Add MS 8363

TOMASO PLACIDO TOMASI: La Vita di Cesare Borgia; circa 1643-1651. Italian and Latin. Copy. Imperfect. Life of Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois (1475-1507), son of Pope Alexander VI. Inc. (f. 7) 'Per rendere mai sempre detestabili al Mondo quegli eccessi d'una libidine sregolata', expl. (f. 111v) 'ricovrarsi in Germania ad implorare la protezzione e i soccorsi dell' Imperatore Massimiliano'. The main text is preceded by: (a) f. 1, dedication, inc. 'Vita del Duca Valentino / descritta / de Tomaso Tomasi, e consecrata all / Altezza Serenissima di Vittoria della Rovere / Gran Duchessa di / Toscana;' (b) ff. 2-3, letter of presentation to Louis XIV from Tomaso Tomasi, written during the regency of Anne of Austria, circa 1643-1651. Inc. 'Mando á i piedi della Maestà Vostra. il Valentino per rinovare in queste carte á gli occhi del mondo il piu singolare spettacolo;' (c) ff. 4-6, preface to the reader in which the author outlines the contents of the main text. Part I of the main text (ff. 7-106v) begins with the birth of Cesare Borgia and provides details of his studies at Perugia and Pisa, where he was groomed for an ecclesiastical career, and of his appointment as archbishop of Valencia in 1492 and cardinal in 1493. Part I concludes in 1498 with the death of Borgia's brother, Juan, Duke of Gandía, at which point Cesare Borgia renounced his clerical life to head the reconquest of the Papal States. In the present MS. Part II (ff. 106v-111v) is imperfect. It commences with Cesare Borgia in France as papal legate and in an alliance with King Louis XII, who conferred on him the title of Duc of Valentinois, but concludes in 1499 and not in 1507 with the death of Cesare Borgia as indicated in the preface. A French version of the text is Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Fr. 12186. A full version of the text is published in Tommaso Tommasi, Vita del Duca Valentino (Montechiaro, 1651) (BL copy 1449. c. 7). The MS. is listed in P. O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum, IV (1989), p. 68. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. ‘58’ (meaning 580) in pencil in upper left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8362, 8437 and 8438 from R. H. Evans, 12 Dec. 1830, lot 580 (part).

Paper; ff. ix + 111 plus 3 unfoliated interleaved blanks. Old foliation in ink 1-105 (beg. f. 7). 268 x 202mm. Horizontal catchwords on every page. Several 17th-cent. hands. ff. 7-56 have been cropped. Watermark of a bird within a circle (front pastedown and f. ii), similar to Heawood 179, 182 (1648, 1628). Full vellum on pasteboards.