Add MS 8630

FLORIO BUSTRON: Historia overo Commentarii de Cipro; 16th cent. Italian. Copy, late 18th cent. A chronicle of the island of Cyprus composed in the 16th cent. by Florio Bustron, a Cypriot counsellor to the Venetian governors of the island, who died in 1570 during the siege of Nicosia by the Turks. The chronicle gives a detailed account of the history of the Kingdom of Cyprus from its origins to 1489, when the island was peacefully consigned to the Republic of Venice by Caterina Corner, the Venetian widow of the last Cypriot king James the Bastard. Among the many sources used by Bustron is a chronicle of Cyprus in the years 1458-1474 written by his relative Georges Boustronios (a copy of this can be found in Arundel MS. 518). Inc. (f. 2) 'L'Isola di Cipro per oppinioni degl'antiqui scrittori', expl. (f. 217) 'et à questo modo sono li Cipry retti et governati con somma equità, et giustitia dalli Signori Venetiani nel quale governo desiderano essere in tutti li seculi venturi'. The text is preceded by a dedication letter, inc. 'All'Illustrissimi Signori Conti, Cavallieri, et altri Gentil huomini Ciprij. Florio Bustron / Dall'affetto della Illustrissima et Nobilissima patria mosso molti anni fa'. It is divided in three books (ff. 2, 59, 116v) and has two textual gaps (after ff. 171, 194v), which can also be found in an earlier copy of the text, now Paris, Bibl. Nationale, It. 833. The present MS. is described by Foligno, anno 6, t. xi (1906), pt. i, no. xlvi, p. 174. It is also mentioned in L. de Mas Latrie, Histoire de l'île de Chypre sous le règne de la Maison de Lusignan, ii (Paris, 1852), no. 4, pp. vi-vii. The chronicle has been published as 'Chronique de l'Île de Chypre par Florio Bustron, publié par M. René de Mas Latrie', in Mélanges historiques. Choix de documents, V (1886), pp. 1-531, with mention of the present MS. as a copy of Paris, B.N., It. 833, on p. 5 (see Paschalis Kitromilides, Cyprus, rev. ed. (Oxford, 1995; World Bibliographical series, vol. 28), no. 290). Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford with shelfmark 'L/21/B' (front pastedown). '361' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8629, 8631, 8633, and 8635, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 361 (part).

Paper; ff. 217+v, plus one unfoliated blank after f. 194. 304 x 208mm. Early 19th-cent. quarter binding of vellum with brown paper covers.