To Ercole Ricotti   4 January 1880

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Jan 4. 1880

Sir,

I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of Dec 29th in which you are so good as to inform me that the Royale Academy of Sciences of Turin has awarded me the great Bressa prize.1 I hope that you will express to your Academy how deeply I feel this honour, which I believe to be the greatest which can be conferred on any scientific man. The remembrance of this award will stimulate me to do whatever little more I can do in Science during the few remaining years of my life

With great respect & gratitude | I have the honour to remain, | Sir, | Your obedient & obliged servant | Charles Darwin

P.S. | I have sent to Messrs Vincent Teja through the Union Bank of London an order signed by me to receive the 12,000 lir2

LS

1
See Correspondence vol. 27, letter from Ercole Ricotti, 29 December 1879. The prize was founded by Cesare Alessandro Bressa.
2
CD recorded the receipt of £418 18s. 10d. under the heading ‘Bressa prize’ on 17 January 1880 (CD’s Account books–banking account (Down House MS)). Vincent, Teja & Co. were bankers in Turin (Banking almanac).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12399F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12399F