Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde de SISMONDI (1773–1842), Swiss - Lot 137

Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde de SISMONDI (1773–1842), Swiss historian and economist. Letter from the author, September 14, 1817, to the printer Georges-Adrien Crapelet; 3 pages, in-12 format, addressed. Regarding the progress of the printing of his *History of the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages*. The publishers Treuttel and Wurtz assured him that the printer had received the paper and promised him the proofs for the following day. He declined an invitation and made arrangements “to have several hours free each morning; these hours are wasted, and I am burning with impatience. If there is a misunderstanding between you and Mr. Wurtz, meet in person instead of dragging out this correspondence, which could go on for weeks, with one always claiming to have sent the paper and the other claiming not to have received it.” The worst part is that “you’ve put the work on hold. […] For a project that moves quickly—and yet each sheet must remain in proofs for at least five days before printing is completed—six sheets of endpapers are far from enough. It is impossible to proceed with the work with fewer than ten—and perhaps twelve—sets of proofs, and for such a very small savings, you should not have suspended everything. […] You must realize how much sorrow and impatience all this must cause me. Please see to it that printing begins tomorrow, and at the same time order new sets, so that I may have proofs as early as the day after tomorrow”…