Empress Maria Theresa's Letter to Cardinal Ignazio Boncompagni Ludovisi, Austria (1775) (UH0061)

Modelled after Empress Maria Theresa of Austria’s letter to His Eminence Cardinal Ignazio Boncompagni Ludovisi (17 December 1775), Boncompagni Ludovisi Archive (Villa Aurora), Rome, Italy. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria wrote to His Eminence Ignazio Boncompagni Ludovisi to congratulate him on his elevation to Cardinal. Maria Theresa and her daughter, Queen Marie Antoinette of France, both corresponded with Boncompagni Ludovisi, but they employed different letterlocking techniques (See our video Marie Antoinette's Letter with a Removable Paper Lock, France (1782). The locking variation shown here is a "tucked, two-piece lock." The substrate, a heavy-weight paper, bears a black border and was folded to create a bifolium. The Empress's signature appears below nine lines of text scribed in another hand. The message appears on less than one quarter of the page. The short edges were gate-folded toward the midpoint of the bifolium. A tri-fold created three panels -- two of equal width, and a third that is much narrower — and two pockets. The longer closure flap tucked into the shorter pocket to form a letterpacket that, when secured shut, resembles a modern envelope. However, the short panel was oriented along the bottom edge of the letterpacket, not the top. The paper lock laced through two slits, each 6.0 mm wide, locking the overlapped tucks. The large black starch wafer was moistened and placed over the tails of the lock. The second part of the two-piece lock, an intricately-cut decorative paper lock), was placed on top of the wafer and impressed with a large signet to create a covered seal. When the letter is unfolded, the slits that accommodate the laced lock appear in every panel of the substrate. Principessa Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi discovered several letters signed by various Heads of State in a tin chest in 2010. Dr Corey Brennan, then Director of Classics at the American Academy in Rome, extended the invitation to study and consult on the care of the Boncompagni Ludovisi archival collections at Villa Aurora. This letter is modelled courtesy of HSH Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi and HSH Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi, Archivio Boncompagni Ludovisi (Villa Aurora). Photo credits: Dr. T. Corey Brennan 2010. To learn more visit the Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi website. We have news! Since this filming, our team of 11 researchers worked together to read an unopened letter virtually – the words and the folds – for the first time, without ever breaking its seal. What does the letter say? Head to our website https://www.letterlocking.org to learn all the details and celebrate the launch of letterlocking! Read our findings in our Nature Communications article, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21.... Visit our Dataverse, our open repository for data collected for this project: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataver.... Produced by MIT Video Production. Directed and demonstrated by Jana Dambrogio. Funded by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries. Special thanks to Ayako Letizia, Camille Dekeyser, and MIT Video Production staff. Citation information: Authors: Jana Dambrogio and the Unlocking History research group. Title: "Empress Maria Theresa's Letter to Cardinal Ignazio Boncompagni Ludovisi, Austria (1775)," Letterlocking Instructional Videos. Unlocking History number 0061/Letterlocking Unique Video number: 0061. Date filmed: December 2015. Duration: 4:32. Date posted: March 2016. Video URL: [Insert URL]. Date accessed: [Date]. Copyright 2016. Jana Dambrogio, Daniel Starza Smith, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). All rights reserved. The following copyrighted material is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.... Contact the MIT Technology Licensing Office for any other licensing inquiries. To find out more about letterlocking, visit http://letterlocking.org and follow us on social media @letterlocking. YouTube URL: http://bit.ly/EMT_1775