Add MS 8563

GIOVANNI CIBO RECCO: History of Genoa; 1550-1556. Italian. Copy, mid-18th cent. The present text is an incomplete transcript of Giovanni Cibo Recco's History of Genoa, 1550-1570. Cibo Recco wrote the account circa 1570 at the request of the jurisprudent Nicolò Gentile Senarega that he complete Jacopo Bonfadio's Annalium Genuensium, which was left unfinished when Bonfadio died in 1550. In the present MS. the main text, which is preceded by (f. 1) a dedication to Alberico Cibo, Principe di Massa, is divided into four sections: (a) ff. 1v-12, an abridged history of Genoa, 1119-1550; (b) ff. 12-25v, a list of Genoa's ruling noble houses, grouped into 28 alberghi under the constitution of 1528, and a list of Genoa's governors for the period 1528-1550; (c) ff. 25v-27v, a list of prominent Genoese, including Christopher Columbus and Andrea Doria; (d) ff. 27v-50, History of Genoa, 1550-1556. Inc. (f. 1) 'Esortato da Nicolò Gentile Senarega, primo sicuramente frà Dottori di quest' erà, mio singolare amico, a scrivere le Guerre Civili de Genovesi'; expl. (f. 50) 'e la nostra Republica determino di mandare in Corsica il lodrone con soldati pero i Corsi che erano sotto.' The original MS. in Latin is now held in the Archivo della Repubblica di Genova; other copies of the same work Genoa, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS B VII 5 and Biblioteca Berio M R VIII, 1, 2. The MS. is listed in Palma di Cesnola, p. 30. Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford, with shelfmark 'L/19/C' (front pastedown). '62' in pencil in upper left corner of pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8552, 8568, 8572, 8625, 8672, 8807, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 62 (part).

Paper; ff. 50. 322 x 220mm. One 18th-cent. hand with later additions (ff. 38, 41, 49v-50). Two watermarks on alternative folios throughout the MS. (a) coat of arms with the name Nicolo written underneath, similar to Heawood nos.1872-1873 (1751-1766); (b) sun containing a circle and the initials SNDB with the name Poleri underneath, identical to Heawood, no. 827 (n.d.). Quarter vellum with red and black marbled paper covers.