Add MS 42239

CHRONICLE, in Italian, covering the years 1438-1491, compiled probably by Cristoforo Schioppa (see below), a merchant of Verona (d. 1492). Beg. 'Evgenio de Nation venetiano dala sacrosancta Romana eccles[ia]'. Ends (f. 1 44) 'non curo del scriuer de lui ne de Ricomandation'. The chronicle, which relates mainly to Northern Italy, was first printed from the only other known MS. (Vicenza, Bibl. Bertoliana MS. Gonzati. M. 5. 10) in Monumenti storici pubblicati dalla R. Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria, ser. 3, Vol. iv, Cronaca di Anonimo Veronese 1446-1448. edited by Prof. G. Soranzo, 1915. For the present MS., i.e. the then supposedly lost Saibante MS., cf. ibid., pp. xv-xviii. In 1948 the existence of the present MS. was notified to Prof. Soranzo, who in 1955 printed those portions of the text not duplicated in the Bertolianus, covering the years 1438-1445, 1488-1491, under the title Parte Inedita della Cronaca di Anonimo Veronese, Edizioni 'Nova Historia', Verona; the draft description sent to Prof. Soranzo in 1948, and printed in full by him (ibid., p. 21), has been rewritten in the light of his publication. Both MSS. of the Chronicle are defective, the Bertolianus at both beginning and end, while the present MS. lacks the text for the period June 1445- Oct. 1450, through loss of a complete quire (see below). The somewhat abrupt ending of the work may be explained by the fact that it was left unfinished by the author at his death, cf. Soranzo, Parte Inedita, pp. 6-7. The two MSS. are in very similar hands (in the same hand according to Soranzo, ibid., p. 9), and appear to be copies made, perhaps from the original, independently of each other. There are slight differences of text and orthography throughout, and in the present MS. the verses on the death of Girolamo Riario (ff. 135 b-136) are in Italian, in terza rima (beg. 'Chi fia che in cose liete piu se fidi'), whereas in the Bertolianus they are in Latin distichs. The author of the Chronicle has been tentatively identified by Soranzo as Cristoforo Schioppa (Cronaca, pp. xli-lxii; Parte Inedita, pp. 17-19). It should be noted that the capital S read by Soranzo at the end of the present MS. (Parte Inedita, p. 7) is not in the hand of the original scribe, and is thus unlikely to have any bearing on the question. Paper (ff. i-iv vellum); ff. iv+ 148 (ff. 144b-148b ruled but otherwise blank). 324 MM. X 204 mm. Circ. 1500. Watermark, scissors. Quires of ten leaves (last i 8), usually with catchwords and signed [al-i, k-q; quire b is missing between ff. i o and ii (see above). The dates, in red at the head of each page, are spaced out in the manner noted by Alecchi in the 18th cent. (cf. Soranzo, Cronaca, p. xvi; Parte Inedita, pp. 6, 9). Marginal rubrics, in Latin, by the original scribe, cease after f. 49. Other marginal notes, in Italian, are in a later (17th cent.?) hand, apparently identical with that which has also

numbered the pages of the MS., making allowance for the ten leaves lost between ff. 1o and II. No trace of any original pagination. The foliation described by Soranzo, Parte Inedita, p. 9, is the present Museum foliation. Originally bound in limp vellum consisting of a notarial instrument (now fF. i-iv) in Latin, relating to a sale of lands, dated at Verona, 1410. This binding bore on the spine the number 1304 (see below) and a title which appears to read 'Storia Veneziana dal 1438 al 1591 [sic] Autore incerto Codice antico MS.' (remainder illegible); on the front cover is the number 565. Note of ownership (16th cent.?) at foot of f. I, 'De Gabriel Irico'. MS. 1304 in the collection of Giovanni Saibante of Verona, cf. F. S. Maffei, Verona Illustrata, 1731-1732, folio ed., ii, PP. 48, 132-133. Italian MS. 159 in the Saibante and Gianfilippi sale at Paris, 23 jan. 1843, when it was bought by the Parisian dealer Dondey Dupré. Sold at Sotheby's, 17 Feb. 1931, lot 2o8, as one of a group of MSS. selected 'from the library of a deceased nobleman'.