Add MS 8689

PIETRO DE NORES: Account of the Carafa War, Book i; after 1644. Italian. Copy. The detailed account of the so-called Carafa war between Pope Paul IV Carafa and Spain (1555-1557) and its consequences is a work by Pietro De Nores, son of Giason, the exiled Cypriot philosopher and literary critic (on the latter see DBI 38 (1990), pp. 768-773). Pietro began to write the account in Rome during the first years of the papacy of Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592-1605), but completed it only between 1640-1644 after a long period of interruption. The work is divided into four books, of which Add. 26858, 26859 are an 18th-cent. copy. It was published as Storia della guerra di Paolo IV sommo pontefice contro gli Spagnuoli scritta da Pietro Nores corredata di documenti (Florence, 1847; Archivio Storico Italiano, t. 12; with preface by L. Scarabelli and notes by S. Volpicella): see notes on De Nores' life and MSS. on pp. xx-xxvii, xxviii-xxxiii. The present MS. contains only Book i (unattributed) relating to events in 1555-1556, and corresponds to Add. 26858, ff. 4-87, and Storia della guerra (cit. ed.), pp. 1-47. Inc. (f. 1) 'Libro Primo / La guerra che à mezo l'corso del presente secolo gli Spagnoli fecer à Paolo iiij', expl. (f. 51v) 'e le speranze di que medesimi che ha gia' in se stessa determinato di ruinare'. The MS. has no title. For a different account of the Carafa War by Alessandro Andrea see Add. 8666. Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford (front pastedown). '254' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8685, 8687, 8691, 8700, 8703, 8705, and 8708, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 254 (part).

Paper; ff. 51+iii. 250 x 188mm. One Italian hand. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. Late 16th-cent. binding of vellum.