Autograph letter (21 resultados)

Soft cover. Condición: Very Good. 88 pages. Illustrated. Hans Fischer; Leba M Goldstein; J E Norton; Simon Nowell-Smith; Vinton A Dearing; G Thomas Tanselle; Jean Robertson; Bent Juel-Jensen; Trevor Fawcett. Contents include: Conrad Gessner 1516-1565 as Bibliographer and Encycopedist; The Pepys Ballads; The Post Office London Directory; The Printing of George Meredith's The Amazing Marriage; Some Routines for Textual Criticism; The Recording of Press Figures; Sidney and Bandello; Michael Drayton and William Drummond of Hawthornden - A Lost Autograph Letter Rediscovered.…

Condición: Very Good. 7 pages. An authentic standalone article, extracted from a larger volume. Not a reprint or reproduction, but an original work in its own right. Preserved in a modern card cover, prepared for practicality - an unassuming but serviceable presentation that favours function over finery. Size: 15 x 23 cms. Category: Kent Archaeological Society; Cosmo Books : 29 years on ABE, 47 years taking care of customers. A bookseller you can rely on. Softcover (Booklet - Unbound Pages).…

Einband am Rücken wenig bestossen und mit kleinen Knickspuren. Sonst sehr gut. Englischer Text. (Buchwesen) Softcover / Original kartoniert. Kein Versand aufgrund von EPR Regelungen in EU-Länder außerhalb Deutschlands. No shipping to EU countries outside of Germany due to EPR regulations.

No Binding. Condición: Very Good. Manuscript. A good letter on Goring House (Barstow's home) An 11 line handwritten letter with a clear signature. Dated 26 September 1975 and complete with stamped addressed envelope.

SOFTCOVER. Condición: Fine. 1st Edition. Square 4to in textured stiff card covers, tissue end-papers, 39 works, all illustrated in colour, by 34 American artists. PLUS loosely inserted hand written note from Richard York (signed as Richard) presenting the catalogue to a friend . [CONDITION: Slight sunning to spine else FINE, a well preserved and very clean and tight copy ] . . . We always ship in STRONG PROTECTIVE CARD PARCELS.…

Hardcover. Condición: Very Good. 1st Edition. 2 +120 full-page diagrams on 60 leaves+14 leaves of solutions with frontispiece. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering to cover. Autograph letter by Joseph William Abbott, signed and dated March 20, 1888 tipped in. From the library of Lothar Schmid. (Linde - No. 2472; Betts 33-1; Kieler Schachkatalog 6579) First edition. The work is a curated collection of tactical enigmas, primarily focusing on two-move and three-move checkmate problems. Many of the featured compositions were highly regarded entries that previously won prizes in major problem tournaments during the late 19th century. It was written for players who enjoy chess strictly as a puzzle or enigma, omitting dense theoretical explanations in favor of pure tactical study. One of the most famous puzzles from this book is Problem No. 12 (found on page 8), often referred to by chess communities as "The Abbott's Conundrum". It features a "Rex Solis" style scenario where a lone Black King faces a heavy assortment of White pieces. The solution requires White to play the surprising key move 1. Be4! This sacrificial move grants the Black king escape squares but successfully forces a mate on the second move against any defense. Contains 12 two-movers, 72 three-movers, 33 four-movers, and 4 five-movers. Joseph William Abbott was a prominent British chess problemist and composer who created roughly 250 chess puzzles during his lifetime. Born and deceased in London, he specialized in writing complex "mate in two," "mate in three," and multi-move chess problems. : Abbott published his definitive collection of chess compositions in 1887 under the title 121 Chess Problems. Between 1862 and the early 1900s, his work regularly featured in major period publications, including The Illustrated London News, English Chess Problems, and The City of London Chess Magazine. Lothar Maximilian Lorenz Schmid (10 May 1928 - 18 May 2013) was a German chess grandmaster. He was born in Radebeul near Dresden into a family who were the co-owners of the Karl May Press, which published the German Karl May adventure novels. He was best known as the chief arbiter at several World Chess Championship matches, in particular the 1972 encounter between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky at Reykjavic. He was also an avid collector of chess books and paraphernalia. It was reputed that he owned the largest known private chess library in the world, as well as a renowned collection of chess art, chess boards and chess pieces from around the globe. Condition: Lothar Schmid's book plate to front endpaper verso. Interior slightly toned. Binding dusty with slightly bumped corners. Tipped in letter is multi-folded, toned, shows scattered spotting, and bears signs of use else very good. Inscribed by Author(s). …

Condición: Very Good. pp 247 [2] The self-published first edition of Derek Hulme's Shostakovich catalogue with an interesting two page autograph letter from the author laid in. The letter which is dated 1991 goes into some detail about a recent exchange of musical cassettes of Shostakovich's music and the price of the second edition of this book putting it 'out of the reach of general music-lovers'. The book is very good in a near very good jacket. Very Good Please contact Christian White Rare Books Ltd for more information or images of this item.…

Hardcover. Condición: Very Good. Estado de la sobrecubierta: Good. binding tight, no markings. edge wear, tearing, small creases on DJ. R5. illustrated with twenty photogravure etchings, fifty half-tone plates, and a facsimile autograph letter (ilustrador).

Softcover. First Edition; First Printing. Wraps, good+ with long tear at rear spine fold, but rear wrap still attached. Three page references in pencil on rear end paper, and three discreet pencil marks on those pages, by Franklin Rosemont. Taped to a front blank is a short 6-line autograph letter from Elisa Breton to Franklin and Penelope Rosemont. Her handwriting is somewhat difficult to read, but Breton does compliment Arsenal: Surrealist Suversiion, the first issue of which appeared in 1970. The Rosemonts had visited the Bretons in 1966.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 244 pp.…

Hardcover. Condición: Fine. No Jacket. Siskowitz (Siskovics) [Josef (József) von] Count. (1719-1783) Grundsatz Zu Erhaltung einer graden Linie bey denen in Front Marche vormarschirenden Officirs. Prague 1782 83. Calligraphic manuscript in brown ink on Dutch watermarked paper. Folio (320 x 204mm). [84] pages = [13 + 3 blank + 51 + 1 blank + 10 + 2 blank + 12]. Introductory 4- page letter in French in roman letters signed by the author at the end; main text in German penned in a neat gothic hand arranged in half-page columns; with tactical sketches in two of the ample blank margins. also some notes. Leaves with vertical folding marks in centre- page; contents inscription on recto of front blank leaf in a contemporary gothic hand: Grundsätze Ueber die Richtung mit mehreren Batallions von dem F[eld]z[eug]m[ei]ster Grafen von Siskowitz 1782. Contemporary sprinkled brown boards; gilt morocco title label in top of backstrip; ends of spine worn; contemporary armorial bookplate pasted inside frontcover. An unpublished Austrian 18th century treatise on linear tactics and function. The present manuscript interprets the principle of officers and non-commissioned officers having to maintain a straight line consisting of several ranks when advancing in battalion strength. (The Prussians mostly used the oblique order in most of their battles). This was based on the author s experiences during the Seven Years War (1756-63), when Prussian infantry advanced in three lines of battalions with three ranks apiece. Movement in the formation was very slow and a breakdown in cohesion likely unless the battalion was well trained. Described in detail are the various manoeuvers involved for directing marching columns, keeping proper distance, and wheeling at the right moment; two illustrations (one half-page) and 15 commentaries are contained in the ample blank margins. Siskowitz, an Hungarian staff officer from Szeged, made a rapid career in the Imperial Austrian army reaching the rank of lieutenant.general . He distinguished himself at the battle of Kolin in 1757, where he successfully carried out an order by Fieldmarshal von Daun to ambush a Prussian column with a force of 7000 men for which he was decorated and ennobled. The author died in Prague on 18th December 1783. The present manuscript was submitted to the attention of an unnamed military superior by way of an introductory letter in French on the subject. The 4-page extract , dated 12th February 1783, signed C[om]te.Siskovics , has been bound to precede the manuscript in this volume. The letter refers to an imperial order by Joseph II to align flags and marching columns of several battalions before advancing on the enemy; Siskowitz states that he considers it necessary to prescribe his method saying that he has no difficulty whatsoever to submit it to the recipient as an old friend if he wishes to make use of it. However, he stresses that his system should be carefully studied before it is put it into practice. Siskovitz insists the relevant maneuvers be carried out by officers and non-commissioned officers, never by other ranks, that they must be properly exercised before applied, and that it was not sufficient to rely on reading his instructions. He states that he demonstrated his method in 1782 with 13 batallions taking 2000 steps in 8 seconds. Both letter and manuscript are written on the same quality Dutch laid paper showing two different watermarks respectively : a larger with the legend PRO PATRIA surrounding a circular composition and a smaller one wih the the crowned initials GR of the paper maker within a round border of intertwined leaves. The Pro Patria or Maid of Dort watermark shows a seated maid, holding a hat on the point of a spear, and a rampant lion brandishing a sword and holding a bundle of arrows; both are surrounded by a palisade, a symbol of Holland maintaining liberty by force of arms. Reference: Churchill, W.A. Watermarks in Paper in Holland, England, France etc. in XVII and. …

No Binding. Condición: Very Good. quarto, two pages of a bi-folium, formerly folded, small tear into foredge of integral address leaf, not affecting text, very good, clean and legible condition. Harding, a lawyer from Union, Maine, writes to Robinson petitioning for the recognition of Haitian Independence and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. Robinson served as a Representative from Maine for two years 1838-1839. "Dear Sir, The petitioners for the recognition of Haitian Independence herewith entrusted to your efforts - have no pecuniary interest in any condition of that country. - But being the descendants of freemen who asserted & established their rights by insurrection they have a peculiar sympathy for every nation which has obtained their rights & established a republican form of Government by means of insurrection against oppression. They think it an injustice to the memories of their fathers to omit to enter into friendly nations with all nations which have obtained their rights by insurrection against tyranny. In regard to the petition for the abolition of Slavery in the district of Columbia, "The Guinea of America" the petitioners are aware, that right of petition is of no value, and they feel somewhat of the mortification of the slave in his bondage when we reflect that our rulers have nullified a right, which they were appointed to protect. A right to petition for the security of inalienable rights is that above all others we are reluctant to give up - when compared with this right all others sink to nothing.- We feel in the condition of the land proprietor who has been thrown out of his possession by squatters - He must continue to assert his right to prevent the appearance of abandonment - in the hope it may at some time be restored. .". Handwritten.…

No Binding. Condición: Very Good. Manuscript. Composed on one side, dated Nov 12th1940; on Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Senior Sagamore Hill Oyster Bay, New York letterhead notepaper; American Stationery Company watermark. A note of grateful thanks for a picture sent to her, signed ".Sincerely yours Edith K. Roosevelt" Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (1861-1948) second wife of Theodore Roosevelt, ".a self-effacing but competent first lady, guiding renovations, restoring the mansion to its early colonial style, entertaining often but not lavishly, hiring the first social secretary to serve a first lady." Later seeing ".three of her sons give their lives in service to their country.after her husband's death in 1919 she traveled extensively, wrote books, joined the first women voters at the polls, and became active in politics." (Dorothy Clarke Wilson in the ANB) Approx. 6" x 6 7/8" size; a little darkened, old mount evidence on back; old fold lines; in very good condition. Book.…

LeatherBound. Condición: New. BOOKS ARE EXEMPT FROM IMPORT DUTIES AND TARIFFS; NO EXTRA CHARGES APPLY. LeatherBound edition. Condition: New. Reprinted from 1648 edition. Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden leaf printing on spine. NO changes have been made to the original text. This is NOT a retyped or an ocr'd reprint. Illustrations, Index, if any, are included in black and white. Each page is checked manually before printing. Pages: 130 As this print on demand book is reprinted from a very old book, there could be some missing or flawed pages, but we always try to make the book as complete as possible. Fold-outs, if any, are not part of the book. If the original book was published in multiple volumes then this reprint is of only one volume, not the whole set. Sewing binding for longer life, where the book block is actually sewn (smythe sewn/section sewn) with thread before binding which results in a more durable type of binding. Pages: 130 Language: English.…

215 S. Mit 24 Tafeln (Heliograv.). Roter HMaroq. d. Zt. mit eingeb. OU-Deckel 4°. Mit Brief vin Felicien Rops an seinen Verleger, montiert auf dem Vortitel verso (1 S. in 8°, 22 Zeilen) Lettre autographe signée de Rops.

O.O. und Datum (zwischen 1809 und 1826). 8°. 1/2 Seite. To his editor and Partner James Ballantyne - An seinen Verleger und Partner James Ballantyne. Über die Drucklegung eines Buches (von Scott). .I send you the revised sheets K.L. Sheet M. must remain till the index of letter VI is completed. I will be glad to have running copy following all up to that having been finished.". - Auf ein größeres Blatt montiert. - Beigegeben ein Stahlstich-Porträt Scotts. A personal handwritten letter of Sir Walter to his publisher and partner James Ballantyne concerning the printing of one of Scotts books. Fine condition.: Joint seperately by an old engraving of a Scott Portrait. Sprache: Englisch. *** Bitte kontaktieren Sie uns immer BEVOR Sie bestellen! Für ausführliche Beschreibungen und Bilder sowie günstigere Versandoptionen kontaktieren Sie mich bitte per Email! Please contact us always BEFORE you order! For detailled descriptions and photos as well as cheaper shipping options please send an email! ***.…

2. Bruxelles, Weissenbruch, 1926, in-8°, 47 pp, dark blue half morocco, with an autograph dedication of the author and an autograph letter loosely inserted (dated April 2 1926). The author thanks M. Van Glabbeke (Belgian liberal politician) for the translation of his text from English in French.

No Binding. Condición: Very Good. Langlès, Louis Matthieu (1763-1824). Autograph letter in English, signed and dated 5th July 1820. 1 page; note in ink on headed writing paper ('Ecole royale et spéciale des Langues orientales vivantes'près la Bibliothèque du Roi. .L'Administrateur de l'Ecole, Professeur de Persan'). The Curator of Oriental Manuscripts at the Bibliothèque du Roi acknowledges a request by an Englishman for the loan of an oriental title: 'I have now received [an] answer from the officer of the Interior, I will go to ask for it .to remit to you the Adaussi little book . My library and the librarian are to your order [at your disposition] . I remain with a true friendship and esteem your humble and devoted servant. L.Langlès'. Louis Langlès, a pupil of Silvestre de Sacy, taught Persian at the College de France and edited many oriental texts; he corresponded with William Jones in Calcutta and was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. He translated and annotated books about India. Signed by Author(s). …

copied from a letter dated 1718, a piece of cloth pinned to the inside of the first leaf; edges a bit soiled and frayed, pp. [20], 4to; beginning with two blank leaves, and the rest with manuscript recto/verso; quires stapled together, remnants of gilt edges; loosely inserted typescript letter dated 5 July 1955, on headed paper from the Court of the Lord Lyon, the Scottish genealogical register. A fair copy of a letter from Winifred Maxwell, Countess of Nithsdale (c. 16801749) to her sister, in which she recounts the plan by which she masterminded the escape of her husband, Lord Nithsdale, from the Tower of London in 1716. William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale, was a Scottish nobleman who took part in the Jacobite rising of 1715. He forfeited his titles and was imprisoned, but escaped from the Tower the evening before his scheduled execution, disguised as his wife's maid. Recounted in full here, some of the details of the prison break are frankly extraordinary; that Lady Maxwell successfully hid his 'long beard' with white make up and rouge, and that once she had smuggled him out she returned to his chambers and made fake conversation, performing half the pretended dialogue in a deep voice. The couple travelled to the continent, and it was from there that Lady Maxwell sent this report to her sister Lucy Herbert (1669-1744), who was the abbess of the so-called English Convent at Bruges. The original letter was dated April 16th 1718, and this copy made almost a century after the events it recounts, in 1813. There is a small square of brown cloth pinned to the verso of the first leaf, with the implication that this was cut from the costume Nithsdale used to escape. The episode - in this epistolary format - was published shortly after this copy was made, appearing in the Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany in 1816. Widely reproduced, the story remained a cornerstone of romance and daring for much of the nineteenth century, appearing in compendiums of similarly audacious escapes, and in several artistic representations including one by Emily Mary Osborn (1834-93). In 1848 the family was restored to their seat of Terregles.…

None. Condición: Very Good. Quarto, ca. 27x19,5 cm (10 ½ x 7 ¾ in). Four pages; brown ink on cream laid paper with fleur-de-lis watermark, written in a legible hand. Paper aged and slightly faded, with fold marks, but the text is still bright and easy distinguishable. Beautiful period style crimson elaborately gilt tooled custom made full morocco clamshell box with cloth chemise. The letter in very good condition. Remarkable and Very Important Primary Source for Russian-Western European relations in the 17th century. This is a very important anonymous letter: "Curiosissimi Costumi de'Sig.i Ambasciatori Moscoviti, che ora si trovano in Livorno per passare all'Ambasciata di Venezia." According to the historians who worked with two other known copies of the letter (see below: Attribution of "Relatione d'Alcuni Costumi") it was written by a first-hand witness of the embassy, somehow involved with it, most likely between the 19th and 23rd of December, 1656. The written dialect of the letter's language indicates that the author was a common person from Livorno, possibly of Sicilian origin. The letter vividly describes the Muscovite diplomatic delegation, staying in Livorno on its way to Venice in the winter of 1656. It was an official embassy to the Doge of Venice from the Russian Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich (1629-1676) sent in 1656-57 and headed by the Pereyaslavl governor Ivan Ivanovich Chemodanov (before 1618 - after 1657) and Deacon A. Postnikov. The goal of the embassy was to strengthen political and commercial relations with Venice, to negotiate the joint struggle against the Turks, to give Venetians the permission to trade in Archangelsk, and to borrow money from the Doge. A small "side task" was to: "to sell a hundred poods (1600kgs) of rhubarb and some sable furs for a thousand roubles." Overall the embassy didn't achieve its goals as it didn't manage to get the money from the Doge and to successfully sell the stale rhubarb and the sable furs (some of which were damaged during the voyage to Italy and some were sold to feed the embassy itself). The embassy left Venice in March 1657 and went back to Russia through Switzerland, Germany and Holland. In spite of a lack of diplomatic skills, Chemodanov's embassy left its trace in history. Its members became the first Russians to travel to Italy by sea, around northern Europe. They left Archangelsk on the 12th of September, 1656; passed the "Northern Nose" (North Cape), the "land of the Danish king," "Icelant, or Icy island (Iceland)," "the lands of Hamburg and Bremen," Scotland, Holland, "possessions of the English King," French and Spanish lands - "all those countries we passed from the left," and arrived in Livorno on the 24th of November the same year. During the voyage they suffered from storms in the Atlantic, when most of the state goods were damaged. The embassy's appearance in Italy was met with great interest and curiosity; the official relations from both the Russian and Italian sides noted crowds of people accompanying the Muscovites wherever they went. Our letter "Relatione d'Alcuni Costumi" reveals what impression the Russian diplomats made on the Italians, e.g. "they are dressed in cloth of cotton wool as they are afraid of cold, which is very common in their country"; "they beat their servants with their own hands, and so brutally that four of five of them was on the verge of death, and one ran away and is still not found"; "they have sable skins for 100 thousand skudi and also a big amount of rhubarb, caviar and salted fish, and it stinks so much, that people get sick, and where they were for one hour it stinks afterwards for twelve hours. "The Muscovites often seemed barbaric to the inhabitants of Livorno, as they all slept together, "and the Ambassador with them too, as he was afraid to fall off the bed"; they liked wine, but "put it all in one barrel, not distinguishing whether it is white or red or any sort of wine"; when the Governor took them around the city in a carriage, local people were astonished to see that the Muscovites didn't open the doors, but climbed over them. There are also descriptions of their table manners which indicate that the Muscovites didn't know how to use forks, also descriptions of how balls and festivities amused them, how "all small houses seemed to them as Gran Palazzos." Amusing also is the note that the Muscovites liked "Belle Donne" a lot, and spent many sable furs on them. A separate story describes how the chief Ambassador got attracted to the wife of a local doctor and tried to get her attention. The letter concludes with a note of the embassy's coming departure to Florence, where they will be met as Royal ambassadors, and "comedia redecolosa" and that a big feast will be given in their honour, as "they like it more than anything else." Attribution of "Relatione d'Alcuni Costumi": There are two other known copies of "Curiosissimi Costumi," the older one is found in the Vatican Library (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana) as a part of "Codex Vaticanus Latinus" № 8891. It was first published in printed form in 1890 as a part of "Spicilegio Vaticano di Documenti Inediti e Rari, Estratti Dagli Archivi e Dalla Biblioteca della Sede Apostolica (Roma 1890, p. 381-383). The editor of the book, Monsignor I. Carini attributed that the Vatican letter was written in the middle of the 17th century by a first-hand witness of the Muscovite Embassy. Based on the written dialect of the letter's language, Carini attributed the author as one of Livorno's common people, a Sicilian by origin. The second of the two other known copies of "Curiosissimi Costumi" is deposited in Russia, in the archive of the Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The text of the letter is included in the Italian manuscript collection titled "Storie Diverse." Soviet historians also published a printed version of their copy of the letter and thoroughly analysed it (see special articles by S. Anninskii, 1934, and I. Sharkova, 197.…

Scott;s handwriting is somewhat difficult to read; here is the transcription: "My dear Lord, Our old acquaintance James Farrar was buried yesterday and has in consequence vacated amongst other things his office of Keeper of the record of Entails which has always been held by one of the principal clerks of Lepsons. On the death of Mr. Henn it passed to Mr. Farrar as oldest clerk of Lepsons and having now come to be the senior of all my colleagues by in life these ten years service. "I May be perhaps considered as having the same title of preference, but I refer the matter entirely to your Lordship and the Lord Registar to whom as the Head of our body, I have written a few lines & who as well as your Lordship was pleased to look on my request with an eye of favor which I have always experienced where my interests were concerned. Begging kind compliments to Lady Melville, I am ever, my dear Lord Most truly yours, Walter Scott. Edin. 24 January 1829 Scott was almost ruined when the publishing firm of ABallantyne, in which he was a partner, went into bankruptcy in 1826, and spent the rest of his life (6 years) working to pay off his debts.".…

No Binding. Condición: Very Good. Casanova de Seingalt, Giacomo Girolamo (1725-98). Libertine, adventurer, spy & autobiographer. Autograph letter in ink, signed 'G.Casanova' addressed to Count Ottaviano Antonio di Collalto, his benefactor & fellow freemason, Dated: Dux, 2 March 1789, (reply received 9 March 1789). 3 pages in 4to. Writing 2 months before the outbreak of the French Revolution from his home at Dux in Bohemia, Casanova warmly thanks an aristocratic benefactor for his letter of 14 February, addressing him as 'Excellenza mio adorato Padrone' (Excellency my adored master) Your gentle and generous heart dictates to your happy pen everything that can be read in your writing, by which you can only notice sentiments of truth and of virtue May God repay you for the kindness you have shown me, and preserve your good health for a long time as for the advantage of your illustrious family and also to give me, in case of need, new token of your grace and of your protection . He refers to Collalto s sad news that prince Karl von Li[e] chtenstein(1) was dying, but it was also welcomed because over here he was thought dead, and [instead] as long as there is breath there is hope ; Casanova comments on social events Now the Carnival is over and so are the balls and the nice court assemblies, to which Your Excellency deservingly took part A correspondent of mine from Venice tells me that the Doge(2) is dying, and that according to the public opinion the ducal horn will be appointed to His Excellency the Procurator Memmo (3) , but the same [correspondent] also tells me that he has no money, and that he is quarrelling with the Martinenghis, who claim from him 145.000 ducati for works carried out in the palace at S. Marmola which he gave as a dowry to his daughter I am told that in Vienna the Venetian minister will be a patrician with a noble title, but I do not know who he will be. The last paragraph contains an extended reference to [Lorenzo] da Ponte, Mozart s librettist : I was told that the Italian music was dismissed. I am wondering if the abbé da Ponte4 will stay. He doesn t write to me anymore. He is angry with me because I didn t praise his poems. He who flatters is not a friend (1) Karl Joseph Prince of Liechtenstein (1730-89) , Austrian general; (2) Doge Paolo Renier (1779-89) was actually succeeded by Ludovico Manin (1789-97), the last doge; (3) Andrea Memmo (1729-93) Proculator of St Mark s, architectural theorist, was in financial difficulties when he left his palace to his daughter as a dowry to the Martinenghi family; (4) Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838), born as Emanuele Conigliano, a converted Venetian Jew, was a gifted opera librettist, poet and priest, who wrote the libretti for Mozart s three most famous operas :Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro & Cosi fan tutte; he made his career as librettist to the Italian opera in Vienna under the patronage of the Emperor Joseph II, but lost his post under the new Emperor Leopold; he had met Casanova in October 1787; both men had been expelled from Venice and had a tempestuous relationship (da Ponte was critical of Casanova in his memoirs); after a spell in London, da Ponte emigrated to New York, where he produced the first full performance of Don Giovanni, and founded the New York Opera Company in 1836, the predecessor of the New York Metropolitan Opera House. Traces of ink oxidization throughout, otherwise in very good condition. Autograph letters by Casanova of this length and interest are rarely offered for sale.…