DENON DOMINIQUE VIVANT: (1747-1825) French artist, writer, diplomat and archaeologist who was appointed as the first director of the Louvre museum by Napoleon following the Egyptian campaign of 1798-1801. L.S., Denon, two pages, folio, Paris, 14^th March 1812, to Carlo Lasinio, on the printed stationery of the Musee Napoleon featuring an engraved vignette of a medallion at the head, in French. Denon acknowledges receipt of his correspondent's letter and continues 'J'en ai remis de suite une copie a S. Ex. le Ministre de l'Interieur qui m'a promis qu'il allait vous ecrire pour vous temoigner sa satisfaction sur l'ouvrage que vous venez de publier & sur le zele que vous avez mis a reunir tant d'objets precieux dans le campo santo. Vous pouvez etre persuade, Monsieur, que j'ai fait connaitre comme ils meritent de l'etre les services que vous avez rendus & que je ne perdrai jamais de vue les occasion de les faire valoir aupres de l'autorite' (Translation: 'I immediately gave a copy to His Ex. the Minister of the Interior who promised me that he would write to you to show you his satisfaction with the work you have just published and the zeal with which you have put together so many precious objects in the Campo Santo. You can be persuaded, Sir, that I have made the services you have rendered known as they deserve to be known, and that I will never lose sight of the opportunities to assert them before the authorities'), further stating 'Son Exc. le Ministre de l'Interieur, sur ma proposition, vient d'ordonner qu'il serait envoye a Pise plusieurs beaux platres moules sur l'antique pour son Lycee, a fin de l'indemniser des tableaux que j'ai demande pour Paris. Ce present equivaudra a la cession que cette ville fait, se sera pour elle d'un plus grand interet que ces tableaux auxquels elle attachait si peu de prix' (Translation: 'His Exc. the Minister of the Interior, on my proposal, has just ordered that there should be sent to Pisa several beautiful antique plaster casts for the Lyceum, in order to compensate them for the paintings I requested for Paris. This gift will be equivalent to the cession that this city makes, and will be of greater interest to it than the paintings to which is attached so little value'). Several passages at the conclusion of the letter have been lightly underlined in pencil in the hand of Lasinio, the engraver noting in the margin 'Bel compenso per Dio!' (Translation: 'Beautiful compensation, by God!). With integral address leaf. A letter of interesting association. Some light creasing and minor staining to the edges, only very slightly affecting a few words of text and not the signature, G

Carlo Lasinio (1759-1838) Italian engraver who was appointed conservatore of the Camposanto in Pisa in 1807. Lasinio made considerable efforts to protect the Camposanto and its frescoes from ruin during the destructive period of the Napoleonic Wars and in 1812 commenced his influential book of etchings, Pitture a fresco del Campo Santo di Pisa, which recorded the frescoes in the Camposanto.