A Lost Letter of Marie-Antoinette

From the Vatican Secret Archive.

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) today announced that it is the main sponsor of the 'Lux in Arcana' exhibition, taking place at the Musei Capitolini from 1st March to September 2012. The exhibition will reveal for the first time codes, files, scrolls, records and manuscripts of great historical value, preserved for 400 years in the Vatican Secret Archive.

As main sponsor, EMC revealed that one of the documents included in the exhibition is a letter by Marie Antoinette, written in 1793 while she was in prison to someone thought to be Louis XVI's brother Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, who in 1824 became Charles X, King of France. The letter, which is only ten lines in length, is handwritten on a sheet of ordinary paper folded in two. It reads, "The sentiments of those who share my pain, my dear brother-in-law, are the only consolation I can receive in this sad circumstance." The letter is then signed, "Your loving Sister-in-Law and Cousin Marie Antoinette." The clear and regular handwriting confirms that it was penned by Maria Antonia of Habsburg-Lorraine, daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, who in 1770 had married the future King Louis XVI of France, and from then on was always called Marie Antoinette.

Other documents which visitors to the exhibition will be able to view date from the eighth century through to the twentieth century. These include:

• A letter from the British Parliament to Pope Clement VII about King Henry VIII's impending divorce
• A silk cloth from the Empress Helena of China on her conversion to Catholicism dated 4 November 1650
• A letter from Michelangelo to Monsignor Christopher Spirits, Bishop of Cesena and the future patriarch of Jerusalem
• The acts from the trial of Galileo Galilei
• A letter written on birch bark by American Indians to Pope Leo XIII

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/29/4300161/emc-sponsors-lux-in-arcana-the.html#storylink=cpy

(Read entire post.)

More at Vive la Reine.


Share