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ALS in Italian, signed “N. Paganini,” one page, 5.75 x 8.25, October 17, 1818. Handwritten letter to his close friend, the lawyer Luigi Germi, with news about a successful concert in Siena and his itinerary to Rome via Bologna, where he would meet his father Antonio and Marietta Banti, to whom he intended to propose. In full (translated): "I was in Siena as I told you in my previous [letter]. I gave the second Academy [concert], and despite the water the theater was packed. My friend—the speech of the Sienese is so sweet and insinuating, that it cannot be expressed. Tomorrow I will leave for Bologna where I will stay for two days to give father a hug and see my beloved Marietta again. Afterwards I shall cross the Marche to find myself in Rome for the holidays. Write to me there, tell me how you are, and I will not fail to meet you and correspond with you as a true friend." Two short postscripts read: "The third Academy in Florence went very well," and, "You would do me a favor in giving excellent news about me to the family and greet the good Dellepiane from me." In very good to fine condition, with overall light staining.
Marietta Banti's father ultimately didn't allow his daughter to marry the famous virtuoso, very likely because of the scandal surrounding his affair with Angelica Cavanna in 1815. When Cavanna was pregnant with Paganini's child, the couple fled to the mountains, which led to his eventual short imprisonment for abduction and seduction of a minor. The child was stillborn and Paganini's vague marriage plans, which he had discussed with his friend Germi, were, of course, shattered. Rumors and exaggerated accounts of the affair would haunt Paganini for the rest of his life.
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