MARIA THERESA: (1717-1780) Holy Roman Empress as spouse of Francis I, Archduchess of Austria and Que

MARIA THERESA: (1717-1780) Holy Roman Empress as spouse of Francis I, Archduchess of Austria and Que

MARIA THERESA: (1717-1780) Holy Roman Empress as spouse of Francis I, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Germany, Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. She was the only female ruler and the last of the House of Habsburg. A.N.S., `Je la lui accorde. MT´, (''I grant it to him. MT''), two pages, 4to, n.p., 12th November 1765, in French. The Empress responds to her secretary GERARD VAN SWIETEN (1700-1772) Dutch Physician. Van Swieten was the personal Physician of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa since 1745. He is credited with transforming the Austrian health service and medical university education. Maria Theresa accepts the proposal at the end of an A.L.S., `Van Swieten´, the autograph letter is entitled `Memorial of Roman Grundner, Secretary of the censorship commission´, and stating in part `Your Majesty had the grace of granting a salary to Secretary Grundner… his work for censorship has been important and constant…This man possesses several languages, French, English, Latin, Italian, Spanish and German, and this is almost necessary for this task and to be able to catalogue the books and admit or condemn them.´ Van Swieten further explains that the Archbishop suggested that Grundner would be appointed also as Secretary of a studies commission that Her Majesty wished to create and that he is doing so for the last five years without being paid for this, and suggests to increase his salary. Small overall minor age wear, mostly to right edge, otherwise G 

 

Van Swieten was the father of Gottfried van Swieten (1733-1803) a diplomat best remembered for being the patron of several of the greatest composers ever, such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. An important physician, Gerard van Swieten was also in charge of supervising censorship on all persecutions and relied on Roman Grundner, whose case he advances in the present letter, to Maria Theresa's approval.