-Letter of 31 May 1649 (from Florence to Leiden): "Cuncta tandem prospere cessere, mi Heinsi, nihilque est quod diutius tecum moretur iracundia, emptio facta est; Passignianus pretium, cl. v. Carolus Datus atque ego veteres nummos accepimus; hos statim Samminiato, socijsq tradimus ut eos quam accuratissime ad te transmittant, vectialiumq solutionem, si commode fieri posset ut evitare curarent monuimus, rogando contendimus feliciter quam primum, ut spero, ad te pervenient celerrimeq si aderit occasio. feliciter, inquam, quoniam Minerva, non minus quam Hercule, dextera, thesaurum (liceat mihi aliquantulum gloriari) me demonstrante invenisti; ad quem congregandum, religendumq labor improbus, ac vitae cursus pictoris nonagenarij in hac re peritissimi vix suffecit. Itaq ex animo gloriari potes ad Batavos tuos, ubi literae praeclaraeq artes certatim florent; immo ad celebres tuarum aedium Lares, tot venerandas, et Romanam adhuc spirantes amplitudinem dignitatemq imagines, velut agmine facto ex Italia commeare. Has optimus doctissimusq senex pater tuus alacriter summaq frontis, et cordis, hilaritate excipiet, et hunc propter caeteros studiosae peregrinationis tuae fructus saepissime expostulabitur; exclamabantq conterranei tui omnes, quibus ingenij laus cordi est, te vere Musarum Latinaeq elegantiae delicium instauratoremq adeo longum, impeditumq iter suscepisse; quia bonis innumerabilibus animum excoluisti, patriaeq studiosisq omnibus non vulgariter profuisti.
....
In altera folij parte numerum nummorum, et pondus annotavi.
Nummi aurei antiqui numero centum duodecim pondo unciarum viginti quinque cum semisse.
Nummi argentei antiqui numero septingenti septuaginta, pondo unciarum nonaginta quatuor, et denariorum quatuor, scilicet sexta unciae parte.
Nummi aerei antiqui centum quadraginta sex.
Libri tres, cum duabus capsulis.
Aerei, et libri, et capsulae, nobis instantibus extra pretium.
Passignanus concessit, nam emptio iam pacta erat, quando de illis ad nos scripsisti; et tua esse volumus haec: et quid amplius ad rem nummariam pertinens ad manus nostras perveniet tui iuris fiet. Accepilatio solvi pretij cum hac, aut cum Dati epistola, aut cum utraq accipies. residuum pecuniaeq a mercatore tuo transmisse apud Datum est, qui libros, quos ei significasti, solita diligentia et cura comparabit ut latius ex illius literis patebit."
(At length everything has turned out successfully, my Heinsius, and it doesn’t matter that your annoyance has lasted longer: the purchase has been made. Passignano has got his price, and Carlo Dati and I have got the coins. We immediately handed them over to Samminiati and his asscociates so that they could send them very carefully to you, and we urged them that they should take care to avoid the tax if that can be done appropriately. We successfully pressed them, asking that they should come to you as soon as possible, if the opportunity should arise very soon. I say ‘successfully”, since with Minerva, no less than Hercules, at your right hand, you have discovered a treasure with (if I might boast a little) me showing the way: for collecting them and putting them together it up was an enormous job, and the ninety-year life span of the painter who was very skilled in this regard was barely sufficient. So you can genuinely boast to your Batavians, where literature and the finer arts flourish; and in addition to your famous household gods, who are much revered and still breathe the scale and grandeur of the Romans, that you are escorting the images, as if formed in a column, from Italy. Your excellent and very learned elderly father will receive them eagerly and with joy in his mind and heart, and as a result the fruit of your most scholarly journey will very often be sought out. All your countrymen, who hold the praise of brilliance dear to their hearts, will cry out in praise that you - the delight and restorer of the Muses and Latin culture – have undertaken this long and difficult journey, since you have improved the minds of innumerable good men, and you have uniquely benefitted your country and all scholars.
...
On the other side of the page I have the number and weight of the coins.
Ancient gold coins, in number one hundred and twelve, by weight twenty five and a half ounces.
Ancient silver coins, in number seven hundred and seventy, by weight ninety four ounces and four denarii, that is by with sixth part of an ounce.
Ancient bronze coins, one hundred and forty six.
Three books, with two boxes.
The bronze coins, as well as the books and the boxes, at our pressing, were outside the price.
Passignano consented, since the sale was then agreed, once you had written to us about them, and we want them to be yours; and whatever is relevant to numismatics that may come into our hands is also yours. You will receive the receipt for paying the price either with this letter or with Dati’s or with both. Dati has arranged for the balance of the money to have been transferred to you by the merchant, since he will buy the books, which you specified to him, with his customary diligence and care, as he will set out more fully in his letter) (Leiden University Library, MS BPL 1902, van Cavalcanti no. 13)
