Timms Lindgren Steff..

80 LOWELL LINDGREN AND COLIN TIMMS
avrei di rivedere [f. 76v] e riverire oltre monsignor, il Signor Marchese Nomis, il Signor Abbate Mauro,
e gli altri miei buoni padroni et amici, a quali tutti La supplico di portare i miei rispetti ed assicurarli per
me della grata memoria che conservo di loro.
Questo armamento spagnuolo a Cadice con imbarcazioni di truppe dB molto da pensare, perch6 si
teme un principio d'incendio ora che l'unione Borboniana fa cessare i motivi del trattato di Londra.
L'Italia ne sari il principal teatro. L'Imperatore non si lasciera certamente prevenire, e coprira il suo con
quello d'altri, &c.
L'elezioni di questi (con reverenza parlando) membri pel nuovo Parlamento va un poco fredda per la
corte, ma le pensioni, che cosichi! domesticheranno questi Catoni Inglesi.
La carta i! finita ed io termino d'annoiarla. Bononcino Le ricorda il suo rispetto, ed io sono il Suo
umilissimo servitore.
In the first omitted passage Riva thanks Steffani for the good wishes that he had sent via their friend,
Marquis Courtance, whom Riva had, out of shameful lethargy, asked to respond to Steffani on his
behalf. The marquis represented Savoy as envoy extraordinary to Britain from August 1719 until
November 1725 (Hausmann, Repertorium, 364). His fifty extant letters to Steffani-which are
interfiled chronologically with Riva's~oncern political, religious and personal affairs. The first eighteen
cover a year (3 December 1720 to 28 November 1721), and the next eighteen span the ensuing
seven months (5 December 1721 to 10 July 1722). During the following two years, when Steffani was
in Padua rather than Hanover, Courtance wrote one letter on 16 January 1723, then thirteen between
7 May 1723 and 23 June 1724. Riva then relates that Baron Schack has shown him a letter from
the duke of Lorraine, stating that 'sopravivenza del consaputo posto' ('continuation of the post in
question') is not common practice at his court, but that Troisio will be given the post, as the duke has
promised, 'a suo tempo' ('in due time'). Riva (beginning of paragraph 2) stresses when George I
will leave London, presumably because in previous years the king had left at least four weeks later.
Johann Christoph, Freiherr von Pentenrriedter (1678-1728), was the imperial representative in
France (Hausmann, Repertorium, 60,61,64,67 and 71, and Hatton, George I, 223,228,232 and 407).
The Congress of Cambrai (1722-5) was intended to reconcile Spanish and Austrian disputes over
possessions in the Italian peninsula, but it became a 'constant round of dinners and entertainments' in
a city that was 'quite isolated from the main centres of diplomacy' (Janet M. Hartley, Charles
Whitworth: Diplomat in the Age of Peter the Great (Aldershot, 2002), 178-200, esp. 197).
24. Steffani to Riva Hanover, 15 May 1722 [Friday, in Bossis' hand]
Your very kind letter of 19 March must have suffered one of those bygone punishments of
which you speak, because it did not arrive in my hands until 11 May. You may ask why,
therefore, did I not reply on 12 May? I will say that my cure prevented me, as it will prevent
me today from writing at length, since my health, somewhat weakened by the extraordinary
weather, has forced me to resort to my usual Sacred Anchor, which is the mineral water of a
country estate. You don't need to seek excuses for your long silence, because your burdens
are already well known to me; besides, the pleasure of [receiving] your letter made me imme-
diately forget the displeasure of having been deprived of one for such a long time . . ..
Here we await [the arrival of] the king in a few weeks, and if you are not to be prevented
from following His Majesty except by the famous Congress of Cambrai, the friends who wish
to see and serve you can hope to enjoy this good fortune, since it does not seem to me that
there is any great semblance of negotiation in that peaceable assembly. For some time now I
have sensed in my letters from Italy a constant fear of seeing a fire lit [i.e., war break out] in
the bowels of that country; I cannot imagine that a fire could last very long down there
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF AGOSTINO STEFFANI AND GIUSEPPE RIVA, 1720-1 728 8 1
without spreading to the rest of Europe. What can be said more certainly is that without the
light of such an unfortunate flame we shall have difficulty in emerging from the darkness in
which we live, since people either have found a better way of keeping things secret or do not
know what they want to do, perhaps because nobody knows what should be done.
What I know for certain is that I ardently desire opportunities to serve you, that I beg
you to thank Bononcini very much for kindly remembering me, and that my unconditional
obedience to you depends on your opinion of me.
[f. 27rj Bisogna credere che la Sua urnanissima lettera habbia temuto uno di quei preteriti castighi de'
quali Ella parla, perch6 in data dei 19. di marzo non i! pervenuta alle mie mani che agl'll. di maggio.
Ella mi domandera perch6 dunque io non gli ho risposto alli 12? Et io Le duo che la mia cura me 10 ha
impedito comme [sic] pur hoggi m'impedisce di diffondermi troppo, essendo che la mia salute un poco
alterata dalla stravaganza delle stagioni mi ha costretto di haver ricorso alla mia consueta Ancora
Sacra, ch'i! l'acqua della villa. Ella non ha bisogno di cercar ragioni per iscusare il Suo lungo silentio,
poich6 le Sue occupationi mi sono gia note, oltre di che il piacere della Sua lettera mi ha fatto subito
dimenticare il disgust0 d'esserne stato privo per cosi lungo tempo . . ..
[f. 27vj Qui si aspetta dunque il re fra poche settimane: e se Lei non i! impedita di seguitar la Maesta
Sua che dal famoso Congresso Cameracense, gl'amici che desiderano vederLa e servirLa possono
lusingarsi di haver questa buona sorte, non parendomi veder grande apparenza di negotio in quella
pacifica assemblea. E gia un pezzo che nelle mie lettere d71talia trovo il costante timore di veder il fuoco
acceso nelle viscere di quel paese; non so per6 figurarmi che l'incendio possa durare gran tempo in quella
parte senza communicarsi a tutto il resto dell'Europa. Quello che si pub dire di piu sicuro i! che senza il
lume d'una tale sfortunata fiamma havremo della pena a sortir dalle tenebre nelle quali viviamo, poich6 o
si L! trovato un miglior modo di tener le cose segrete o non si [f. 28r] sa ci6 che si voglia fare, perch6 forse
talluno non sa quel che si faccia.
Quello che so di certo i! che ardentemente desidero le occasioni di servirLa, che La prego render
molte grazie a1 Signor Bononcino della sua cortese memoria, e che dal di Lei arbitrio dipende la mia
ubbidienza senza riserva.
Riva did not write to Steffani between 7 October 1721 (no. 19) and 19 March 1722 (no. 23). Before
receiving the latter (on l l May 1722), Steffani asked about Riva in his letters to Marquis Courtance
of 27 March and 7 April 1722. Courtance replied on 10 and 16 April 1722 (D-HVsa Cal. Br. 23c, Nr.
443, ff. 85 and 86) that Riva had written to him (on 19 March 1722). In his second letter Courtance
added: 'I1 faudra le punir quand il sera a Hannouvre, en ne le laissent pas jouer aux echeqs ches vous;
mais je crois q'il se justifiera auprks d'une persone aussi indulgente que vous du silence que vous lui
reproches' ('You will have to punish him when he is in Hanover by not letting him play chess with
you; but I believe that, in the presence of a person as indulgent as you, he will justify the silence with
which you reproach him'). In the deleted passage Steffani thanks Riva for news of Troisio, to
whom he has sent [a copy of] Baron Schack's note to Count Bothmer; he hopes that its promises will
have their desired effect, for the sake of Troisio and the duke of Lorraine.
25. Riva to Steffani London, 10 June 1722 Wednesday]
Before replying to your most courteous letter of 15 May, I wanted to see which of two
[possibilities] would gain the upper hand in the mind of the king, either the necessity of
remaining [here] or the desire to depart for there. Since His Majesty yesterday decided finally
for the first option, by announcing his departure for Kensington, where perhaps he will
remain all summer, I am presenting myself to you in a letter, since I cannot do so in person.