Add MS 8292

MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTION of religious, political and literary tracts, poems, and letters relating to Naples, Corsica, Florence, Poland, Sweden, and Austria; 15th cent-1794. Italian and Latin, Greek, and English. Copies, partly autograph or signed. The MS. includes: - (a) a fragment of Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, on vellum (art. 1, ff. 13-18v), late 15th-early 16th cent.; - (b) a poem (f. 34) on the Tyrrhenian Sea or Mare inferum, in Greek; - (c) a sonnet (art. 4, f. 40) by Vittorio Alfieri, datable circa 1783; - (d) a letter patent (art. 5, f. 45) issued by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1552; - (e) a poem (art. 8, ff. 100-103v) dedicated to Lord Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford and Prime Minister of England possibly by a poet using the pseudonym of Boschereccio, 1777. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '540', meaning 544, in pencil in upper left corner of ff. 13, 21, 25, 29, 31, 34, 35, 38, 40, 43, 46, 47, 55, 57, 104, and first blank after f. 99, '155' in pencil at verso of f. 45, '107' in pencil in upper left corner of ff. 63, 64, 65, 67, 69. Purchased from R. H. Evans, 8 December 1830, as part of lot 107 (together with Add. 8334, 8335, 8336, 8337, 8342, 8345, 8348, 8349, 8350, 8351, 8352, 8360, and 8812), lot 155 (together with Add. 8291, 8502, 8789, 8801, 8802, and 8804), and lot 544 (together with Add. 8220, 8564, 8674, 8719, 8786, and possibly 8536, 8507, 8538, 8800).

Paper and vellum (ff. 13-18); ff. 126, plus two unfoliated blanks after ff. 24, 81, 99, 103, one after ff. 33, 37, 42, 54, 63, 71. Composite volume. 325 x 210mm. Several Italian hands. Guilford binding of quarter vellum with decorated paper covers over pasteboards.

Contents include:

1. ff. 13-18v. Giovanni Boccaccio, De claris mulieribus, fragment; late 15th-early 16th cent. Latin. Copy. Imperfect. Inc. '[con]tinuandam memoriam in hodiernum', expl. 'angebaris tegebantur haec omnia'. The fragment contains the lives of Joan, an Englishwoman and a pope (chapter CI: only last seven lines), the Empress Irene of Constantinople (chapter CII: complete), and of Enguldrada, a Florentine maiden (chapter CIII: lacking the last five words), and the Sienese widow Camiola (chapter CV: incomplete at the beginning and the end), and lacks the life of the Empress Constance (chapter CIV). See G. Boccaccio, Famous women, ed. and translated by V. Brown (Cambridge, Mass.-London, 2001), pp. 440-448, 454-462.

Vellum; ff. 6. Old foliation 'Cxliii-Cxlv', 'Cxlviii-Cl'. Secundo folio: 'si aurum'. 241 x 166mm. i⁶ (of 8, lacking 4-5). Ruled (single bounding lines) in lead point for single columns of 27 lines. Written space 161 x 96mm (below bounding line). Late 15th-early 16th cent. Italian hand writing in a cursive humanistic script. Headings in purple ink and two 3-line initials (ff. 13, 14v) of alternate red and blue with contrasting penwork decoration.

2. ff. 25-27v. 'Teodoro re di Corsica / Al Duce e senatori di Genova invia salute e patienza', letter to the Doge and Senate of Genoa from Theodor Stephan Baron von Neuhoff, styling himself King of Corsica; 1736. Italian. Copy. Inc. 'Non ho certamente giamai creduto', expl. 'Dato nel campo di Bastia 2 Giugno 1736 / Teodoro / Sebastiano Costa Segretario e Gran Cancelliere del Regno'.

3. ff. 35-44. Letters from Carlo Vespasiano (1730-1788), a Piemontese man of letters, to Pietro Napoli Signorelli, including (art. 4, f. 40) copy of a sonnet by Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803); circa 1785-1787. Italian. Autograph. Inc. 'Portici 18 decembre 1785 / Amico carissimo / Credo che a quest'ora abbiate letto le poesie dell'Orazio toscano', expl. 'Portici 19 marzo 178[.] / Amatissimo mio Pietro / Io sto in cura ... Vostro Carlo Vespasiano..' The addressee of the letters, 'Pietro', is identifiable (see f. 43) with Pietro Napoli Signorelli, friend of Vespasiano and author of Vicende della coltura nelle Due Sicilie, o sia Storia ragionata della loro legislazione e polizia, delle lettere, del commercio, delle arti, e degli spettacoli dalle colonie straniere insino a noi, 5 vols. (Naples, 1784-1786). For Carlo Vespasiano see M. C. Cafisse, 'Aristotelismo e tradizione umanistica nelle "Dissertazioni epistolari" di Carlo Vespasiano sul "Buon gusto", in Esperienze letterarie, XIII (1988), no. 4, pp. 55-73, in particular p. 55, nn. 1-2.

4. f. 40. 'Per la soppressione dell'Accademia della Crusca ed erezione dell'Accademia dei Filosofi fatta dal Gran Duca di Toscana / Sonetto del Signor Conte Vittoro Alfieri d'Asti', sonnet by the Italian poet and dramatist Vittorio Alfieri, relating to the suppression of the Accademia della Crusca in 1783 by Pietro Leopoldo I of Hapsburg Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany; n.d. Italian. Copy. Inc. 'L'Idioma gentil, sonante e puro'.

5. f. 45. Letter patent of Carlo Venantio, appointed officer for the protection of the people and cattle of Maremma, issued by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany; 1552. Italian. Signed. Inc. 'Cosimo Medici Duca di Fiorenza / [...] conservale li beni et f[ede]ltà de nostri Cittadini e Vassalli', expl. 'Datum in Fiorenza nel nostro Ducale Palazo Alli xi di marzo MDLII / el Duca de Fiorenza / Christiano Pagni'. With Medici's paper seal, and endorsed (f. 45v) with monogram 'T. R. E. G. I. A. S.'

Paper; f. 1. circa 582 x 441, folded in half.

6. ff. 72-81v. 'Discorso sopra il riformare lo stato di Firenze ad istanza di Papa Leone X da A. M.', tract relating to the riform of the state of Tuscany requested by Pope Leo X; circa 1513-1521. Italian. Copy, 18th cent. Inc. 'La cagione per che Firenze ha sempre variato spesso ne suoi governi', expl. 'desiderate innovazione / Finis'.

7. ff. 82-99v. 'Compendio della vita dell'ultimo Duca d'Urbino Francesco Maria 2^o della Rovere, scritta da lui medesimo fin al sponsalitio concluso tra il Prencipe Federico suo figliolo con la Prencipessa Claudia de Medici figliola di Ferdinando Primo Gran Duca di Fiorenza', autobiography of Francesco Maria II della Rovere (1548-1631), Duke of Urbino; after 1621. Italian. Copy. Inc. 'Perche il costume delle genti suole per lo più biasimare', expl. 'si concluse il sodetto matrimonio con dote di 300 mila scudi d'oro'. Other copies in Add. 8511 (art. 2, ff. 89-116), and 20075 (ff. 92-147). Francesco Maria's autobiography was also published by F. Saverio Passeri Ciacca as Memorie concernenti la Vita di Francesco Maria II della Rovere ... scritte da se medesimo, coll'aggiunta di tutto ciò che accadde nella devoluzione de' di lui stati alla Santa Sede di Antonio Donato nobile veneto in Nuova raccolta d'opuscoli scientifici e filologici, t. xxix (Venice: Simone Occhi, 1776), no. xv, B.L. copy 247.a.28.

8. ff. 100-103v. 'Epistle to the Right Honourable Lord North 1777 / Deus nobis haec otia fecit. Virg.', poem to Lord Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford and Prime Minister of England; 1777. English. Copy. Inc. 'The Muse when straitned in her Stays', expl. 'May e'en the Muses prove unkind'. Followed by a note relating to the name Boschereccio, mentioned towards the end of the poem, as the pseudonym of the author of a then unpublished Ode on the first Introduction of Barley Corn and of Malt Liquor into Norfolk dedicated to the secretary of the Earl of Suffolk (possibly the same text published as An Ode on the first Introduction of Barley Corn and of Malt Liquor into Britain. London, 1777; B.L. copy 11632.h.27), and possibly the author of the present poem. The same author also published An elegy on the death of Samuel Foote, Esq. (London, 1778; B.L. copy 11630.f.5).

9. ff. 104-126. Collection of 100 riddles in verse and 20 sonnets, preceded by a table of solutions/titles of the riddles and the sonnets; n.d. Italian. Copy. Imperfect. Inc. (f. 104) 'Tavola degli enigmi / 1. Il lampo'; inc. (105) 'Tavola dei sonetti / 1. L'umiltà'; riddles, inc. of the (f. 105v) 'num. 1 / Nel ventre di mia madre ancor ristretto'; sonnets, inc. (f. 122) 'num. 4 / Ogn'ora e ogni momento mi ritrovo'. Lacking one leaf after f. 121, containing the last riddle and the first three sonnets of the collection.