He then gave me his benediction, and asked me very graciously what he could do for me.
“I beg Your Holiness to plead for me, that I may be able to return to Venice.”
“We will speak of it to the ambassador, and then we will speak again to you on the matter.”
“Do you often go and see Cardinal Passionei?”
“I have been three times. He gave me his funeral oration on Prince Eugene, and in return I sent him the ‘Pandects’.”
“Has he accepted them?”
“I think so, Holy Father.”
“If he has, he will send Winckelmann to pay you for them.”
“That would be treating me like a bookseller; I will not receive any payment.”
“Then he will return the volume of the ‘Pandects’; we are sure of it, he always does so.”