HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Two autograph fragments from his journals, [Florence,] 5 August 1858, and [Rome, 31 December] 1858. [With :] his signature ("Nathl Hawthorne") clipped from a letter, [n.p., n.d.]Two fragments from Nathaniel Hawthorne's Italian journals, with a reference to his work on his latest "Romance," The Marble Faun. Excised from the journals by Sophia Hawthorne in the years after her husband's death, the first fragment dates form his summer spent in Florence, dated in print, 8 August 1858: "Staid at home all day. Afternoon have devoted tour, to the [illeg. presumably a place of interest in Florence] with Miss Blagden & Miss Bracken." Entry not published in CE , but recorded as "entry excised" Jane Isabella ("Isa") Blagden, described as "a hostess admired by many by many literary people," rented the Villa Bricchieri on the outskirts of Florence (French and Italian Notebooks, CE , 159). Little was known about her background, but contemporaries "were apparently charmed by her personality, for she had 'no great assets in beauty, fortune, or literary ability'", though she did occasionally publish sketches for Cornhill and Athenaeum as well as a novel, Poems, with a Memoir by Aldred Austin (London, 1873) (Ibid. 159, 272). It was Blagden who had suggested that the Hawthornes rent the Villa Montauto in late June 1858 and she remained a social companion throughout that summer. The Hawthornes also came to know Isa's friend Mary Egerton Smith Bracken who was also acquainted with the Brownings (Ibid. 273-4). The second clip was excised from the conclusion of Hathorne's entry for 31 December 1858, writing: "So ends 1858. Since Nov. 25th, I have scribbled more or less of Romance every day; & with interruptions, from Oct. 26th." It was in Rome that Hawthorne drew his inspiration for The Marble Faun , which he completed and published in London the following year. It was his fourth and final romance after The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance.