Add MS 8358

MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTION of historical papers relating to Rome, France, and the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza; circa 1675-1752. Italian and Latin. Copies and drafts. The MS. includes: - (a) relazione and letter (arts. 1, 3) relating to the clergy in Italy and France, 1751-1754; - (b) protest (art. 2) addressed to Pope Clement XII and relating to the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, followed by the papal reply, 1732; - (c) drafts (arts. 4-5) of Italian translations of the memoirs of Maria and Hortense Mancini Mazarin, nieces of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, circa 1675-1678. Hortense's memoirs, attributed in the past to Abbot César Vischard de Saint-Réal and Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, Seigneur de Saint-Évremond, are possibly autobiographical. The Italian translation is attributed to the Sicilian writer Giacomo Milazzo: see M. Parenti, Dizionario dei luoghi di stampa falsi, inventati o supposti (Florence, 1951), pp. 50-51, 54, 94. Also included in the MS. (f. 34) a note from the Dean of the Roman Rota addressed to the new auditor Pietro Frangipane, in Latin, n.d., and a sonnet (detached leaf between ff. 68 and 69), in Italian, inc. 'Il Leggendajo / Donne gentili, io sono il Leggendaio'. Table of contents (f. 1), added later. A detached leaf, inserted in the volume between ff. 35 and 36, with another copy of Clement XII's reply to Jacovaccio Fiscale (see art. 2), is a fragment from a letter addressed to Andrea Bacci in Rome. Old shelfmark '38' in upper spine, partly rubbed off. '290' in pencil in upper right corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8344, 8433, 8688, 8788, and possibly 8416, from R. H. Evans, 8 December 1830, lot 290 (part).

Paper; ff. 114+vi, plus three unfoliated blanks after f. 63, two after f. 89. Composite volume. Old pagination '1-54' (ff. 37-63v: art. 4). 270 x 200mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. Several Italian hands; one hand for the drafts (arts. 4-5): Giacomo Milazzo? Late 18th-cent. Italian binding of full vellum.

Contents include:

1. ff. 2-33. 'Lettera di Fra' Guidone Zoccolante a Frate Zaccaria Gesuito, nella quale si dimostra chi sieno que' Religiosi che dobbonsi chiamar Frati / MDCCLI / In Cosmopoli all'insegna della Stella', treatise relating to friars; 1751. Italian. Copy. Inc. (f. 3) 'Lettera / Portandomi giorni sono ad una funzione scolastica', expl. 'Di Firenze li 15 ottobre 1750'. With footnotes. The present text is the copy of a printed edition published in Massa in 1751 with fictitious imprints and wrongly attributed to Father Giovanni Lorenzo Berti: see M. Parenti, Dizionario..., op. cit., p. 65.

2. ff. 35-36. 'Protesta fatta da Monsignor Illustrissimo Jacovaccio Fiscale di Roma il di 28 giugno 1732 al Vaticano ... regnante Pontefice Clemente XII ... sopra li stati di Parma e Piacenza'; 1732. Latin. Copy. Inc. 'Protestato Fiscalis / Consuetus erat Beatus Pater in hodierna anniversaria', followed by (f. 36) Clement XII's reply.

3. ff. 37-63v. 'Delle turbolenze nate in Francia nel Regno di Luigi XV fra il Clero ed il Parlamento', anonymous relazione of the dispute between the clergy and the Parliament in France; [1754]. Italian. Copy. Inc. 'Turbolenze di Religione, e Controversie tra il Clero e il Parlamento di Francia che al mio arrivo in Parigi trovai'.

4. ff. 64-89v. 'Memorie di Madama La prencipessa Maria Mancini Colonna Gran Contestabilessa del Regno di Napoli', life of Maria Mancini-Mazarin, niece of Cardinal G. Mazarin and wife (1661) of Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, Duke of Taliacozzo, Duke of Palliano, Constable of Naples, translated possibly by the Sicilian writer Giacomo Milazzo; circa 1678. Italian. Draft. Inc. 'L'ozio che d'ordinario regna ne chiostri'. Another copy with variants in Add. 33753. Published as Le memorie della S.P.M.M. Colonna G. Contestabilessa del Regno di Napoli (Cologne: Pietro del Martello, 1678 [fictitious imprints]), B.L. copy 10629.a.4: the published text differs from both MS. texts.

5. ff. 90-114. 'Memorie di Madonna la Duchessa Mazarini', life of Hortense Mancini-Mazarin, niece of Cardinal G. Mazarin and wife (1661) of Armand-Charles de la Porte Mazarin, duc de Rethêlois-Mazarin, de Meilleraye et de la Mayenne, known as "le duc Mazarin"; circa 1675. Italian. Draft. Inc. 'Gia che le obligazioni che vi professo sono così grandi'. The life, possibly autobiographical, was apparently translated from French into Italian by the Sicilian writer Giacomo Milazzo. The French text was published with fictitious imprints as Mémories de M. L. D. M. (Cologne: Pierre du Marteau, 1675), and immediately afterwards with the same fictitious imprints by Abraham Wolfgang at Amsterdam in 1675 (B.L. copy 1080.b.27), and again in 1676; a different edition for B.L. copy 901.d.25, also with fictitious imprints Cologne: Pierre du Marteau, 1675. The Italian translation was published as Le memorie della signora duchessa Mazarini, con alcune osservazioni (Cologne: Pietro Martello, 1677 [fictitious imprints]), B.L. copy 612.a.34: the printed text, however, differs from the text in the present draft. Published in English translation as The Memoires of the Dutchess Mazarine, written in French by her own hand and done into English by P. Porter (London: William Cademan at the Popes-Head in the New-Exchange and Middle-Exchange in the Strande, 1676; B.L. copy 1417.c.46); also printed in 1713 and 1728 as the work of Abbot Saint-Réal with an additional text by Saint-Évremond in The works of Monsieur de Saint Evremond, vol. iii (London: F. Churchill ..., 1714; B.L. copy c.132.b.14), pp. 1-67, and its reprint (London: J. Knapton ..., 1728; B.L. copy 12236.bbb.9), pp. 105-167.