Un addendum all’edizione: B.G. Niebuhr, Briefe. Neue folge (1816-1830). I. Briefe aus Rom (1816-1823) : tre lettere inedite di B.G. Niebuhr ad Angelo Mai

The present article gives the first edition of three letters, until now unknown, written by the Danish Altertumswissenschaftler Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776-1831) to Angelo Mai (1782-1854) in 1822 and 1823, when Niebuhr was ambassador of the king of Prussia Frederick William III at the Holy See and Mai was the first librarian of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. These letters, preserved in a not too known archive group held in the Historical Archive of the Diocese of Bergamo, show the close relationship between the two personages and especially Niebuhr’s effort in spreading beyond the Alps the fundamental editiones principes published by Mai, such as Cicero’s De re publica and the Fragmenta Vaticana iuris anteiustinianei. The article also aims to rebuild unknown aspects of the history of these two editions, moving from other unpublished letters written by Mai or by his correspondents and likewise preserved in the Historical Archive of the Diocese of Bergamo.