Add MS 8479

URBANO CERRI: Relazione of the state of the Catholic religion under Innocent XI; circa 1679. Italian. Copy. At the time Cerri was Secretary to the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide between 1675-1679, and wrote his relazione at the request of Pope Innocent XI (1676-1689). Another copy of the text signed by Cerri and entitled 'Stato delle Religione Cattolica in tutto il Mondo per la Santità di Nostro Signore Innocentio XI' in Add. 23772, bound in gilt-tooled red morocco with the arms of Innocent XI; another copy, dated 1676, in Add. 17990. The present MS. is anonymous and undated: Cerri is mentioned as the probable author in the long note signed by Callisto Marini on f. 1. The relazione was first published in English translation in London in 1715 as An account of the State of the Roman-Catholic Religion throughout the World written for the use of Pope Innocent XI by Monsignor Cerri ... Now first translated from an Authentick Italian MS. never published ... with a large Dedication to the Present Pope [Clement XI] ... by Sir Richard Steele [but Bishop B. Hoadly] ... (London: J. Roberts, 1715; reprint 1716), B.L. copies 1021.i.31, 225.c.34, and 1019.e.26; a French translation was published in Amsterdam in 1716 as État présent de l'Église romaine dans toute les parties du monde, écrit pour l'usage du Pape Innocent XI ... Avec une épître dédicatoire du Chevalier Richard Steele au Pape Clement XI ... Traduit de l'anglois (Amsterdam: Pierre Humbert, 1716), B.L. copy 1473.b.41. The Italian text was also published in Amsterdam in 1716 as Stato presente della Chiesa Romana. For Cerri see C. G. Jöcher, Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexicon..., vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1787), col. 220; P. Diana, Lavoratori italiani nel Congo Belga (1961). The present MS. is entitled (f. 1) 'Relazione dello stato della Propagazione della Fede Cattolica in tempo d'Innocenzo XI'. Inc. (f. 4) 'Beatissimo Padre / Non senza grave mistero quello Spirito Divino', expl. (f. 127v) 'altri risguardi e rispetti che il servitio di Dio ... baciando i Santissimi Piedi / Finis'. Table of contents (ff. 2-3). From the Church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola on the Tiber Island in Rome and saved from looting by French troups in 1798 by Callisto Marini, who still owned it in Jan. 1812 (see note on f. 1). Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '200' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8476, 8480, 8482, 8483, 8509, and 8661, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 200 (part).

Paper; ff. 127+v. Old pagination in ink '1-250' (ff. 4-127v), omitting nos. 112-113. 266 x 198mm. One Italian hand: possibly of Innocenzo Biancone, scribe of Innocent XI, as suggested by Marini in his note (f. 1). Late 17th-cent. Italian binding of full vellum.