Add MS 8593

Life of Francesco Morosini, surnamed Peloponnésiacus; late 17th cent.-early 18th cent. Italian. This anonymous text gives a detailed account of the life of Francesco Morosini (1618-1694), commander of the Venetian navy in the war of Candia (Crete) between 1659 and 1669, head of the fleet of Venetian, Maltese, papal and Tuscan warships in the war against the Ottoman Empire in 1680s, and Doge of Venice from April 1688. Under his command Venice lost the island of Crete to the Turks in 1669, but re-conquered most of the Dalmatian coast, the Ionian islands and the Peloponnese (Morea) twenty years later in 1690. Morosini was also responsible for the bombardment of the Acropolis during the siege of Athens and the consequent destruction of the Parthenon (26 Sept. 1687; see ff. 189v-190). The text is divided into four books. Inc. (f. 1) 'Francesco Morosini detto il Peloponesiaco', expl. (f. 224) 'di quanto era capace un uomo mortale. Fine del Quarto Libro. Lode a Iddio, e alla Beata Vergine Maria'. The MS. is listed in Palma di Cesnola, no. 1560, p. 123, and briefly described by C. Foligno, ‘Codici di materia veneta nelle biblioteche inglesi’, in Nuovo Archivio Veneto, n.s., 5, x (1905), pt. i, no. xxxvii, p. 127. Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford, with shelfmark L/21/A (front pastedown). '60' in pencil in upper left corner of armorial bookplate. Purchased, together with Add. 8377, 8511, 8596, 8671, and 8787, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 60 (part).

Paper; ff. 225+ii, plus one blank after f. 225. Modern pencil foliation 1-224 (followed here), omitting one leaf after f. 2. 295 x 202mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. Gathering signatures in upper left corner of first leaves. 18th-century binding of vellum on pasteboards; pastedowns and contiguous flyleaves on decorated paper.