Charles Darwin | Autograph letter signed, to Enrico Giglioli, on his research into chimpanzees, 1873

Darwin, Charles

Autograph letter signed, to [Enrico Giglioli]

thanking the Italian zoologist for sending a copy of his study of chimpanzee skulls ("...This subject is most important & interesting; but I grieve to say that I cannot read Italian: I will, however, get my wife to translate parts to me..."), 1 page, 8vo, headed stationery of Down House, Kent, 6 February [1873], light spotting and a few marks

Enrico Hillyer Giglioli (1845-1909) was director of the Royal Zoological Museum in Florence. He had met Darwin when studying in London in the early 1860s, and had later accompanied Filippo De Filippi in a scientific expedition that circumnavigated the world in 1866-68. Darwin's inscribed and annotated copy of Giglioli's Studii craniologici sui cimpanzé (1872) is now held by Cambridge University Library.

LITERATURE:

Darwin Correspondence Project, Letter no. 8201A

PROVENANCE:

Profiles in History, Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector, Part 2, 30 May 2013, lot 203