Add MS 8666

ALESSANDRO ANDREA: Chronicle of the Carafa War in the Lazio and in Naples in 1556-1557; late 16th cent. Latin. Autograph. A chronicle of the war between Philip II of Spain and Cosimo I de' Medici, Gran Duke of Tuscany, and Pope Paul IV Carafa and Henry II of France. During the war Alessandro Andrea (1519-1593) served in the Imperial-Neapolitan army of Philip II of Spain. At the end of the war he wrote a chronicle of the events in form of a Platonic dialogue in Italian, which was published with the title Della guerra di Campagna di Roma e del Regno di Napoli nel Pontificato di Paolo IV l'anno MCLVI e LVII; tre Ragionamenti del Sig. Alessandro d'Andrea (Venice: G. Ruscelli, 1560); see F.A. Soria, Memorie storico-critiche degli storici napolitani, t. i (Napoli: Nella Stamperia Simoniana, 1781), pp. 30-33; E. Cochrane, Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance (Chicago-London: 1981), pp. 196-197, 542 n. 102. The present MS. contains an autograph version of the chronicle in Latin, entitled (f. 1) 'Alexandri Andreae / De bello in Latio et in regno Neapolitano gesto sub pontificatu Pauli iiii Pontifeci Maximi Anno MDLVI et LVII / Libri tres'. Inc. (f. 3) 'De bello Latii, et Regni Neapolitani Liber primus / Quoniam plerique rerum gestarum scriptores historiae laudes non praetermiserunt', expl. (f. 52v) 'more laudaverit, muneribusque honestaverit / Finis'. The text is divided into three books. It is preceded by: (a) a short dedicatory preface (f. 2), inc. 'Philippo II Catholico Regi Maximo [all cancelled] / Alexander Andreas / Historiam de bello in Latio', expl. 'quam in libris versato indulgeri rogo. Vale'; - (b) a summary (f. 2v) of contents of the three books, inc. 'Quae in hoc opere continentur / In Libro Primo / Belli causae, et initium'. With autographic corrections throughout and a note at the end (f. 53) concerning some additions to be inserted into the text, inc. 'Ambitus Regni Neapolitani, per oras maritimas', expl. 'Haec addenda sunt in fine libri, historiae de bello Latij, et Regni Neapolitani'. At the end a paper fragment (f. 54) with few lines of verse in Latin. For a different account of the Carafa War by Pietro De Nores see Add. 8689. Stamp (f. 1) 'biblioth / h.f. / J770', probably from the Biblioteca Falconieri (identifiable with Falconieri MS. 5 in Guilford's catalogue Add. 8220, f. 3v). Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '84' in pencil in top right corner of f. 1. Purchased, together with Add. 8364, 8486, and possibly 8690, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 84 (part).

Paper; ff. 54. Old foliation in ink 1-51 (ff. 1-52). 300 x 211mm. Horizontal catchwords on each page. One Italian hand.