Add MS 8527-8530

FONTANINI LETTER-BOOKS; 1703-1726. Italian and Latin. Copies, partly in cipher. Letters of Giusto Fontanini (1666-1736), abbot of Sesto al Reghena (1711), archbishop of Ancyra (1725), cameriere d'onore of Clement XI (1700-1721), and cameriere segreto of Benedict XIII (1724-1730). The recepients of Fontanini's letters are: Add. 8527 and 8529, Monsignor Domenico Passionei, archbishop of Ephesus; Add. 8528, Cardinal Lorenzo Casoni, archbishop of Caesarea, assessor of the Holy Office, and papal legate at Ferrara and Bologna; Add. 8530, abbots Filippo Della Torre, bishop of Adria, and Giulio Imperiali, vice-legate of Ferrara. For Fontanini see DBI, 48 (1997); a collection of his letters in Rome, Bibl. Corsiniana, no. 1622. Armorial bookplate of Cardinal Mario Marefoschi on front pastedown of Add. 8527, with shelfmark '270' in black ink; Marefoschi's shelfmark '269' in black ink in lower left corner of front pastedown of Add. 8529, crossed out; possibly old shelfmark 'CXXX' or 'CLXXX' in faded ink in the lower spine of Add. 8530. None of these shelfmark is directly identifiable in the Guilford's catalogue Add. 8220, which (ff. 20v-21) lists four volumes from the Marefoschi collection containing Fontanini's letters, respectively at nos. 25, 172, 202, 272 of Marefoschi's catalogue. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '338' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedowns of Add. 8527, 8529 and 8530, and in upper left corner of f. 1 in Add. 8528. All purchased, together with Add. 8521 and 8522, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 338 (part).

Paper. Four volumes. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. Two alternating Italian hands for the main text in Add. 8527-8529: - (a) Add. 8527, ff. 1-172, Add. 8529, ff. 3-199v; - (b) Add. 8527, ff. 172-320v, Add. 8528, ff. 7-99v. Additional letters and/or sparse marginalia added to all the volumes by a late 18th-cent. cursive Italian hand (c), datable after 1783 (see note in Add. 8529, f. 115v): Add. 8527, ff. 321-324 and marginalia, Add. 8528, ff. 1-6, 98-99v, Add. 8529, ff. 1v-2v and marginalia, Add. 8530, marginalia. Three alternating Italian hands (d)-(f) in Add. 8530. Mid 18th-cent. binding of vellum for Add. 8527 and 8530 (originally from the same set of volumes), and for Add. 8529. Guilford binding of quarter vellum with covers of marble paper over pasteboards for Add. 8528. Edges mottled in red in Add. 8530.