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Francesco Crispi (1818 - 1901) was a major Italian patriot and statesman whose long career spanned from the, 1848 Sicilian uprising against the Bourbons to the battle of Atwa in Ethiopia in 1896. In the interim period, he had taken an active part throughout the Risorgimento and been Prime Minister of the King of Italy twice. Always of left-wing persuasion – it was Crispi who wanted the well-known statue of Giordano Bruno to be erected in the Campo de’ Fiori at Rome in a polemical spirit against the Vatican State – Crispi later developed a close relationship with Conservative Prussian leader Otto von Bismarck, which resulted in a more authoritarian and military-oriented foreign policy. This letter, which is addressed to the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association’s co-founder Harry Nelson Gay (here called ‘Commendatore’, i.e. ‘Knight Commander’), requests a visit from the latter, adding that he would be at home until 5 p.m. Gay had taken an active interest in the Italian Risorgimento and, after his death in 1932, his generous collection of books and documents on the subject was divided between Harvard University (his alma mater) and the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento in Rome. Crispi’s handwriting shows an interesting employment of the Capital ‘C’ (also the initial letter of his family name), whose arch is shifted obliquely as if to frame the rest of the word.

Crispi, Francesco, 1818-1901 (sender)
Gay, H. Nelson (Harry Nelson), 1870-1932 (recipient)

July 5

2 sheets

manuscript

paper

eng

autographs (manuscripts)
letters (correspondence)

Undated

Gift of Harry Nelson Gay.

KSH

Archive

DAA-9.7