For a long time I was interested in the correspondence between Joseph Haydn and his lover Luigia Polzelli. One day, however, I was studying the sources in a volume of Haydn’s letters. And I learned that the Polzelli letters are not available in the original, but only exist as copies of Haydn. Did he copy accurately? Did he leave something out or add something? We don’t know. And we will never know. Before handing over the letters from his time in office for archiving, American President James Madison rewrote them all and destroyed the originals. What has he changed? We’ll never know. What if we found out?
