your obliged & obedient servant
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. Webb was travelling in Europe; see his Minutes of Remarks on Subjects Picturesque, Moral, and Miscellaneous, made in a Course along the Rhine, and During a Residence in Swisserland and Italy, in the Years 1822 & 1823 (1827).[back]
2. Tommaso Vincenzo Pani (c. 1730–1814), General Commissioner of the Holy Office 1779–1785 and 1789–1792 and Inquisitor in Bologna 1785–1789. The work Southey (unsuccessfully) sought was an account, supposed to have been published by Pani in Rome in 1791, of the Societé des Illuminés d’Avignon, founded in 1786. The Society practised a mixture of Freemasonry and mysticism. Southey had already discussed this subject in Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella, 3 vols (London, 1807), III, Letter LXVIII.[back]
3. Ottavio Cappelli (1736–1800), Italian mystic, who was arrested and imprisoned by the Papal authorities in 1790. He was pardoned and exiled in 1795, but returned to Rome in 1798 and was executed. It is possible that the book about Cappelli and the Societé des Illuminés d’Avignon that Southey was seeking was actually the manuscript account of the indictment of Cappelli drawn up by Pani.[back]
4. It is not clear who ‘Mr Wilson’ was, though he might have been John Wilson. Southey owned a copy of ‘W.M.’, The Queen’s Closet Opened, and The Compleat Cook (1659–1661), no. 3040 in the sale catalogue of his library.[back]
5. Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde (1814), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 1–46, published 15 February 1823. (The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.) Southey recounted the history of the Societé des Illuminés d’Avignon; but he did not mention any subjects connected to cooking (pp. 36–42). Possibly this material was edited out of Southey’s article; or, as The Queen’s Closet Opened, and The Compleat Cook contains medical cures as well as recipes, Southey might have been intending to use it to support statements in his article, such as that ‘in former times’ human milk was a commonly prescribed remedy (p. 3).[back]
6. Jebb had been appointed Bishop of Limerick, Ardfet and Aghadoe.[back]
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