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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, February 13, 1933

Finance Ministry
Budapest
13.II.33Monday.

Please, dearest Mildred, when you get this—and the letter I posted to you Sat. last 11 Feb.—send me a cable saying whether you expect to be in Washington early this next June. If you do, I shall make every effort to visit the land of my birth at that time.

I forgot to say that the Guaranty Trust people have been kind enough to say that they will let Bill attend their Banking School, beginning next Oct.William Royall Tyler became an employee of the Guaranty Trust Co., New York, in 1934 and worked there until 1938. It is considered, this school, to be the best thing of its sort, and it is very keenly competed for, so I’m much pleased. Whether Bill proves or does not prove suitable for a banking career, I’m anxious that he should live for some time in N.Y., and I want him to work while he’s there, as one never really gets the hang of a place until one has worked there.

About the San Marco suggestion,See letter of February 11, 1933. it is not so much that I need, for my own purposes, to have those objects properly shown, for with MarangoniLuigi Marangoni (1872–1950), an Italian architect and the proto or custodian of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. See Otto Demus, The Church of San Marco in Venice: History, Architecture, Sculpture (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1960), 198. I can always open the cases and take the things out and handle them. It’s in the general interests of all scholars in the Byz. field. I think I told you that Marangoni, Hayford and I are planning, if when and as Hayford and I terminate the 5 vol. publicationL’art byzantin. we’re now at work on, to do a catalogue illustré and raisonné of the Treasure of S. Marks and of the Byz. parts of the Pala d’Oro.Although this project was never realized by these scholars, it was published in just this form by H. R. Hahnloser, ed., Il tesoro di San Marco, 2 vols. (Florence: Sansoni, 1965–1971). Those are monkey-puzzles which scholars, since the days of PasiniAntonio Pasini (1833–1897), the author of Il tesoro di San Marco in Venezia (Venice: Ongania, 1885–1886). and Molinier,Charles Marie Louis Emile Molinier (1857–1906), a French curator and art historian. His publications include Dictionnaire des émailleurs, depuis le moyen age jusqu’a la fin du XVIII siècle (Paris: J. Rouam, 1885) and Le trésor de la basilique de Saint Marc à Venice (Venice : Ferd. Ongania, 1888). have carefully left alone, but I think that by the time Hayford and I have completed our Survey we’ll be equipped to attack them. We must have Marangoni’s collaboration, not only on account of Ital. amour-propre“Pride.” and facilities for actual inspection of the objects, but because he after all knows them better than does any other living being—and he has a remarkably good appreciation of Byzantine generally: perhaps the best I’ve come across.

Elisina, in Rome, saw Sangiorgi’s things—he has that big piece of Byz. VIe cent, silk with the lion-tamers: a pure marvel, illustrated in the Byz. Exhibition 1931 catalogue.Charles Diehl, Jean Ebersolt, and Royall Tyler, Exposition internationale d’art byzantin, 28 mai–9 juillet 1931 (Paris: Musée des arts décoratifs, 1931), 96, pl. 9. But he appears to love it, and wouldn’t even mention a price for it. However, one never knows. It is certainly one of the grandest textiles in existence.

There was very little at the dealers in Paris. No demand, no supply. The demand creates the supply, doubtless.

Bless you, dearest Mildred.

Ever yrs truly.
R. T.

 
Associated Artworks: BZ.1932.1