Viro dignissimo Theologo amicissimo Alexandro Levingstonio Simondsus Deuusius Eques Auratus & Baronettus S P D
Quod codicillos a nobis priores vir amicissime accepisti vernaculos summa in caussa fuit festinatio, et quod tibi vicissim eadem me compellanti dialecto facilius ignoscendum. De Gulielmo Moravio rei nummariae Romanae \callentissimo/ peritisssimo tam singulari desiderio necessitudinem nostram sitiente gratissimum fuit nobis nuntium. atque id utinam \per innocuum/ dulceque nobis otium illius frui liceret colloquio, ut numismatum nostrorum praecipua acuratius con una contemplaremur. Plurima mihi pridem suspecta aurea \et aenea pauca/ Viri doctissimi Petri Fittonis nuper ex Gallia hic appulsi me perhumaniter invisentis \suasu, Thesauro meo Numario/ ex tabulis meis excussi, imo \S. Pompeij Magni/ Julij Caesaris illud aeneum et Pescennij Nigri singularia illa aenea utpote adulterina reijcienda etiam mihi persuasit. Neque (acerrimo vir ille judicio \nec/ Othoni meo qui tantopere tibi placuerit, acerrimo vir ille judicio pepercit. eundem igitur ad tempus seposui donec Gulielmi Moravij ea super re exploraverim sententiam. Vale vir amicissime et Moravium tuum meo nomine salutare non graviter. Dabam Visimonasterij III Idus Septembris Juliani CDCXLIX
[To the most worthy and very good friend the Theologian Alexander Levingstone Simonds D’Ewes Knight and Baronet gives greeting
That the previous letter you received from me was in English was mostly for reasons of haste, and in turn you may the more easily be forgiven for greeting me in the same tongue. I was very pleased to hear the news that William Murray [Moravius], who is most expert in Roman numismatics, is so particularly keen to help me. May it be that with harmless and sweet leisure it will be possible to enjoy his conversation, so that we may together examine the more special of my coins. Many of the gold and a few of the bronze, which have long been suspected by me, I have, on the advice of the learned Peter Fitton (who recently very kindly visited me here from France) indeed removed from my Numismatic Treasury, and further he convinced me that those remarkable bronzes of the Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar and Pescennius Niger should be rejected as fakes; nor has he, in his very acute judgment, spared my Otho which would have pleased you so much. So I have set that very coin aside for the time being, until I shall have been able to seek the opinion of William Murray on the matter. Goodbye, my very good friend and greet your Murray cheerfully in my name.Given at Westminster, 11 September 1649.] (BL MS Harley 378, f. 108r; Burnett 2020b, p. 1199)