The Thorvaldsens Museum Archives

Abstract

The document is a list of small loans to various people. The crossed-out names have probably repaid their loan.
The document can be dated quite precisely. It dates from around 1.9.1805 and is closely connected to C.F.F. Stanley’s report from Rome regarding loans of money on Thorvaldsen’s behalf in letter of 24.8.1805 to Montenero: “…you thought they would come and return the money you lent them, well, cheers – my dear, now I have become a cashier[,] the day before yesterday I lent Bøndel 10 Piastres and today Vahl 12.”
As can be seen, the sums and the dates for Conrad Christian Bøhndel and Johan Georg Wahl fit almost precisely.
This dating also fits the fact that Wahl only arrived in Rome during 1805.
Therefore, Thorvaldsen probably wrote the note at Montenero in order to remember how much of his money Stanley had lent to needy Danes while Thorvaldsen was away. This practice was apparently quite normal, see also letter of 7.9.1805 from Stanley to Thorvaldsen: “Now I, poor man, have lent to other poor fellows 37 piastres but we will keep it to ourselves.” Here Stanley is clearly not referring to his own money but to Thorvaldsen’s, which he managed during the sculptor’s absence from Rome.
On the back of this document there is a older draft of medio april 1804. The note is thus a good example of the reuse of paper that Thorvaldsen was known for.