Add MS 8567

GIAMBATTISTA DI GIULIO CICALA: Commentaries on the war between the Republic of Genoa, the Duke of Savoy and the King of France in 1625; 1629. Italian. Copy. Giambattista Cicala di Giulio, Senator of the Genoese Republic in 1637 and Governor of Corsica in 1651, was also an accomplished historian. His major work was the Memorie della città di Genova e di tutto il suo dominio from the foundation of the town to 1528, in 6 autograph MSS. volumes, unpublished, now in Genoa, Archivio storico del Comune, Raccolta Molfino. The present text, also unpublished, relates to the war which France and Savoy started against the territories of the Republic in 1625: the Treaty of Monçon between France and Genoa's ally Spain halted fighting in 1626, and after protracted negotiations and shifting alliances the war eventually ended with the Treaty of Cherasco in 1631. Cicala's account covers the years 1623-1629 and ends with the punishment of Giulio Cesare Vachero and the other conspirators against the Genoese oligarchy in 1628. Another MS. copy of the text in the Biblioteca Berio in Genoa. For Cicala and his work see R. Soprani, Li scrittori della Liguria e particolarmente della Maritima... (Genoa: Pietro Giovanni Calenzani, 1667), p. 145, B.L. copies 125.k.12 and 617.f.23.(1); A. Oldoini, Athenaeum Ligusticum: seu Syllabus Scriptorum Ligurum nec non Sarzanensium ac Cyrnensium reipublicae Genuensis subditorum (Perugia: Typographia Episcopali, apud H.H. Laurentij Ciani & Franciscum Desiderium, 1680), pp. 315-316, B.L. copies 124.i.16, 617i.19, 661.b.15 (facsimile edition Westmead, 1969); G. B. Spotorno, Storia letteraria della Liguria, vol. iii (Genoa, 1825), p. 49, and vol. v (Genoa, 1858), p. 27; A. Cappellini, Dizionario biografico di genovesi illustri e notabili (Genoa, 1941). The present MS. is listed in Palma di Cesnola, no. 1257, p. 95. Title (f. 2) 'Commentari della guerra mossa dal Re di Francia et dal Duca di Savoia a Genovesi l'anno MDCXXV scritti da Giovanni Battista Cicala fu di Giulio', letter to the readers (f. 3) 'A' lettori / L'esser a mia notitia, che vi sono molti Gentilhuomini di talento', inc. (f. 4) 'Mentre che da tutti era stimato doversi posseder', with marginal note 'l'anno 1623', expl. (f. 102v) 'di grandissima rovina ad ogni genere d'ordine & di persone', followed by three lines over written in ink and partly illegible 'E qui ... il ... finisce la fatica, non potendo continuarla per essere ... errensi offesi'. With corrections throughout in the margins, over erasures or on paper slips glued onto the text (ff. 18v, 22v, 25, 35, 40v, 66v, 88, 97v): the corrections were possibly undertaken under the author's supervision as suggested by the note on f. 1 'Prego l'Illustrissimo Signor Giovanni Battista mio Signore che se leggendo queste narratione vi ritrovera qualch'errore in fatto a sua notitia, ne faci le note in margine et mi scusi l'incomodo'. Title (f. 91) 'Commentari di Giovanni Battista Cicala / Libro secondo' struck out in pen. Armorial bookplate of the Hon. Frederick North, later 5th Earl of Guilford, with shelfmark 'L/20/D' (front pastedown). Note in pencil (f. ii) 'Half bound / not cut'. '119' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown and armorial bookplate. Purchased, together with Add. 8718, 8720, 8728, 8729, 8745, 8752, 8756, 8757, 8758, 8759, and 8760, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 119 (part).

Paper; ff. 102+iii. Old foliation in ink '5-98' (ff. 8-102), repeating no. 57. 361 x 254mm. Horizontal catchwords. At least two Italian hands. Frederick North's quarter binding of brown leather with decorated paper covers over pasteboards.