SALICETI ANTOINE CHRISTOPHE: (1757-1809) French Corsican Politician and Diplomat of the Revolution and First Empire. An exceptional A.L.S. `Saliceti´, two pages, 4to, Florence, 21<sup>st</sup> September 1796, to Charles Godefroy Redon de Belleville, in French. The letter bears the French Republic printed heading of the “Commissaire of the Executive Directory of the Army of Italy”. An extremely interesting historical anti-papal letter by Saliceti, stating in part `…il faut que les nobles Luquois payent la contribution que je viens de leur imposer, et je me reserve même de l´augmenter. Ce sera ce moyen-là qui les fera parler, car ils ne voudront pas payer deux fois. Que l´argent entre dans la cause de la République…´ (Translation: `…the noble from Lucca must pay the contribution that I have just imposed on them, and I even reserve to myself the right to increase it. It will be by this means that we will make them speak, because they will not want to pay twice. Let´s make the money enter into the cause of the Republic…”) Further adding a threatening sentence against Papacy, stating `Menez-moi rondement les négotiants: il faut que cette affaire finesse de manière ou d´autre. Le Pape a refusé de signer les conditions au moyen desquelles le Directoire Exécutif consentait a le laisser exister. Son refus acté envoyé dans la nuit pour Paris par un Courier extraordinaire que j´ai dépéché. Pour le coup, la Papauté est en danger; j´espere de voir l´univers délivré de ce fléau qui en fait le malheur. Le Directoire Exécutif, guidé par la raison, va prendre des mesures décisives. La guerre avec Naples va se rallumer´ (Translation: “Lead the negotiators smoothly: this business must be smooth one way or another. The Pope refused to sign the conditions by means of which the Executive Directory consented to let him exist. His official refusal was sent in the night to Paris by an extraordinary Courier that I dispatched. For once, the Papacy is in danger; I hope to see the universe delivered from this scourge which makes it so unfortunate. The Executive Board, guided by reason, will take decisive action. The war with Naples will reignite…”) Paper with watermark. With blank integral leaf. With two extremely small holes not affecting the text or signature. VG

 

Charles Godefroy Redon de Belleville (1748-1820) Consul of France at Livorno in 1796 when the French army occupied the city.

 

Pius VI (1717-1799) Pope of the Roman Catholic Church 1775-99. Pius VI condemned the French Revolution and the suppression of the Gallican Church that resulted from it. French troops commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the papal army and occupied the Papal States in 1796, the year of the present letter. In 1798, upon his refusal to renounce his temporal power, Pius was taken prisoner and transported to France. He died eighteen months later in Valence in the French Republic.

 

On account of his friendship with Maximilien Robespierre, Saliceti was denounced by the Thermidorian Reaction and was saved only by the amnesty of the French Directory. In 1796 Saliceti was commissioned to organize the French Revolutionary Army in the Italian Peninsula and the two departments into which Corsica had been divided after its recapture.

Although an adversary of Napoleon's 18th Brumaire Coup which created the Consulate in November 1799, he was kept by Napoleon as his representative to the Republic of Lucca and Liguria, engineering the territory's annexation to the Empire. In 1806, he followed Joseph Bonaparte to the Kingdom of Naples, where Joseph had been imposed as King, and served as minister of police and of war. Saliceti died in Naples in mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoned.

Napoleon said about Saliceti `Saliceti, les jours de danger, valait cent mille hommes´ (Translation: “Saliceti, on the dangerous days, was the equivalent of a hundred thousand men”)