Add MS 8388

ACCOUNT of the arrest and deportation of prominent Italian ecclesiastical figures by the French, during the papacy of Pius VII (1800-1823); circa 1814. Italian. The text relates the deportation and captivity between 1808-1814 of Italian ecclesiastics and officers, who refused to comply to Napoleon I's pretence to interfere over religious matters. Among the deportees were Francesco Guidobono Cavalchini, Governor of Rome, Tommaso Arezzo, pro-governatore of Rome, Cardinals Giulio Gabrielli and Bartolomeo Pacca, both pro-segretari of State, Cardinal Leonardo Antonelli, and the Spanish ambassador Antonio de Vargas y Laguna, marqués de la Constancia. A related text in 8339, ff. 113-119v. Titles at beginning of the table of contents (f. 1): 'Deportazioni di Religiosi e di Cardinali / Incorporazione della Provincie di Urbino, di Ancona, di Macerata e Camerino al Regno d'Italia. Deportazioni di Monsignor Cavalchini, Governatore di Roma, del Cardinale Gabrielli, Pro-Segretario di Stato, e de' Vescovi delle Marche / Altre deportazioni. Attentato commesso sulla persona dell'Eminentissimo [Bartolomeo] Pacca, Pro-Segretario di Stato. Deportazioni di Monsignor Arezzo, del Cardinale Antonelli / e del Cavalier Vargas, Ministro di Spagna / Deportazioni di Canonici, Vescovi e Parroci'. Inc. (f. 2) 'Fu sempre nell'animo degli increduli', expl. (f. 211) 'per non calpestar quelli che giacevano a terra'. With occasional footnotes. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '96' in pencil in upper margin of f. 1. Purchased, together with Add. 8339, 8384, 8385, 8387, 8390 and possibly 8389, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 96 (part).

Paper; ff. 211+i, plus one unfoliated blank after ff. 6, 59, 76, 203, and one detached leaf after f. 166. 274 x 194mm. One Italian hand, same hand as in Add. 8339 (main hand), 8384, 8387 (ff. 2-31), 8389 (ff. 2-20, 51-60, 64-67v) and 8390: possibly Louis Cereghelli (see Add. 8389). Early 19th-cent. binding of full vellum.