Letter from Leopoldo Alinari to Dr. Ernst Becker acknowledging receipt of his telegram conveying permission to photograph the Raphael drawings in Venice and Vienna

Alinari writes from Florence saying that he has received Dr. Becker 's telegram announcing that permission has been obtained for him to photograph the drawings by Raphael in Vienna and Venice. He has passed on the news to M. Bardi, who is in Paris, and he hopes to go to Venice in July. He explains that he is working on albumen, which requires more time for preparing the glass plates, but he prefers it to collodion because 'much more effect' [?contrast] can be obtained with it, especially when reproducing 'old yellow drawings'. He adds that he has been waiting for permission through the British Ambassador to photograph the drawings by Raphael and other Old Masters in the Uffizi Gallery; there are 'thousands' of drawings there which very few people can see, including Titian landscapes which are masterpieces. The fifty drawings he has already published are nothing compared to what remains to be done; and that was only possible through the intervention of the French Ambassador. Now, however, his first priority is to go to Venice, where the work will take him about two months.