FESCH (Joseph). 2 signed letters. 1811-1812. TO... Lot 4

FESCH (Joseph). 2 signed letters. 1811-1812. TO GIUSEPPE-MARIA BONACCORSI. Lyon, September 2, 1812. "It would be very gladly that I would be interested in favor of Mr. Arrighi, former president of Calvi, if I were in the capital: but at this moment I am entirely given to the pastoral functions of my diocese and not at all within reach of being useful to Mr. Arrighi... ". (1 p. in-4, address on the back, marginal lack to the address leaf). Giuseppe-Maria Bonaccorsi, of Calenzana, former constitutional priest, was a member of the administration of the Golo and a judge at the court of this department. Giuseppe Maria Arrighi, also a talented writer, was a judge at the court of Golo and then president of the court of Calvi. - TO THE COUNTESS OF SEGUR, ANTOINETTE D'AGUESSEAU. Paris, May 13, 1811. 1/2 p. in-4. "I have the honor of sending you a copy of the draft regulations of the Society of Maternal Charity, with the latest additions...". The Countess de Ségur was vice-president of this charitable society of which the Empress Marie-Louise was the patron, and Cardinal Fesch the general secretary. - Provenance: collection of the Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, Alexander William and James Ludovic Lindsay (armorial bookplate stamp Bibliotheca Lindesiana). CARDINAL FESCH, UNCLE OF BONAPARTE. Through his mother, Joseph Fesch (1763-1839) was the half-brother of Letizia Bonaparte, mother of Napoleon. Ordained priest in 1785, he abandoned during the Terror the ecclesiastical condition that he took back after the Concordat to lead from then on a dazzling career, by the favor of his nephew become First consul then emperor: he was made archbishop of Lyon, primate of Gaules and cardinal (1803), in charge of negotiating in Rome the arrival of the pope for the imperial coronation, great chaplain of the emperor, senator, coadjutor of the archbishop of Regensburg, peer of France during the Hundred Days... However, inhabited by a sincere faith, he kept a certain freedom towards the regime, daring for example to refuse the archbishopric of Paris, and was deprived for a time of the title of Grand Chaplain. He took refuge in Rome in 1814 and again in 1815, and rendered services to Napoleon I exiled to St. Helena, taking on the task with Letizia Bonaparte of sending him a doctor and a chaplain.