Digging with the Duchess of Devonshire Foreigners Began To

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Digging with the Duchess of Devonshire

Foreigners began to arrive again and the British, in particular, helped to compensate for the loss of French patronage. Considering the many Brit- ish travellers Åkerblad mentions, he did get some business. But these travellers were also of a fleeting kind and Åkerblad compared them to birds of passage: “Our many English, like a multitude of migrating birds, are now leaving one after another.”1 Like carrier pigeons the British also brought papers and journals with them and Åkerblad could again reconnect with news and debate from Britain: “The English . . . arrive at my place every day, and [they bring] quantities of literary journals from their country.”2 Making a zecchino a day as a cicerone was not to be sniffed at, but occasional work was not enough for Åkerblad to survive on. More impor- tantly, it left him insufficient free time to pursue his own interests. It was necessary for Åkerblad to acquire patrons who could provide durable sup- port. Today it is difficult to understand the blend of sincere friendship and subservience that was a defining factor in relations between what were mostly noble employers and scholars, guides and artists in their service. The actual economic transactions between him and his patrons elude us. Money is easier to follow in the case of artists; they were selling something tangible and contracts often survive. Åkerblad was a friend of some of the most illustrious Polish Roman residents. Prince Stanisław Poniatowski was the nephew of the last king of Poland before the partitions of the second half of the eighteenth cen- tury. From the 1780s he spent most of his life in Italy and was an important collector and patron of the arts. He lived lavishly and Åkerblad called him his Lucullo, after the Roman paragon of luxurious living Lucullus. Åkerblad advised Poniatowski when he bought objects for his extensive collection.3

1 JDÅ to Ciampi, 9 March 1816, KVHAA. 2 JDÅ to Ciampi, 16 November 1816, KVHAA. 3 JDÅ to Löwenhielm, 15 August 1817, Rome, Ep L 24, K; Andrea Busiri Vici, I Poniatowski e Roma (Florence: Edam, 1971). digging with the duchess of devonshire 393

Åkerblad’s acquaintance with Poles opened the door for Ciampi in Poland. Åkerblad proposed Ciampi for a professorship in Warsaw and after an intensive exchange of letters between Pisa, Rome and Warsaw, Ciampi left in September 1817. This is also when the correspondence between Åkerblad and Ciampi is interrupted; Åkerblad’s last letter is a moving tes- timony to their long friendship. Ciampi is today mainly remembered for his role in introducing Polish culture and literature to Italy.4 In the same context that Åkerblad called Poniatowski his Lucullos, he referred to the Russian minister as his “respectable Plato.”5 Andriy Yak- ovych Italinsky (1743–1827) had been the Russian representative in Con- stantinople in 1803–6 and 1812–16.6 He learned Arabic at the age of sixty and became an enthusiastic collector; he managed to acquire several important manuscripts during his time in Constantinople. Italinsky came to Rome in 1816 and Åkerblad dedicated his 1817 treatise to him. He mentions in the introduction that they had met before, possibly in Paris or the East. The publication was on a Phoenician inscription, befitting Italinsky’s longstanding interest in oriental literature. Åkerblad also commented and worked with Italinsky’s collection of inscriptions and manuscripts.7 Stend- hal describes Italinsky as sympathetic and not at all pompous; he received his visitors in a large room adorned with a painting of an Ottoman sultan.8 As usual it is hard to say how money changed hands, but it is probable that Italinsky contributed to the printing costs of the treatise dedicated to him and also helped Åkerblad with his living costs. According to another source, Åkerblad had gained the confidence of Grand Duke Michael Pav- lovich of Russia, probably through Italinsky’s intermediation. Åkerblad

4 JDÅ to Ciampi, 25 September 1817, Forteg. The final year of correspondence between Åkerblad and Ciampi is to a large extent dedicated to Ciampi’s Polish professorship. Vittore Branca, “Sebastiano Ciampi (1817–1822) nell’inedita biografia scritta da F. L. Polidori,” in Relazioni tra Padova e la Polonia: studi in onore dell’Università di Cracovia nel 6. centena- rio della sua fondazione (Padova: Antenore, 1964); Branca, Sebastiano Ciampi in Polonia e la Biblioteca Czartoryski (Boccaccio, Petrarca e Cino da Pistoia) (Wroclaw: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1970). 5 JDÅ to Löwenhielm, 15 August 1817, Rome, Ep L 24, KB. 6 See e.g. Shaw, Selim III, 350ff.; Kratchkovsky, Among Arabic Manuscripts, 171–72, 178ff. 7 Åkerblad, Lettre sur une inscription phénicienne trouvée à Athènes (Rome, 1817), 3. Cor- pus inscriptionum semiticarum, no. 117. The stone is now in the Louvre. Åkerblad’s annota- tions in Italinsky’s papers: Marco Buonocore, Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae. Codices 9734–9782 (Codices Amatiani) (Vatican City: Bibl. Apostolica Vaticana, 1988), 66. 8 Stendhal, who met most notables during his visits to Rome, also mentions Åkerblad with appreciation. Stendhal, Voyages en Italie, 1254, 1256.