Arrigo BOÏTO (1842-1918). L.A.S., Milan March 24, 1883, to Gustave Fuchs in Chicago; 4 pages in-8, envelope with red wax seals. Beautiful letter thanking him for sending an inkwell depicting Faust, and about his opera Mefistofele. He thanks us for this splendid gift, received on his return from Flanders and Spain: "the American inkwell has taken its place of honor on my work table". When he opened the box, all he saw at first was "an avalanche of flowers on Mephisto's head". On taking out the statuette, "all resplendent with art and silver, [...] it looked like something out of the last scene of Goethe's Poem", from which Boïto quotes a few lines. He thanks the artist for this exquisitely tasteful work of art, and sends his congratulations to the artist and to Duhme of Cincinnati. In exchange, and in the name of their shared adoration for Goethe's work, "the most sublime poem of modern literature", he wishes to offer him "a piece of that palm tree which Goethe visited in Padua and which, as you know, inspired his theory of plant metamorphosis. Goethe himself kept a leaf from this palm tree throughout his long life. This tree is still alive, religiously cultivated in my home town [...] This tree bears Goethe's name and my fellow citizens have offered me three branches", from which he has cut the small piece he is going to send her in a case... "If my vanity does not blind me, if in my music, as I hope, one finds an echo, albeit weakened, of the immense harmony of Goethe's Poem, keep this piece of branch in memory of a man who honors, as you do, in art the gift of the Gods"...