5729. RB to Anthony Panizzi
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 67–68.
19 Warwick Crescent,
Upper Westbourne Terrace, W.
March 19. ’66.
My dear Sir, [1]
I make haste to profit by your most kind permission, and will take up no more of your time than I can help. The case is this:
Guido Franceschini, a noble Aretine, was executed for the murder of his wife, in Rome, February 22, 1698, under the pontificate of Innocent XII. I possess the pleadings in the Trial before the Governor of Rome, [2] and the copy of a contemporaneous account of the murder and execution. [3]
I would gladly be put in the way of getting, through any memoirs or letters of the time, at the gossip of Rome during the reign of Innocent XII—or between 1690 and 1700:—any particulars of the Pope’s private life, the persons, resident or foreign, remarkable at Rome: the Jubilee of 1694 or 5: anything illustrative of the social life there, in short.
I wish also for any notices of the like kind respecting Arezzo from 1650 to 1700: but more especially, an exact account of the city, a plan of its streets and neighbourhood, the genealogy of its chief families; any old prints of costumes &c.
Of course I have passed through Arezzo many times: but I want to know accurately certain minute points which I can only suspect. If you can assist me in my researches I shall be happy indeed: in any case you will easily believe that I am,
Dear Sir,
Gratefully & faithfully yours
Robert Browning.
A. Panizzi Esq.
Should it be necessary for me to attend at the Reading-Room, I shall beg the favor of a Ticket.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Anthony Panizzi (1797–1879), librarian of the British Museum.
2. The “old yellow book”; see letter 5112, note 8.
3. Morte dell’ Uxorcida Guido Franceschini Decapitato; see letter 5112, note 8.
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