ARCHAEOLOGY. Charles Alphonse Léon RENIER (Charleville/ Arde - Lot 540

ARCHAEOLOGY. Charles Alphonse Léon RENIER (Charleville/ Ardennes 1809 - 1885) Historian, Archaeologist, specialist in Latin epigraphy, Professor: Autograph letter signed "Léon RENIER, de l'Institut." Paris, July 31, 1861. 2 pages in-4°, addressed to Emperor NAPOLÉON III, on the excavations at DELPHES (Greece): "Sire, I have the honor of addressing to Your Majesty the two notes she requested on the excavations at Delphi, protected by the Emperor. These excavations, I am completely certain, will produce the most important results for science; they will make up for the failure of the Prussian scientific commission, with its discoveries made in Athens, under the eyes of our school, paralyzed by lack of funds; they will be, may Your Majesty forgive me this ambitious comparison, another Battle of Jena, won by the Emperor on the peaceful terrain of archaeology. I seem to recall that Your Majesty quotes in a note in the first chapter of his introduction to the Life of Caesar, the passage from Titus Livius that has been so admirably confirmed by the inscription recently discovered on the Palatine. If this is the case, the inscription should perhaps be included in the appendices to the Emperor's work, and a facsimile made. I have just learned of the Emperor's decision regarding the CAMPANA Collections, and I ask his permission to express my gratitude. It was the best we could have wished for. If, from now on, these collections were to be condemned to dispersal, they would at least be condemned by their natural judges; no one would have the right to complain about them, and above all, no one - which is what Mr. CORNU (Sébastien) and I feared most - would dare accuse the Emperor. I am with the deepest respect and most sincere gratitude, sire, to your Majesty." (It was Napoleon III's acquisition of the Campana Collection, comprising 1,813,535 objects, including 10,295 antiques, and 646 paintings, that enabled the Musée du Louvre to expand).