Add MS 8659

LORENZO DI SAN LORENZO [I.E. LORENZO COZZA]: Account of the deposition of Jacobus Petrus II, Catholic Maronite Patriarch of Antioch; circa 1714. Italian and Latin. Copy. Father Lorenzo Cozza of San Lorenzo, later Cardinal Lorenzo Cozza (el. 1726), was the Guardian of the Holy Land for the Order of the Franciscan Friars from 1709 to 1715. The text is the account of the enquiry he conducted after his appointment by Pope Clement XI as Apostolic Commissar and Delegate into the illegal replacement of the Catholic Maronite Patriarch of Antioch Jacobus Petrus II (Avodius Esronita, el. 5 Nov. 1705) by the Maronite bishops and archbishops before 4 Feb. 1711. Cozza was able to resolve the issue and reinstate Jacobus Petrus as the rightful Patriarch by 2 June 1714; cf. Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, t. iii (Paris: ex typographia regia, 1740), cols. 74-75; G. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, in qua manuscriptos codices Syriacos ... Bibliothecae Vaticanae addictos recensuit ..., t. i (Rome, 1719), n. xi, p. 5. The account includes copies of papal briefs and letters to and from Father Cozza, which were partly published by E. Castellani in 1924, together with other relevant correspondence from originals and from two MSS. of Father Cozza's minutes preserved in the Archivum Franciscanum Terrae Sanctae in the Convent of St. Saviour of Jerusalem: cf. E. Castellani, Atti del reverendissimo Padre Lorenzo Cozza custode di Terra Santa (1709-1715), t. ii, part ii (Florence, 1924; Biblioteca Bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa dell'Oriente Francescano, ed. by G. Golubovich, n.s., t. v), pp. 112-474 passim. Title (f. 1) 'Esatta relazione dell'accaduto nella Causa della Deposizione del Patriarca Antiocheno Pietro Giacomo Esronita della Nazione Maronita sino al di lui ristabilimento e restituzione alla sua sedia. Descritta dal Padre Lorenzo di San Lorenzo delli Minori Osservanti, Guardiano di Gierusalemme e Commissario Apostolico in detta Causa', inc. '1. Ad effetto che possi il lettore formare un esatto giudizio sopra l'affare di detta Causa', expl. (f. 161v) 'come tutti gl'altri monumenti registrati in questa medesima Causa'. The text is divided into 452 paragraphs, with a final date of 28 Sept. 1714 (f. 161). Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '201' in pencil in top right corner of f. i. Purchased, together with Add. 8246, 8657 and 8658, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 201 (part).

Paper; ff. 162+v. Modern foliation '1-161' (followed here), omitting no. 77. Old pagination in ink '1-320' (ff. 1-161v). 296 x 203mm. Alphabetical quire signatures 'A-O' at bottom centre of first rectos. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. One Italian hand. 18th-cent. binding of full vellum.