Add MS 8515

DE NORES LETTERS; 1591-1601, 1628-1632. Italian and Latin. Copies. Copies of letters and dispatches of the historian Pietro De Nores, son of Giason, the exiled Cypriot philosopher and literary critic (on the latter see DBI 38 (1990), pp. 768-773). The MS. is divided into two sections: the first (art. 1, ff. 2-143) contains De Nores' letters to various correspondents, dated 12 Dec. 1591 - 8 July 1601; the second (art. 2, ff. 144-320) contains De Nores' dispatches from Rome to his patron Cardinal Louis de Nogaret d'Epernon de La Valette, dated Jan. 1628 - 18 June 1632. Recipients of the letters in the first section (art. 1) include the Neapolitan scientist and bibliophile Giovanni Vincenzo Pinelli in Padoa, Giulio Forli of Padoa, Monsignor Minuccio Minucci, Archbishop of Zara and personal secretary to Clement VIII, Monsignor Ferdinando Davila, Bishop of Ascoli, Germanico Malaspina, Bishop of San Severo and nuncio to Poland (written on behalf of Cinzio Aldobrandini, Cardinal of San Giorgio), and Antonio Rebuffo, chancellor of Cremona Cathedral. The dispatches to Cardinal de La Valette in the second section (art. 2) include letters to the Emperor Ferdinand II, King Philip IV of Spain, and Monsignor [Omer?] Talon. The present MS. is listed in Iter Italicum, IV (1989), p. 68a. For copies of De Nores' account of the Carafa War see Add. MSS. 8689 (Book i), 10778, 21961, ff. 157-336v, 26858-26959. Marked 'E' in upper right corner of f. 1. Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford, with shelfmark 'L/18/E' (front pastedown). '87' in pencil in upper left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8358, 8369, 8382, 8391-8396, 8397, 8398, 8399, 8412, 8413, 8417, 8418, 8419, 8423, 8424, 8425, 8487, 8525, 8660, 8706, 8721, 8722, 8723-8724, 8753, 8754, 8755, 8772, and possibly 8366, 8589, and 8727, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 87 (part).

Contents as follows:

1. ff. 2-143. 'Lettere di Pierro Nores scritte a Diversi nel Pontificato di Clemente Ottavo dalli xii decembre 1591 sino all'anno 1601', title (f. 1); n.d. Inc. (f. 2) 'Lettere di Pietro Nores al Signor Vincenzo Pinelli a Padova. Di Roma xii decembre 1591 / Giunsi a Roma venerdì', expl. '[Al Signor Antonio Rebuffo Cancellario della Cattedrale di Cremona] / Parto dopo havere havuta una breve licenza ... Io parto domattina, e vi bacio le mani di Roma 8 luglio 1601'. Includes: - (a) ff. 46-48v, letter to the Domenican friar Alessandro Franceschi from Cardinal Pierre de Gondi de Retz; - (b) ff. 91-92v, 98v-100, a summary of the petitions to Pope Clement VIII from the Ruthenian Bishops and the papal reply, in Latin, dated Dec. 1595. A similar collection of letters from De Nores to Pinelli in a MS. from the Beccadelli collection was found in the Palatine library of Carlo Ludovico di Borbone Parma, Duke of Lucca, and described in detail by L. Scarabelli in Storia della guerra di Paolo IV sommo pontefice contro gli Spagnuoli scritta da Pietro Nores corredata di documenti (Florence, 1847; Archivio Storico Italiano, t. 12), pp. xxviii-xxxi. The MS. is possibly now part of the Fondo Palatino in the Biblioteca Palatina, Parma.

2. ff. 144-320. 'Lettere scritte al Signor Cardinale della Valletta da Pietro Nores suo agente in Roma'; n.d. Inc. 'Illustrissimo ... Signor Padrone / Conveniva veramente ... expl. '[Al Cardinal della Valletta] di Roma adi 18 giugno 1632 / Fin qui non hanno fatto ... questi Spagnoli et esso Castel Rodrigo non si trovino insieme '. Includes: - (a) ff. 184-184v, letter from Philip IV of Spain to Pope Urban VIII, dated 12 Jan. 1628; - (b) ff. 188v-189, 199-200, correspondence between Charles I Gonzaga Nevers, Duke of Mantua, and Don Gonzalo Fernández de Cordova, governor of Milan, dated 1628; - (c) ff. 193-196v, De Nores' account of the Vacchero conspiracy in Genoa in 1628; - (d) ff. 198v-199, letter to Charles I Gonzaga Nevers from the imperial representative Count of Nassari, dated 18 May 1628; - (e) ff. 207v-208, imperial decree against Charles I Gonzaga Nevers, in Latin, dated 17 Jan. 1628; - (f) ff. 213v-217, decree against Ranieri Zeno, dated 26 July 1628. A similar collection of De Nores' dispatches in a MS. in the Biblioteca Palatina of Duke Carlo Ludovico di Borbone-Parma (possibly now in the Fondo Palatino of the Biblioteca Palatina, Parma); cf. L. Scarabelli in Storia della guerra..., op. cit., p. xxxii.

Paper; ff. 321. Modern foliation in pencil '1-320' (followed here), omitting one leaf after f. 131. 271 x 190mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. One Italian hand. Guilford binding of quarter vellum with decorated paper covers over pasteboards.