Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from William Gell, Naples, to Richard Payne Knight, 1820 January 22 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
374505
Accession number
MA 3442.2
Creator
Gell, William, Sir, 1777-1836.
Display Date
Naples, Italy, 1820 January 22.
Credit line
Purchased, 1980.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.0 x 17.0 cm
Notes
Gell would publish "Narrative of a Journey in the Morea" in 1823 in which he would address the issues addressed in this letter.
Address panel with postmarks to "R. Payne Knight Esq're / Soho Square / London."
Provenance
Purchased on the Acquisitions Fund, 1980.
Summary
Challenging, in detail, the recently published work of M. Raoul Rochette on the inscriptions of the Abbé Fourmont; saying that if Knight does not choose to write on the subject again "...the assertions of the french will triumph & the world in general will believe the inscriptions authentic - I am of the number of those who wish to be convinced, but who see nothing as yet to render probable the statements of Fourmont or R. Rochette. My arguments only apply to the temple of Onga & the list of Priestesses, for many of the other inscriptions are visible to any traveller of the present day, & have nothing so very remarkable or disputable;" outlining at length and in detail his arguments on the inscriptions and including the inscriptions throughout in Greek; referring to Dr. Abramiote and Chateaubriand.