Add MS 8654

CARLO RUZZINI: Despatches from Constantinople; 1719-1720. Italian. Copies. The MS. contains the 44 dispatches sent to the Doge Giovanni II Corner during Ruzzini's second appointment as Ambasciatore straordinario at Constantinople. Inc. (f. 2) 'Serenissimo Prencipe / Doppo una raggionevole esipanza [sic] dell'Animo, quel Zelo, che fu guida … li 4 Genaio 1718' [i.e. 1719], expl. (f. 163v) 'ne della dignita, ne del riverito Senato di Venetia, e di V.V. E.E. Gratie / Pera di Costantinopoli 4 ottobre 1720'. Added title (f. 1) 'Dispacci del Cavalier e Procurator Carlo Ruzini della sua / Seconda Ambasciata estraordinaria / alla / Porta Ottomana / Dall'Anno 1718 sino l'anno 1720'. Armorial bookplate of Bernardo di Antonio Nani (front pastedown; for the Nani bookplate see Bragaglia, vol. ii, no. 655: c. 1750). Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. Guilford also owned the Commissione of Francesco Morosini to Ruzzini as Ambassador to Spain, now Add. 11415, with 5th Earl of Guilford's bookplate and shelfmark 'L/20/B'. '332' in pencil in top left corner of Nani's bookplate. Purchased, together with Add. 8590, 8707, and possibly Add. 8588, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 332 (part).

Paper; ff. 163+xviii. 280 x 196mm. Alphabetical quire signature. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf at beginning (ff. 2v-15v). Each dispatch numbered in the left margin at beginning. Several Italian hands. 18th-cent. binding of vellum with flat spine and pastedowns of decorated paper; detached title-label, gilt.