Add MS 8490-8500*

8500* Italian and Latin. Partly imperfect. The collection is divided into 17 books distributed in 11 volumes (Add. 8490-8500), plus Add. 8500*, a modern table of contents of the original volumes in typescript, put together by the British Library (incorrect for book xiv: Add. 8497, ff. 293-327v). The collection was compiled by Giorgio Ridolfo Ebmer, who provided each book with an exhaustive table of contents. He also issued a payment receipt for each of them to Gasparo Alberi (i.e. Gaspare Alveri), dated between 6 Jan. 1657 (Add. 8492, f. 124) - 12 Feb. 1658 (Add. 8493, f. 211v; cf. descriptions of individual volumes below). These receipts imply that the present volumes were commissioned by Alveri in preparation for his work Roma in ogni stato (Rome: Fabio di Falco, 1664), of which he published only two of the planned four parts. The second part of his published work includes descriptions of Roman churches and transcriptions of epitaphs and inscriptions: some of the churches he described correspond to those no longer described in the present MSS. volumes, and notes added later to Add. 8492 (f. 170) and 8500 (f. 18) relates the absence of descriptions of these churches to the publication of Alveri's book. A note in Add. 8498 (f. 87) from Orazio Patrizi to Monsignor [Giuseppe?] Casali, dated 7 March 1789, also suggests that the present volumes could be the lost MSS. of Alveri's unpublished work that were reputed to be in the collection of the Casali family as noted by V. Forcella in Iscrizioni delle chiese e d'altri edifici di Roma dal secolo XI fino ai giorni nostri, vol. i (Rome, 1869), p. ix. For Gaspare Alveri see C. Cardelli, 'L'autore della Roma in ogni Stato Gaspare Alveri (1632-1672)' in Strenna dei Romanisti, LI (1990), pp. 89-98. In the 17th cent. the volumes belonged to Cardinal Cesare Rasponi (1615-1675) of Ravenna: his ownership note 'Ex M. S. Caesaris Cardinalis Rasponi' in 8492 (f. 1), 8493 (f. 1), 8494 (f. 1), and 8500 (f. 1). Old shelfmarks in ink 'H.III.54', 'H.III.55', 'H.III.52' (smudged), 'H.III.60', 'H.III.59', 'H.III.58', 'H.III.62', 'H.III.56', 'H.III.57', and 'H.III.61' in paper slips (from lost original flyleaves) respectively pasted onto front pastedowns of Add. 8491, 8492, 8493, 8494, 8495, 8496, 8497, 8498, 8499 and 8500. Traces of old shelfmarks '158', '159', '161', '166' respectively on lower spine of Add. 8491, 8492, 8494, 8499. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '598' in pencil in upper left corner of pastedowns and /or upper margin of f. 1 of volumes, together with other numbers in pencil (see descriptions of individual volumes below). Purchased, together with Add. 8489 and 8501, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 598 (part).

Eleven original volumes and one modern volume. Paper. One Italian hand: Giorgio Ridolfo Ebmer. Late 17th-cent. bindings of full vellum, restored, possibly for Guilford; modern title gilt on labels of brown leather 'Sepolture delle chiese di Roma'.