Add MS 8618

GIUSTIN DA RIVA: letters as Provveditore Generale of Dalmatia and Albania to Venetian Ambassadors and other offices of state; 1705-1708. Italian. Copies. Recipients include the Bailì Ascanio Giustinian and the Ambassador Straordinario Carlo Ruzzini at Constantinople, the Ambassadors Giovanni Francesco Morosini and Battista Nani at Rome, the Ambassador Daniele III Dolfin at Vienna, the Savij del Consiglio Piero Garzoni and Sebastiano Foscarini in Venice, and the Da Riva's successor as Provveditore Generale of Dalmatia Vincenzo Vendramin. Inc. (f. 6) 'Al Bailo alla Porta Kavalier Giustinian / All'ultimo finalmente : in Proveditor: sotto il Peso di questo grave, e spinoso Generalato ... Zara li 16 Luglio 1705', expl. (f. 103) 'Al N. H. Signor Vincenzo Vendramin Proveditor General Successor / Animato dalla generosa bontà ... honore distinto alla mia divota riverenza / Zara 15 Maggio 1708 / D. V. E.'. The MS. is entitled (f. 5) 'Lettere / Giustin da Riva Proveditor general di Dalmatia / Alli Baili, Ambassadori, Savij, e Successore / Dà 16 Luglio 1705, sino li 15 Maggio 1708'. One of the letters (ff. 60v-70) to Vendramini is the same as in 8613, art. 4 (ff. 62-72). Prefixed to the volume (ff. 1-4v) are six further letters addressed respectively to the Bailì Giustinian, the Provveditore Generale da Mar Daniele IV Dolfin, Da Riva's predecessor as Provveditore Generale Marin Zane, the members of the Court of Justice in Brac, the Archbishop of Zara Vittorio Priuli, and the Ambassador Dolfin. These letters are introduced by a note in the top margin 'Lettere a varj nel 1704 in cui da egli stesso la nuova d'essere stato elletto Generale in Dalmazia, con alcune risposte', inc. (f. 1) 'Al Bailo in Costantinopoli Kavalier Zustinian / E per questa particolare del mio humilissimo ossequio', expl. (f. 4v) 'del suo particolar humilissimo ossequio, con che mi giuro'. Armorial bookplate of Bernardo di Antonio Nani (front pastedown; for the Nani bookplate see Bragaglia, vol. ii, no. 655: c. 1750). The MS. is listed in Markotic, p. 268. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '356' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8610-8613, 8614-8615, 8616, 8617, 8619, and 8620-8622, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 356 (part).

Paper; ff. 103+iii, plus five unfoliated interleaved blanks; one blank cancelled aft. f. 29. The first eight-leaves gathering is a later addition from another MS, with first leaf foliated '156' in ink. 295 x 212mm. Vertical catchwords. Several Italian hands. 18th-cent. binding of mottled brown leather with gilt-tooled spine in compartments; mottled edges.