"Je vais remercier infiniment le comte Joseph Primoli de l'amabilité qu'il a mise à vous adresser à moi"

Autograph letter signed by Emile Zola addressed to Ugo Ojetti. One page written in black ink on the first page of a double sheet. Folding inherent to postal transmission. Envelope included.
This letter was addressed by the father of naturalism to journalist Ugo Ojetti when he had just arrived in Rome: "Monsieur, je vais remercier infiniment le comte Joseph Primoli de l'amabilité qu'il a mise à vous adresser à moi, et je serai très heureux de vous recevoir, si vous voulez bien me venir voir le soir qu'il vous plaira, à six heures." ["Sir, I wish to thank Count Joseph Primoli infinitely for the kindness he has shown in directing you to me, and I shall be very happy to receive you, if you would be so good as to come and see me any evening that suits you, at six o'clock."] Having arrived a few days earlier in the eternal city to conduct research for Rome, Emile Zola hoped to meet Count Joseph Primoli there. The latter was unfortunately in Paris, but he sent him this young journalist from La Tribuna who would serve as his guide, but also as secretary. The two men clearly got along well and Zola even authorized Ojetti to adapt an opera libretto from his famous Nana. The project would unfortunately never come to fruition.
Joseph Napoléon, Count Primoli (1851-1927), was the great-great-nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. Very close to the imperial family under the Second Empire, he subsequently remained faithful to the salon of his beloved aunt, Princess Mathilde, in her private mansion on rue de Berri. His refined and witty conversation worked wonders there and he met, as a passionate bibliophile, some of the greatest writers of his time: Gustave Flaubert, Théophile Gautier, the Goncourts and Guy de Maupassant.