-Letter of 30 March 1649 (from Florence to Leiden): "Hinc, Heinsi carissime, cum quanti te faciam, et merito inter paucos diligam optime noveris, facile profecto colliges, quam moleste tulerim emptionem nummorum antiquorum iam pactam, feliciterque permodum absolutum haud procul a portu, praeter tuam nostramq opinionem, remoram inveniste. Numismata Ascanio Saminiato tradita fuerant unaque mecum Cl. Carolus Datus ei annuebat, instabatque ut venditori pretium enumeraret, cum Ascanius proferens literas Amstelodamensis mercatoris easq denuo inspiciens respondit se nullam moram facturum quotiescunque conditio mandato apposita adimpleretur. Nobis postea non intelligentibus quod nobis restaret faciundum inquit, satisdandum vobis est haec numismata ea esse, quae amicus huius mercatoris, cum apud nos esset, conspexit, ac si talia mercator esse neget aut eorum nonnulla, ea vobis empta declaretur; ac usuras, impensasque omnes proprio aere soluturos. quod quamquam a nobis existimaretur insolitum tamen ne diutius te torqueret desiderium, non recusabamus. erat n. apposita haec conditio ut pecuniam persolveret dummodo ea ipsa essent quae amicus hic viderat. Sed cum huic fideiussioni postea addendus esset, si Amstedoldamensis dubitationem aliquam inijceret, apud eum illa nostro periculo futura omniaq in reditu discrimina nos subituros, non nobis aequum visum est hominis prorsus nobis ignoti fidei, et voluntati acquiescere, cuius naturam adeo cautam ex ipsa mandati tam difficile ad adimplemendum conditione intuebamur. Ideo non absque summa animi mei molestia Samminiatus rescripsit eidem, se expectaturum ut clarius ei significet, an tantum nobis probantibus verbo identitatem rei venditae (iureconsultoris vocabulo utor) pretium enumerare debeat. Interim precibus apud Passignianum contendere non desinam, uti hanc insuper moram ferat quam se minime ferre velit; nos de solutione sollicitos esse oporterit.
From this, my dearest Heinsius, since I value you so highly, and, as you know, I rightly esteem you best among only a few, you will assuredly and easily understand, how I have borne with difficulty the sale of the ancient coins which has now been agreed, and happily fully resolved and not far from its harbour, and how badly, you would have found the delay, against your and our expectations. The coins had been given to Ascanio Samminiati, and Carlo Dati had, together with me, assented to him, and pressed him to pay the price to the seller, when Ascanio brought out the letter from the Amsterdam merchant and looked at it it again, and replied that he would make no delay and that all the conditions were attached to the instruction would be fulfilled. Then, as we did not subsequently understand what remained for us to do, he said to us, ‘You must give a guarantee that these coins are the same ones which the friend of this merchant saw, when he was with us, and if the merchant says they or some of them are not the same, they will be declared to have been bought by you, and all interest and expenses would be paid in ready money’. Although we thought that this was unusual, nevertheless, so as their lack would no longer torture you, we did not refuse. For this condition was added so that he would pay the money only if they were the same coins which our friend had seen here. But since he had added this guarantee, if the Amsterdam man cast any doubt, then as far as he was concerned they would be at our risk, and we would take all the danger in return. This did not seem fair to us, that we should be the guarantee to a man we did not know, and agree to his wishes, since we saw that his nature was so cautious from that condition of the agreement which was so difficult to fulfill. So - not without a great annoyance to my mind - Samminiati wrote again to the same man that he would wait so that he might indicate more clearly to him, whether, if we approved verbally the identity of the sold object (I use the language of a guarantor), he should pay the price. Meanwhile I did not cease from persuading Passignano that he should bear this extra delay, which he did not want at all to bear; and that we should be worried about the payment) (Leiden University Library MS BPL 1920, van Cavalcanti no. 12)
