Anonymous biography of Kristina in "Eccentric Biography; or, Memoirs of Remarkable Female Characters, Ancient and Modern", year 1803, part 6

Source:

Eccentric Biography; or, Memoirs of Remarkable Female Characters, Ancient and Modern, pages 92 to 93, by anonymous author, 1803; original at The British Library

https://books.google.com/books?id=znNZAAAAcAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Eccentric+Biography%3B+or,+Memoirs+of+Remarkable+Female+Characters,+Ancient+and+Modern+1803&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

... The fortune which the adventurer Michon, known under the name of Bourdelot, made by her countenance and liberality, was also a great scandal to literature. He had no pretensions to learning; and, though sprightly, was indecent; he was brought to court by the learned Saumaise, and, for a time, drove literary merit out of it, making learning the object of his ridicule, and exacting from Christina an exorbitant tribute to the weakness and inconstancy of her sex; for even Christina, with respect to this man, shewed herself to be weak and inconstant. When at last she was compelled, by the public indignation, to banish this unworthy minion, she distinguished him by marks of the greatest confidence, and heaped presents upon him with the most shameful prodigality. Yet he was no sooner gone, than her regard for him was at an end. She was ashamed of the favour she had shewn him, and in a short time thought of him only with hatred and contempt; and, though she did afterwards correspond with him, it was only to render him subservient to a taste for literature, which he had for a time suspended, by giving him commissions for such valuable books as appeared in France, where Bourdelot was born, and whither he retired. ...

Above: Kristina.

Above: Pierre Bourdelot.

Above: Claude Saumaise.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 13

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 49 to 54, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

Rome took about six months to disappoint Christina. There was no help for it. In future every place and every person was destined to disappoint her. It was not that she had changed her nature to any especial captiousness or misanthropy; she had simply set herself an impossible programme. At the age of twenty-eight, in the superabundant fulness of her powers, she had retired, and proposed henceforward to take pleasure for her employment. The plan, unsound for almost any temperament, was ludicrous for Christina. Her energy could never be consumed by entertainments. Her brain was fertile and keen, and she was of a passionately participating nature. Work was her first necessity. It could not be long before, feeling herself baulked and unproductive, she must begin to quarrel with her surroundings.

None of this, naturally, emerged during the year at Brussels. At Brussels she was trying her wings; she was merely pausing and was on holiday. But at Rome she was stopping, and the holiday had become routine. Discontent and disillusion were inevitable.

But though like everything else in her life Rome was bound to fail her, it was with this difference; it did not allow itself to be cast off. Christina was not proof against the Eternal City. Inveighing against its inhabitants, quarrelling with its Popes, embroiling herself hotly and needlessly in its affairs, she yet remained captive. No sooner had she left it than she looked towards it longingly. Time after time she returned eagerly to the trials it had in store for her. She was in love with the notion of spending the end of her life among her own kin, but she died in Rome, after having left it only for short intervals during thirty years.

Christina's discontent with Rome was reciprocal. If, taking a long look forward, we seek to describe her during her residence there, an inevitable word suggests itself. She was a nuisance. She was a brilliant nuisance, a nuisance to be reckoned with, but still a nuisance.

'Pellegrino real, con sciolta chioma,

Venne a empir di se stessa Italia e Roma'

ran one of the complimentary verses on her arrival. Christina did, in fact, with a fearful zest, set about filling Italy and Rome with herself. Her career, that of the regular expatriated resident at the capital, was one of forced activities. Having no affairs of her own, she had either to invent them or adopt other people's. The invented schemes were invariably crack-brained, and the adopted ones capable of promoting much bad feeling. And both varieties were planned on her own extensive royal scale and driven to their limits by her exceptionally powerful personality. During her residence at Rome she not only aimed at two kingdoms for herself, but also attempted to create two Popes and arrange another Pope's quarrels. Heavenly guidance was thought to have led her to the Eternal City, but her condition undoubtedly gave Satan a chance to employ her there.

Christina came almost immediately into conflict with Rome in the person of Alexander VII. The church had opened its arms to her, but Christina, having enjoyed the first sumptuous embrace, showed herself indifferent to further graces. Alexander, meanwhile, had a fixed idea of the behaviour suitable to a converted queen. It was not a rigid schedule, but it included some prayers, a little penance, a modest bearing, and above all, obedience to the power to which she had professed herself so delighted to submit.

Christina's idea was different. She had adopted Roman Catholicism. That was enough. She had not the least intention of keeping up an attitude about it. She would practise her religion as seemed good to her. Alexander's tactful efforts to make a pious exhibit of her met with complete failure. He was forced at last into the curious position of urging on her that one public prayer was worth a dozen private devotions, which naturally provoked from Christina an outburst of honest northern scorn. The fact is that Christina was, in the true sense of the word, absolutely unreligious at heart. She chose religion, but she had not a grain of mysticism in her composition with which to pursue it. She was fundamentally rational. She wished to be a free-thinking Roman Catholic. She proposed to accept the dogma of the church and meanwhile to do as she pleased. She appreciated the church's ends, but could not tolerate its means. Christina could see nothing honest in Alexander's censure of the privacy of her devotions, of her lack of modesty, of her free attitude towards men. She scorned public protestations, tore the breeches off the Michelangelos, laughed the idea of chaperones to scorn. Her conflict with Alexander was a typical instance of the natural conflict between north and south.

Meanwhile she freely demonstrated her own attitude: that is to say, she flung herself into the pleasures Rome could give. She was magnificently entertained by the Pamphilj and the Barberini and the other great houses, and as was usual on her public appearances, inspired admiration and gave offence. Her mania for the arts and sciences was impressive, but while the Italians admired it, they stuck to the commonsense view that to renounce a throne for it was imbecility. 'This is purchasing at an extravagant price indeed', wrote a Roman observer, 'the frivolous pleasures of beholding the ruins of ancient Rome and the mutilated remains of Greek and Roman industry.' Although her taste, according to modern notions, was not frivolous, but altogether laudable, she managed to gratify it in a way that seemed to the lay mind eccentric and to the clerical something worse. She had no ear for sermons, but she went to the University and listened with interest to doctors debating in Arabic and Chaldæan about the Koran. She visited the Castle of St Angelo like any other tourist, but must needs insist on being allowed to fire off the great cannon with her own hand. Its reverberations were naturally heard throughout the city. She patronised the theatre to excess. Yet while she was willing to stoop to a commoner's frivolity in the gratification of her own pleasures, she attempted to extract the last dregs of obeisance as her royal right. The spirit that had ruined her meeting with Condé began to infect her general behaviour. She could not meet this or that royal personage without first discussing how their respective chairs were to be placed, what they were to be covered in, and exactly how much she could expect of her rights. She, with her true passion for classical Rome, was prevented from visiting the Capitol by the refusal of the Senators to receive her bare-headed. We can detect an ulterior note in her disappointment with the Italians. 'Do not think this is the country of heroes or wise men', she wrote, 'or the home of glories and virtues. O Caesar! O Cato! O Cicero! ... There are here only statues, obelisks and sumptuous palaces, not men!'

Disappointed of the Catos and Ciceros, Christina began to cast about for the Horaces and the Plinies. Her passion for literature was a part of her nature that was pure gold. It was honest and sturdy. She had nothing about her of the diletantism that infects the arts it pretends to patronise. She read Plato and Tacitus because she liked them, and she collected literary and learned men round her in the hope of finding something worthy and interesting in their work. At Rome her dear project of a salon had a chance to be realised. Men of talent were not likely to be lacking when a patron offered. The salon[,] however[,] was not formed on ordinary lines. The men of talent had no complement in women of charm. Christina reigned alone.

In a short time the queen had gathered enough genius round her in the Farnese Palace to embark upon something more ambitious and formal. The salon became a learned club. It became in fact an Academy, as these gatherings were beginning to be called, and took the name of Pia Accademia Reale. The constitution, drawn up under the queen's auspices, was full of admirable intentions. The first clause stated that the object of the academy was to discountenance pedantry, and the second that no person was to be excluded who possessed the necessary virtue and learning. The constitution further laid it down that the queen was to bear all expenses and expressly excluded panegyrics of herself. This little personal academy of Christina was one of the starting-points of the whole academy movement, and was itself the germ of the famous Arcadia.

Italian literature was at this moment beginning to set towards a simplicity revival. Seicentismo, the fashion of the seventeenth century, with its artificialities and ludicrous conceits, had passed its high-water mark, and was felt to have been unproductive. The periodical cry of back-to-nature began to be heard. All over Italy societies with fantastic names and ingenious devices began to be formed for the purpose of freeing literature from chains. The pedants were everywhere banded together to vow death to pedantry.

Of all the societies the Arcadia turned out to be the largest, the longest-lived and the most picturesque. Pursuing the back-to-nature intention, it constructed itself on pastoral lines. Its meetings were held whenever possible in the open air, its members assumed the names of shepherds and shepherdesses of Greece. Taking place at the end of the seventeenth century, a period when natural beauty existed for the polite Romans exclusively in poetic Arcadia, the revival was inevitably the most artificial return to nature in the history of literature. The reaction, popular as it was, in the end gave little more to art than seicentismo itself. But the movement typified in the Arcadia was furiously fashionable. Scarcely an enlightened Roman or an aspiring tourist but wished to be a member. In the end a theatre was built in which the periwigged shepherds might exchange their verses of gallantry, the laws of the constitution were cut in marble, and when a schism invaded the ranks of the society[,] it shook the elegant world. It was to this sumptuous and ineffectual growth that Christina's first meetings in the Palazzo Farnese gave impetus.

Above: Kristina.

Gilles Ménage's anecdote about Urbain Chevreau writing to him that Kristina likes both ancient and modern writers, early 1650s

Source:

Menagiana: ou bons mots, rencontres agréables, pensées judicieuses, et observations curieuses, volume 1, page 360, by Gilles Ménage, 1694

https://books.google.com/books?id=Onc5AAAAcAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=gilles+m%C3%A9nage+reine+de+suede&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The anecdote:

La Reine de Suede n'auroit pas été du parti de ceux qui préférent aujourd'hui les Modernes aux Anciens. M. Chevreau m'écrivit de Stokolm en parlant d'elle: «Elle a des louanges pour les Homéres & pour les Virgiles; mais elle en reserve pour les Chapelains & pour les Ménages.» Il y a de bons morceaux dans nos Modernes; mais il faut revenir aux Anciens. M. Chevreau faisoit bien de l'honneur dans la même lettre à M. Chapelain & à moi. Il ajoutoit: «Elle vous croit tous deux capables de réparer dans la République des lettres, la perte qui nous y a été causée par les Goths & par les Vandales.» Cela étoit vrai de M. Chapelain qui d'ailleurs avoit l'esprit si agréable qu'il ne fournissoit pas seulement à la conversation, mais qu'il la remplissoit seul.

With modernised spelling:

La reine de Suède n'aurait pas été du parti de ceux qui préférent aujourd'hui les modernes aux anciens. Monsieur Chevreau m'écrivit de Stockholm en parlant d'elle: «Elle a des louanges pour les Homères et pour les Virgiles, mais elle en réserve pour les Chapelains et pour les Ménages.»

Il y a de bons morceaux dans nos modernes, mais il faut revenir aux anciens. Monsieur Chevreau faisait bien de l'honneur dans la même lettre à Monsieur Chapelain et à moi. Il ajoutait: «Elle vous croit tous deux capables de réparer dans la république des lettres la perte qui nous y a été causée par les Goths et par les Vandales.»

Cela était vrai de Monsieur Chapelain, qui d'ailleurs avait l'esprit si agréable qu'il ne fournissait pas seulement à la conversation, mais qu'il la remplissait seul.

Swedish translation (my own):

Drottningen av Sverige skulle inte ha stått på de som idag föredrar de moderna framför de forna. Monsieur Chevreau skrev till mig från Stockholm och talade om henne: »Hon har lovord för Homererna och Virgilerna, men hon reserverar en del för Chapelains och Ménages.«

Det finns bra stycken i våra moderna, men man måste gå tillbaka till de forna. Monsieur Chevreau gjorde en stor ära i samma brev till monsieur Chapelain och till mig. Han tillade: »Hon tror att Ni båda är kapabla att inom brevrepubliken reparera den förlust som har orsakats oss där av göterna och av venerna.«

Detta gällde monsieur Chapelain, som dessutom hade ett så behagligt sinne att han inte bara bidrog till samtalet, utan fyllde det ensam.

English translation (my own):

The Queen of Sweden would not have been on the side of those who today prefer the moderns to the ancients. Monsieur Chevreau wrote to me from Stockholm, speaking of her: "She has praises for the Homers and for the Virgils, but she reserves some for the Chapelains and the Ménages."

There are good pieces in our moderns, but one must go back to the ancients. Monsieur Chevreau did a lot of honour in the same letter to Monsieur Chapelain and to me. He added: "She believes you both capable of repairing within the republic of letters the loss which has been caused to us there by the Goths and by the Vandals."

This was true of Monsieur Chapelain, who, moreover, had such an agreeable mind that he not only contributed to the conversation, but filled it alone.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Urbain Chevreau.

Above: Jean Chapelain.

Above: Giles Ménage.

Kristina's letter to Ottavio Ferrario, dated November 21/December 1 (New Style), 1653

Sources:

Octavii Ferrarii Prolusiones vigintisex epistolæ et formulæ ad capienda doctoris insignia, page 10, by Ottavio Ferrario, printed by Paolo Frambotti, 1668; original at Lyons Public Library (Bibliothèque jésuite des Fontaines)

https://books.google.com/books?id=JXmyCPSpgVEC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=christina+alessandra&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Octavii Ferrarii patricii mediolanensis, equitis, & in lyceo patavino quondam professoris celeberrimi Opera varia, page 95, published by Gottfried Freitag's Press, 1711; original at Princeton University

https://books.google.com/books?id=tqFXAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=opera+ferrarii+non+ingratam&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Mémoires concernant Christine, volume 1, pages 300 to 301, Johan Arckenholtz, 1751; original at the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek)

https://books.google.com/books?id=KgtcAAAAcAAJ&dq=reine+christine+de+suède+ferrario+savant+d%27italie+1653+lettre&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The letter:

OCTAVIO FERRARIO

S.

PAnegyricam tuam Orationem, qua bonæ Principis exẽplum, atque imaginem publico dedisti, sub vmbra mei nominis, quod munusculo iam pridem testata sum, non ingratam mihi fuisse: nihil profecto causæ erat, cur eo nomine gratias iterata scriptione ageres, Ferrari politissime: quanquam compellationes istiusmodi, & tuas, & a tui similibus profectas, habeo, atque habebo, semper acceptissimas. Quę enim res maiori voluptate possit me perfundere, quam si curas, quas promouendis, ac ornandis literis, quotidianas dare soleo, agnoscam non improbari ab illis, a quibus auctoritatem, & existimationem omnem mutuantur literæ? Qua propter nunc votis te flagrantissimis conuenio, vt hunc affectum tam profusum mihi perpetuum conserues, & si quid librorum, aut tu, qua es ingenij fœcunditate, aut alij illic terrarum viri eruditione præstantes, de nouo in lucem dederint, eius conspectu, ac lectione ne fraudari me sinas. Ego mutuis vicissim officijs certabo, vbi occasio dabitur: nec vnquam committam, ut videri possis frustra mihi bene voluisse. Vale. Vpsaliæ Kal. Decemb. Gregor. M DC LIII.

CHRISTINA

With modernised spelling:

Octavio Ferrario, senior,

Panegyricam tuam orationem, qua bonæ principis exemplum, atque imaginem publico dedisti sub umbra mei nominis, quod munusculo jam pridem testata sum, non ingratam mihi fuisse. Nihil profecto causæ erat, cur eo nomine gratias iterata scriptione ageres, Ferrari politissime; quanquam compellationes istiusmodi, et tuas et a tui similibus profectas, habeo, atque habebo, semper acceptissimas. Quæ enim res majori voluptate possit me perfundere quam si curas, quas promovendis, ac ornandis litteris quotidianas dare soleo, agnoscam non improbari ab illis, a quibus auctoritatem et existimationem omnem mutuantur litteræ?

Qua propter nunc votis te flagrantissimis convenio, ut hunc affectum tam profusum mihi perpetuum conserves; et si quid librorum, aut tu, qua es ingenii fœcunditate, aut alii illic terrarum viri eruditione præstantes de novo in lucem dederint, ejus conspectu, ac lectione ne fraudari me sinas. Ego mutuis vicissim officiis certabo, ubi occasio dabitur; nec unquam committam, ut videri possis frustra mihi bene voluisse. Vale. Upsaliæ, Kalendæ decembris gregorianis, MDCLIII.

Christina.

GFP's transcript of the letter:

OCTAVIO FERRARIO. S.

PAnegyricam tuam orationem, qua bonæ principis exemplum atque imaginem publico dedisti sub umbra mei nominis, munusculo iam pridem testata sum, non ingratam mihi fuisse. Nihil profecto causæ erat, cur eo nomine gratias iterata scriptione ageres, Ferrari politissime: quanquam compellationes istiusmodi, & tuas, & a tuis similibus profectas, habeo atque habebo semper acceptissimas. Quæ enim res maiori voluptate possit me perfundere, quam si curas, quas promovendis ac ornandis literis quotidianas dare soleo, agnoscam non improbari ab illis, a quibus auctoritatem & existimationem omnem mutuantur literæ? Quapropter nunc votis te flagrantissimis convenio, ut hunc affectum tam profusum mihi perpetuum conserves, & si quid librorum, aut tu, qua es ingenii fœcunditate, aut alii illic terrarum viri eruditione præstantes, de novo in lucem dederint, eius conspectu ac lectione ne fraudari me sinas. Ego mutuis vicissim officiis certabo, ubi occasio dabitur: nec unquam committam, ut videri possis frustra mihi bene voluisse. Vale. Vpsaliæ Kal. Decemb. Gregor. MDCLIII.

CHRISTINA.

With modernised spelling:

Octavio Ferrario, senior,

Panegyricam tuam orationem, qua bonæ principis exemplum atque imaginem publico dedisti sub umbra mei nominis, munusculo jam pridem testata sum, non ingratam mihi fuisse. Nihil profecto causæ erat, cur eo nomine gratias iterata scriptione ageres, Ferrari politissime; quanquam compellationes istiusmodi, et tuas, et a tuis similibus profectas, habeo atque habebo semper acceptissimas. Quæ enim res majori voluptate possit me perfundere, quam si curas, quas promovendis ac ornandis litteris quotidianas dare soleo, agnoscam non improbari ab illis, a quibus auctoritatem et existimationem omnem mutuantur litteræ? Quapropter nunc votis te flagrantissimis convenio, ut hunc affectum tam profusum mihi perpetuum conserves; et si quid librorum, aut tu, qua es ingenii fœcunditate, aut alii illic terrarum viri eruditione præstantes, de novo in lucem dederint, ejus conspectu ac lectione ne fraudari me sinas. Ego mutuis vicissim officiis certabo, ubi occasio dabitur; nec unquam committam, ut videri possis frustra mihi bene voluisse. Vale. Upsaliæ, kalendæ decembris Gregoriani 1653.

Christina.

Arckenholtz's transcript of the letter (he corrected Kristina's grammar):

Octavio Ferrario S.

PAnegiricam tuam orationem, qua bonæ Principis exemplum atque imaginem publico dedisti sub umbra mei nominis, munusculo jam pridem testata sum, non ingratam mihi fuisse. Nihil profecto causæ erat, cur eo nomine gratias iterata scriptione ageres, Ferrari politissime: quamquam compellationes ejusmodi, & tuas & à Tuis similibus profectas habeo atque habebo acceptissimas. Quæ enim res majori voluptate possit me perfundere, quas si curas, quas promovendis & ornandis literis quotidianas dare soleo, agnoscam non improbari ab illis à quibus auctoritatem & existimationem omnem mutuantur literæ? Qua propter nunc votis te flagrantissimis convenio, ut hunc affectum tam profusum mihi perpetuo conserves, & si quid librorum, aut tu, qua es ingenii fœcunditate, aut alii illic terrarum viri eruditione præstantes, de novo in lucem dederint, ejus conspectu ac lectione ne fraudari me sinas. Ego mutuis vicissim officiis certabo, ut occasio dabitur, nec unquam committam, ut videri possis frustra mihi bene voluisse. Vale. Upsaliæ Kal: Decemb. Gregor. MDCLIII.

CHRISTINA.

French translation (by Arckenholtz):

à Mr. Ferrario.

J'ai témoigné, il y a déja long-tems, par le petit présent que je vous ai fait, que le panégirique dans lequel vous avez donné au Public, à l'ombre de mon nom, l'image & l'éxemple d'une bonne Princesse, ne m'a nullement déplu. Il n'y avoit, Monsieur, aucune raison qui vous obligeât à réitérer par écrit vos remerciemens comme vous l'avez fait par votre derniére lettre. J'avoue pourtant, que de tels complimens d'un auteur aussi poli que vous & de vos semblables, me sont & serons toûjours fort agréables. Car qu'est-ce qui pourroit me donner plus de plaisir que de reconnoître, que les soins que je donne tous les jours à l'avancement & à l'honneur des belles lettres, ne sont pas désaprouvés de ceux de qui elles empruntent le crédit & le considération, dont elles jouissent? C'est pourquoi je vous prie très-instamment de me conserver pour toûjours cette vive affection: & si vous, dont le génie est si sécond, ou d'autres savans dans vos contrées mettez au jour de nouveaux ouvrages, ne me privez pas de la satisfaction de les voir & de les lire. Je ne demeurerai pas en arriére avec vous en fait de bons offices, quand l'occasion s'en présentera: & il ne tiendra pas à moi que votre bienveillance ne vous soit utile. Dieu vous conserve. Donné à Upsal le 1. Déc. 1653.

CHRISTINE.

English translation (my own):

To Signor Ferrario.

I testified, a long time ago, by the little present that I made to you, that the panegyric in which you gave to the public, in the shadow of my name, the image and the example of a good princess, did not displease me at all. There was no reason, Sir, forcing you to reiterate your thanks in writing as you did in your last letter. I admit, however, that such compliments from an author as polite as you and your fellows are and will always be very pleasant to me. Because what could give me more pleasure than to recognise that the care I give every day to the advancement and honour of les belles lettres are not disapproved of those from whom they borrow credit and consideration, which they enjoy? That is why I urge you very urgently to keep this affection for me forever; and if you, whose genius is so second to none, or if other scholars in your countries bring to light new works, do not deprive me of the satisfaction of seeing and reading them. I will not stay behind with you in fact of good offices, when the opportunity arises; and it will not be up to me that your kindness is of no use to you. God keep you. Given at Uppsala on December 1, 1653.

Kristina.

French translation (my own):

Octave Ferrario, signore,

Votre oraison panégyrique, dans lequel vous avez offert au public l'exemple et l'image d'une bonne princesse à l'ombre de mon nom, ce dont j'ai témoigné depuis longtemps par un petit présent, ne m'a pas déplu. Il n'y avait en réalité aucune raison pour que vous exprimiez votre gratitude itérée en ce nom par écrit, très poli Ferrario; bien que j'aie toujours trouvé et trouverai toujours très agréables les compellations de ce genre, tant les vôtres que celles envoyées par vos semblables. Car quelle chose pourrait me procurer plus de plaisir que de reconnaître que le soin que j'ai l'habitude de porter à promouvoir et à orner des lettres quotidiennes n'est pas improuvé par ceux dont les lettres mutuent toute leur autorité et leur existimation?

C'est pourquoi je m'adresse à vous avec les prières les plus ferventes afin que vous conserviez perpétuellement cette profonde affection pour moi; et que, s'il existe des livres que vous, avec votre fécondité du génie, ou que d'autres hommes érudits de la terre donnez à la lumière, vous ne permettez pas que je sois privée de son conspect et de sa lecture. Je vous rendrai offices mutuels en retour, chaque fois que l'occasion se présentera; et je ne commettrai jamais rien qui puisse laisser croire que vos vœux de bien ont été vains. Adieu. Upsal, les calendes de décembre, grégorien, 1653.

Christine.

Italian translation (my own):

Ottavio Ferrario, signore,

La vostra panegirica orazione, con cui avete offerto al pubblico l'esempio e l'immagine di una buona principessa all'ombra del mio nome, cosa che ho da tempo testimoniato con un piccolo muno, non mi è stata sgradita. Non c'era davvero motivo per cui voi doveste esprimere la vostra iterata gratitudine in quel nome per iscritto, politissimo Ferrario; sebbene io abbia sempre trovato e troverò sempre graditissime suppliche di questo genere, sia vostre che di uomini come ve. Perché cosa potrebbe riempirmi di maggior piacere che riconoscere che la cura che sono solita mettere nel promuovere ed ornare le lettere quotidiane non è improbata da coloro dai quali le lettere mutuano tutta la loro autorità e la loro esistimazione?

Per questo motivo mi rivolgo ora a voi con le più ardenti preghiere affinché conserviate perpetuamente questo affetto profuso per me; e che se ci sono libri che o voi, con la vostra fecondità di ingegno, o altri uomini eruditi della terra date alla luce di nuovo, non permettete che io sia privata dello loro conspetto e della loro lettura. A mia volta, vi renderò omaggio con mutui uffizi, ogni volta che se ne presenterà l'occasione; e non commetterò mai una cosa tale per cui si possa vedere che mi avete augurato il meglio frustra. Addio. Uppsala, calende di dicembre, gregoriano, 1653.

Cristina.

Swedish translation (my own):

Ottavio Ferrario, signore,

Er panegyrisk oration, där Ni har givit allmänheten ett exempel och en bild av en god furstinna i skuggan av mitt namn, vilket jag sedan länge har vittnat om med en liten gåva, har inte varit obehaglig för mig. Det fanns egentligen ingen anledning till att Ni skulle uttrycka Er upprepade tacksamhet i det namnet genom att skriva, artigaste Ferrario; även om jag alltid har funnit och alltid kommer att finna sådana kompellationer, både Era och de som skickats av Era gelikar, mycket acceptabla. Ty vad skulle kunna fylla mig med större glädje än om jag erkände att den omsorg jag är van vid att visa när jag befordrar och pryder dagliga brev inte ogillas av dem från vilka brev lånar all sin auktoritet och existimation?

Fördenskull närmar jag mig nu Er med innerliga bönen att Ni ständigt bevarar denna innerliga tillgivenhet för mig, och att om det finns några böcker som antingen Ni med Ert ingeniums fruktbarhet eller som andra lärda män på jorden ånyo drar fram i ljuset, låt mig inte berövas dess närvaro och läsning. Jag skall däremot ge Er ömsesidiga tjänster, närhelst tillfälle uppstår; och jag skall aldrig begå något sådant som kan visa att Ni förgäves önskat mig väl. Farväl. Uppsala, kalends december, gregoriansk, 1653.

Kristina.

English translation (my own; from the original Latin):

Ottavio Ferrario, signore,

Your panegyric oration, in which you have given the public an example and image of a good princess under the shadow of my name, which I have long since testified to with a small present, has not been unpleasant to me. There was really no reason why you should express your iterated gratitude in that name by writing, most polite Ferrario; although I have always found and will always find compellations of this kind, both yours and those sent by your ilk, most acceptable. For what thing could fill me with greater pleasure than if I were to acknowledge that the care I am accustomed to take in promoting and orning daily letters is not improbated by those from whom letters borrow all their authority and existimation?

For this reason I now approach you with most ardent prayers that you perpetually preserve this profuse affection for me; and that if there are any books which either you, with your fecundity of intellect, or which other erudite men of the Earth bring to light anew, do not allow me to be deprived of its presence and reading. I will match you in mutual offices in return, whenever the occasion arises; and I will never commit such a thing whereby you may be seen to have wished me well in vain. Goodbye. Uppsala, the Kalends of December, Gregorian, 1653.

Kristina.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Ottavio Ferrario.

Notes: orning = adorning.

improbated = disapproved of.