Add MS 8364

DIARIO OF MARCELLO ALBERINI (1521-1535); 18th cent. Italian. Marcello Alberini, the son of a Roman citizen, began writing his account of the events surrounding the sack of Rome of 1527 on 1 January 1547, for the benefit of his children. Alberini combines his private memoirs with an account of public events in Italy, and particularly in Rome, during the reign of Pope Clement VII. See D. Orano, Il Sacco di Roma del m.d.xxvij. Studi e Documenti, vol. 1, I Ricordi di Marcello Alberini (Rome, 1901), which includes the full text on pp. 189-462 and lists the other manuscripts of the account on pp. 46-61. Alberini's autograph text is held by the library of the Archivio di Stato, Rome. Add. 8364 includes the greater part of Alberini's account, but it and the other copies, which date from the late 16th to the 18th centuries, are not collated in the printed edition. Preface inc. 'In questo libro si descriveranno', inc. 'Se ne cuori degli huomini', expl. 'uno alla compagnia de macellari per li stizzi' (Orano, op. cit., p. 446). Extracts from this manuscript are printed in M. Creighton, A History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome (2nd edn, 1897), vol. 6, pp. 418-437. '343' in pencil in upper left corner of f. i and '43' in ink in lower left corner of f. i. Purchased by T. Thorpe from R. H. Evans, 8 December 1830, lot 343 (part), and afterwards given to the British Museum in part-exchange for lot 604.

Paper; ff. i+85. 255 x 185mm. Contemporary binding of vellum over pasteboards.