Add MS 8389

LETTERS and other papers relating to the captivity of Pius VII; 1808-1815. Italian, Latin, and French. Copies, partly signed. Copies of letters and papers relating to the deportation and captivity from 1809 to 1814 of Pope Pius VII (1800-1823) and other important clerical figures, who refused to comply to Napoleon I's pretence to interfere over religious matters. The Pope was held in custody in Savona and Fontainebleau. The inclusion (ff. 23-30) in the volume of two original letters (item b, ff. 23-30v) to Luigi Cereghelli, secretary of the Papal Household in Rome, and of copies of his letters to various correspondents (item c, ff. 33-50v) suggest that Cereghelli possibly was the compiler of the volume and the author of the anonymous accounts of the captivity of Pius VII both in the present MS. and in Add. 8388 and 8390. Title (f. i) 'Lettere e documenti relativi alla Deportazione di Pio VII e di altri'. Contents include: - (a) ff. ii, 1-20, anonymous account of Pius VII's captivity at Savona in the form of letter, including the account of the liberation of the anonymous author around the end of 1811, inc. (f. 1) 'Amico, onde appagare le reiterate vostre premure', in Italian; - (b) ff. 23-30v, two original letters to Louis Cereghelli, 1814, in French, with seal (f. 30v); - (c) ff. 33-50v, 61-62v, copies of letters and notes by Cereghelli, dated 1814-1819, in Italian and French; - (d) ff. 51-60v, account of the papal journey to Grenoble and the deportation of Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca to Fenestrelle, in Italian; -(e) ff. 63-67v, 72-112, copies of papers, letters and papal briefs relating to the captivity of the Pope and other ecclesiastics, dated 1808-1814, in Italian, Latin, and French; - (f) ff. 68v-71, table of Italian cardinals and bishops deported by the French authorities, in Italian. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. Purchased from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, possibly as part of lot 96, together with Add. 8339, 8384, 8385, 8387, 8388 and 8390.

Paper; ff. 112+ii, plus one unfoliated blank after ff. 20, 101, two after ff. 28, 60, four after f. 98. Modern foliation in pencil '1-112' (followed here), omitting ff. i (general title) and ii (title of first item). Composite volume. 276 x 200mm. Several hands: the hand of ff. 2-20, 51-60, 64-67v, is the same as in Add. 8339 (main hand), 8384, 8387 (ff. 2-31), 8388, and 8390: possibly Louis Cereghelli. Early 19th-cent. Italian binding of full vellum; title along the spine in brown ink 'Deportazione di Pio VII. e [...]'.