Add MS 8440-8444

DIARY OF PARIS DE GRASSIS; 1504-1521. Latin. Copy, late 17th or early 18th cent. Paris de Grassis (d. 1528), was appointed Master of Ceremonies by Pope Julius II on 26 May 1504, and Bishop of Pesaro by Leo X in 1515. His diary records events in the papal curia under these two popes, with particular emphasis on ceremonial affairs. Extracts from the diary of Julius II, 17 Aug. 1506 - 4 April 1512, in Add. 8439, ff. 43-219v. The section of the diary covering the reign of Pope Leo X (1513-1521) also in Add. 48071 (Yelverton MS. 77); extracts of this part published in P. Delicati and M. Armellini, Il Diario di Leone X di Paride de Grassi (Rome, 1884), from MSS. in the Vatican Archives. The parts of the diary relating to the two military expeditions of Julius II (Aug. 1506 - 23 March 1507; Sept. 1510 - June 1512) were published from five MSS. in Bologna, Rome, the Vatican, and Paris, by L. Frati in 'Le due spedizioni militari di Giulio II tratte dal diario di Paride Grassi bolognese ...', Documenti e studi pubblicati per cura della Regia Deputazione di storia patria per le provincie di Romagna, v. i (1886), pp. i-xxiv, 1-363, with brief biography of Grassis, listing 13 MSS., but omitting all the B.L. MSS. For Grassis see A. T. Hack in Biographisch-Bibliographischen Kirchenlexikons (BBKL), xix (2001), 599-605. Add. 8440 is listed in Palma di Cesnola, no. 1552, p. 122. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. Purchased, together with Add. 8439, 8445, 8446, from R. H. Evans, 8 December 1830, lot 342 (part).

Paper; five volumes. Add. 8440 and 8442 by the same hand and originally belonging to the same set of volumes, Add. 8441, 8443, 8444 by different scribes and from different sets.