BIB_ID
408185
Accession number
MA 35.49
Creator
Arblay, Alexandre Jean Baptiste Piochard, comte d', 1754-1818.
Display Date
[1803 February].
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1905.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 23.2 x 18.9 cm
Notes
Most of the letter is written by M.d'A, but FBA adds a postscript at the end.
No date of writing is given. There is a Foreign Office postmark dated "February 14, 1803" on the address panel, but no other indication of when in February this might have been written.
M.d'A does not give a place of writing. Based on biographical evidence, Hemlow posits that this letter was probably written at 54 rue Basse, Passy, an address in Paris at which FBA and M.d'A owned a house. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
Address panel with postmarks: "To Capt. James Burney / of the Navy. No. 72 Margaret Street / Cavendish Square / London / England." Below this is another address: "The Right Honble / J Beresford / Walworth / near Derry / Ireland."
No date of writing is given. There is a Foreign Office postmark dated "February 14, 1803" on the address panel, but no other indication of when in February this might have been written.
M.d'A does not give a place of writing. Based on biographical evidence, Hemlow posits that this letter was probably written at 54 rue Basse, Passy, an address in Paris at which FBA and M.d'A owned a house. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
Address panel with postmarks: "To Capt. James Burney / of the Navy. No. 72 Margaret Street / Cavendish Square / London / England." Below this is another address: "The Right Honble / J Beresford / Walworth / near Derry / Ireland."
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from the London dealer Quaritch in July 1905 as part of a collection of Burney's correspondence and fragments of manuscripts, bound in three volumes. Disbound in 1925.
Summary
[M.d'A]: Thanking James for his letter and the proposition it contained (that d'Arblay translate the forthcoming and first volume of James's Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea); telling him that the project could not be in better hands; suggesting that James send him the manuscript and address it to "Citoyen Dhermand Chef des relations commerciales" with a second address to "C[itoy]en Talleyrand Ministre des relations exterieures"; suggesting alternately that Charles Burney could send a packet containing the manuscript to one of his friends, such as the banker John Minet Fector; adding that they could also solicit help from Charles Coquebert de Montbret (Commissaire general des relations commerciales) in London; advising him to include mention in his preface of the illustrious scientists who have given their approval to the project, including Joseph Banks and James Rennell; writing that if James determines that he does not know enough about nautical matters to translate the book properly, he would be happy to turn it over to another translator; asking about the scientific name of the birds called "Mother Carey's chickens"; mentioning that he has just bought J. Moore's British Mariner's Vocabulary (published in 1801) and asking if it is a good source; [FBA]: congratulating James on the "forwardness of your literary toils, from which I have very sincerely the best expectations, upon a subject of which you are both scientifically & practically master."
Catalog link
Department