Add MS 8268

MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTION of relazioni, tracts, letters and historical accounts relating to the Papacy, France, Poland, Russia, Spain, Genoa, Malta, Turkey, Portugal, England, Scotland, the German Empire, Flanders, Naples, and Milan; circa 1538-1585. Italian, Latin, and Spanish. Copies, 17th cent. The MS. includes: - (a) papal instructions to Latino Giovenale Manetti relating to France, circa 1538, in Italian (ff. 1-2); - (b) correspondence between the Czar Ivan IV of Russia and King Sigismund Augustus II of Poland, 1564, in Latin (ff. 3-4v); - (c) relazione and letters relating to the captivity of Don Carlos of Austria at Madrid in 1568, in Italian and Spanish (ff. 5-10v): other copies of the relazione and of Philip II's letter to the Viceroy of Naples in Add. 8309 (art. 5, ff. 158-162); - (d) letter, relazione, and manifestos relating to the dispute between Andrea Doria and Marcantonio Colonna during the war against the Turks in 1570, in Italian (ff. 11-35v): another copy of Marcantonio Colonna's manifesto in Add. 8277 (art. i, ff. 376-381v); similar collections in Add. 8262 (art. pp, ff. 553-553v, 574-576, 582-584) and 8279 (art. d, ff. 155-226v); - (e) relazione of Rome during the papacy of Pius V with a discourse on the threat of heresy, on spiritual and temporal authority, and on the conflict between Popes and Princes, circa 1571, in Italian (ff. 36-49v), another copy of which in Add. 48080 (Yelverton MS. 87; art. 4, ff. 57-69); - (f) tract relating to the election of Popes and cardinals, n.d., in Italian (ff. 50-53v), another copy of which in Add. 8267 (art. f, ff. 215-221v); - (g) tract on patriarchal privileges, n.d., in Latin (ff. 54-56v): another copy in Add. 8266 (art. c, ff. 65-69); - (h) anonymous relazione of the call to Rome of Jean Levesque de la Cassiere, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta (1572-1581), by Pope Gregory XIII, 1581 (ff. 57-75v); - (i) tract on the art of conversing, n.d. (ff. 76-78v); - (j) political tract in form of a memorial from Portugal to its people, n.d. (ff. 79-88); - (k) petition to the King of France by the Faculty of Theology, in Latin (ff. 88-90v); - (l) abridged history of Turkish rulers (ff. 91-95) from Suleiman I (1402-1410) to Suleiman II (1502-1566), followed by an abridged history of the Kingdoms of England (ff. 95v-97), Scotland (ff. 97-98), Spain (ff. 98-101), France (ff. 101v-107), and Germany (ff. 107v-115), n.d.; - (m) three relazioni of the war in Flanders, n.d. (ff. 115v-155, 155v-158v, 159-162); - (n) historical account of Popes from Gregory II to Paul IV, who created difficulties in the Kingdom of Naples, n.d. (ff. 162-168); - (o) discourse addressed to Giacomo Boncompagni, Generale della Chiesa, by his secretary Don Scipio di Castro, and related correspondence, n.d. (ff. 168v-173, 173-174): other copy of the discourse in Add. 8391 (art. 32, ff. 356-364); - (p) tract relating to donations to the Holy See, n.d., in Latin (ff. 174-179), another copy of which in Add. 8266 (art. c, ff. 70-77v); - (q) lists of papal acts of donation or excommunication towards European rulers, n.d. in Latin (ff. 179v-185); - (r) confidential document issued by the cardinals assembled in conclave, probably for the election of Clement VII in 1523, with list of cardinals at the end, n.d., in Latin (ff.185v-205v); - (s) archepiscopal letter of Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, 1573 (ff. 206-214); - (t) extract from an anonymous treatise on diplomacy, n.d. (ff. 214-217v), complete copies of which in Add. 48154 (Yelverton MS. 165, art. 1, ff. 5-24v), and Vat. MS. Ferrajoli 539, ff. 131-138, and other longer extracts in Add. 8294 (art. 6, ff. 38-42, 60-61v); - (u) tract relating to the league between Philip II of Spain and Venice against the Turks, [1570?] (ff. 218-227); - (v) tract by Dominicus Raynaldus relating to the legitimacy of any papal role in England and Ireland, n.d., in Latin (ff. 228-253); - (x) correspondence between the Turkish Sultan and the King of Poland, n.d., in Latin (ff. 253v-259). Stamp of the Colonna library 'Libraria Colonna' in red on ff. ii, 1, 23, 123, 259v; for the Colonna library stamp see Bragaglia, vol. iii, T 32: circa 1750. From the library of Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali, according to a note in Evans sale catalogue at lot 284. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '284' and 'Tomo VII / A' in pencil in right margin of f. ii. Purchased, together with Add. 8262-8267, 8269-8281, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 284 (part).

Paper; ff. 259+ii, plus five unfoliated blanks after f. 227. Old foliation in ink '1-262' (ff. 1-259), omitting f. 74, repeating no. 200, and including blanks. 268 x 200mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. One Italian hand.