Cambridge Broadsides : Serenissimo principi, Ferdinando IV
University of Cambridge, Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies 1751-1825
Cambridge Broadsides
<p style='text-align: justify;'>A letter of thanks to Ferdinand IV of Naples and III of Sicily (later Ferdinand I of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) (1751-1825), who had sent a gift of a gold coin of the Emperor Augustus and the first two volumes of Le pitture antiche d’Ercolano (Naples, 1755-1792, sadly no longer in the Library). The letter is printed on vellum, now rather discoloured, stamped with a gold border, and decorated with an illuminated initial. No other copy is recorded, but one was presumably sent to the King, who was at that time a boy of eleven. <br />David McKitterick, Cambridge University Library, A History, The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1986), 288. </p>