French philologist and translator (1742-1833). Autograph letter signed. Paris. 4to (198 x 250 mm). 1 p. on bifolium.
$ 209 / 180 €
(105862/BN67580)
A letter from one of France's most noted Hellenists, then permanent secretary of the Académie Royale des Inscriptions et belles-lettres, on the latter's elegant letterhead and seal on the back. Bon-Joseph Dacier writes to the painter and antiquary Auguste de Forbin, director of the Royal Museums, about the decoration of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris. The Académie has been charged with the new inscriptions for the monument, but in order to proceed, it would like to know what the proposed themes of the six bas-reliefs are to be.
Forbin is thus requested to supply this information. - The letterhead bears the profile of Marianne with the French cockerel emblazoned on her helm. The seal on the reverse, although broken in the opening, still clearly bears the legend of the Academy's name. - As one of France's most senior and celebrated philologists, known for his translations of Aelian and Xenophon, Bon-Joseph Dacier was a member of the Académie Française and curator of manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale. It was to him that Champoillon addressed his famous letter of 1822 on the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Auguste de Forbin, a former pupil of the neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David, was appointed to the direction of France's royal museums in 1816, and greatly expanded the Louvre. - The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is smaller than its more famous sister, the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile; both were begun in 1806 on the orders of Napoleon, but the larger monument was not completed until 30 years later. Following the Bourbon restoration, the arch at Carrousel was renovated and fitted with a new sculpture at the top between 1828 and 1831, to replace the Constantinopolitan bronze horses which Napoleon had appropriated from St. Mark's in Venice. - A document attesting to the collaboration of two of France's philological and artistic minds on the renovation of a great Parisian landmark..