STENDHAL. Autograph letter signed Alb. Gentili to Vincenzo Salvagnoli, dated Civitavecchia 12 May [1841]. 4 pp. in-8. Fame has it that you work miracles not only with your mind, but also with your money, something that envious people cannot deny. One day when chance takes you to the Santa Croce area, be good enough to go up to the Palazzo Martini. Ask for news of Madame Berlinghieri Martini. How are her children, where is Mr. Martini? Is she in Siena or Florence? I would like to write to Mr Mart[ini]. I reproach myself for not having written for nine months, and I would not want to be ignorant of anything that might interest this amiable family. Rome has had three balls a week, all this Carnival, but this excess of society is not society. There isn't a house where you can find 15 passable people every Tuesday. That is what makes Paris superior, and even so the women of Paris demand toiletries, and let's not make fun of 20 mockable things, the men who are a bit good go and spend their evenings in the Cercles. Italy lacks both Tuesdays and Circles. The arts are dead in Rome, but statues can be found, for example 11 in Cerveteri, the owner of which is offered 54,000 f. Farewell man of wit and much more of amusing wit. Slight folds, trace of stamp. Letter published by Jacques Houbert in L'Année stendhalienne, n°11, 2012, pp. 329-334.