Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901). L.A.S., Genova (Genoa) December - Lot 172

Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901). L.A.S., Genova (Genoa) December 21, 1893, to Professor Arrigo Tamassia; 1page in-8 (small repaired split, slight russet); in Italian. Tribute to his friend Cesare Vigna. [Cesare Vigna (1819-1892) physician and psychiatrist, befriended Verdi, whom he treated during his bouts of depression; Verdi dedicated La Traviata to him, in recognition of the part he had played in developing Violetta's psychology. Director of the San Clemente asylum for the insane, he practiced music therapy on his patients; he was also a music critic. After the sudden death of his son Clementino in 1891, Vigna decided to retire from private life and return to his hometown, where he was struck down by a stroke that took six months to kill him in 1892. Arrigo Tamassia (1848-1917) was professor of forensic medicine at the University of Padua, and author of numerous works on psychiatry]. He's embarrassed to talk about poor Vigna. He cannot speak of his value in the sciences that Vigna professed, and which he ignores. But certainly his erudition was vast, as was his mind: an acute reasoner, profound and above all convincing; a heart of gold, an angel of kindness and a sincere friend, constant and faithful for over thirty years, whose loss Verdi bitterly deplores: "la sua erudizione era vastissima, come era vastissima la sua mente: ragionatore acuto, profondo e soprattutto convincente; un cuor d'oro, un angelo di bontà e mio amico da più di trent'anni sincero, costante, leale, di cui deploro amaramente la perdita"...