Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands - Nýr flokkur - 01.01.1983, Page 45

TIL ÍSLENDINGA
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Þar eð ekki var auðvelt að flytja prentverk á þeim dögum, hafi Jón Arason fengið
honum síðar Breiðabólstað, sem var stærri og hægari jörð þar einungis skammt frá.
Það virðist ekki líklegt, að prentsmiðjan hafi, þá er hún eitt sinn hafði verið sett niður
á Hólum í Hjaltadal, verið send svo langt í burtu sem að Breiðabólstað. Hálfdan
Einarsson sá, að Breviarium var prentað á Hólum, og hugði eðlilega, að átt væri við
Hóla í Hjaltadal.
Til Matthíasar Jochumssonar skálds
Florence, June 19'
Villa Forini,
Porta alla Croce.
My dear Matthías Jochumsson!
Your letter came like an unexpected draught of refreshing North-
ern air in these hot Italian Midsummer days. I only wish that the
post might have brought yourself, instead of your epistle, and that I
might have shown you the city of poets - of Dante and Boccaccio.
Þorvaldur Thoroddsen passed through Florence a few weeks since.
When you see him tell him that I never, never, never shall forgive him for
not informing me by mail, from Leipzig or elsewhere, of his intended
visit. As it was, I was out of town for a fortnight, and he missed me.
But I might easily have returned, and would have been most glad to
do so, had I known of his trip to Italy. I almost shed tears over the
disappointment when I saw his card.
I trust your school-house project will succeed, as I have no doubt it
will in your energetic hands. Sometime I hope to be able to send you
a contribution for it. But just now, owing to the failure of so many
American railways to pay their dividend, my income is reduced to a
very small figure indeed, and I am forced to practice a most
unpleasantly rigid economy.
My collection of Icelandic books has grown to be quite large,
though I don’t suppose that it bears any comparison with that of Jón
Sigurðsson, now in your National Library.
My father died last year at the advanced age of eighty-four and my
mother is here in Florence with me.
Some of these summers I hope to visit Iceland once more, if my
health and my purse permit, and then I shall come to see you and
Oddi. Heaven hasten the day!
1 Bréfið er án ársctningar, en ártalið 1885 skrifað innan hornklofa neðan við dagsetninguna.