When They Were Few

On 24 April 1799, Vice President Thomas Jefferson wrote to Carlo Bellini, professor of modern languages at the College of William and Mary, about their mutual friends and acquaintances going back before the Revolution. There had been a seven-year gap in their correspondence; Bellini had been seriously ill; his wife had died the previous year. The letter was intended to comfort an old friend. Although Filippo Mazzei “was living in Pisa,” other friends had settled permanently in America: “[Y]ou know that Giovanni Strobia has got rich as a grocer in Richmond.” Bellini, Mazzei, and Strobia had all enlisted in the Virginia militia. “Vincent [Rossi] is in flourishing circumstances,” Jefferson continued. “Anthony Giannini has raised a large family, married several of them, &, after thriving for a while, has become embarrassed, & little esteemed. Francis, his brother in law, & Anthony Molina have done tolerably well. Giovannini da Prato has been constantly sickly & miserably poor. All these are still in this neighborhood”—by which Jefferson meant Charlottesville. ¹