Eleonora

Cara Valeria,

To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greek, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest dinner.

Ibsen is like this room where we are sitting, with all the tables and chairs. Do I care whether you have twenty or twenty-five links on your chain? Hedda Gabler, Nora and the rest: it is not that I want! I want Rome and the Coliseum, the Acropolis, Athens; I want beauty, and the flame of life.

Ciao!

Duse

Leon Battista

Dear Valeria,

Painting possesses a truly divine power in that not only does it make the absent present (as they say of friendship), but it also represents the dead to the livings many centuries later.

Yours,

Leon Battista Alberti

Amelia

Dear Valeria,

"Come what may," said I aloud, "I will see what lies beyond this door!"
And with this I opened it.” 

my best to you and your little friend from the Nile,

Amelia Edwards

Saul

Ciao,

Saul Steinberg

Edina

Mia cara Valeria,

Ciao,

Edina Altara

Sarah

My dear Valeria,

There lived in the northern parts of England, a gentlewoman who undertook the education of young ladies; and this trust she endeavoured faithfully to discharge, by instructing those committed to her care in reading, writing, working, and in all proper forms of behaviour. And though her principal aim was to improve their minds in all useful knowledge; to render them obedient to their superiors, and gentle, kind, and affectionate to each other; yet did she not omit teaching them an exact neatness in their persons and dress, and a perfect gentility in their whole carriage.

With affection and regard, I remain,

Sarah Fielding