Add MS 8701

IPPOLITO CAMILLO GUIDI: Relazione of Spain and Account of the Fall of the Count-Duke of Olivares; circa 1643. Italian, and Spanish. Copy. Two relazioni of Spain by the Dominican Friar Ippolito Camillo Guidi concerning Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares. Guidi was the envoy at Madrid of Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena, between 1639-1643. The first relazione (ff. 1-156v) concerns Spain in the 1620s and the life and political role played by Olivares (see Add. 8700). It includes letters and relazioni by King Philip IV and Olivares, and a brief from Urban VIII to Olivares, all in Spanish. The second text (ff. 157-190) is a detailed account of Olivares' fall from power. The original dispatch containing this account is dated 27 Jan. 1643 (now Modena, Archivio di Stato, Cancelleria Ducale, Carteggio degli ambasciatori ed agenti Estensi in Spagna, busta 53). The account was published one year later with some textual variations under the title Caduta del Conte d'Olivares l'anno M.DC.XXXXIII. (Ivrea, 1644); B.L. copy 898.d.5.(6) (see A. Morel-Fatio, 'Caduta del Conte d'Olivares', in Bulletin Italien, 12 (1912), pp. 27-49, 136-156, 224-237; E. Werner, 'Caída del Conde-Duque de Olivares', in Revue Hispanique, t. 71, no. 159 (1927), pp. 1-156, with list of MSS. containing the Italian text or its translations; J. H. Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares. The Statesman in an Age of Decline (New Haven-London, 1986), p. 645). The two relazioni are unattributed in the present MS. From the collection of Callisto Marini, see his note below the title (f. 1) 'Spetta questa relazione all'anno 1643 e più servirà di lume per il governo di Filippo IV dal principio del suo governo. / Sono contenute nella relazione diverse memorie in spagnuolo interressanti / C. Marini' (possibly identifiable with Marini MS. 1 in Guilford's catalogue Add. 8220, f. 32v). Old shelfmark in black ink '15.' on the front cover. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '334' in pencil in top left corner of f. i. Purchased, together with Add. 8594, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 334 (part). Contents as follows:

1. ff. 1-156v. 'J.M.J. / Relatione dell'Ambasciadore di Venetia, ritornato dalla Corte Cattolica, dove tratta delle cose occorse dal Principio di Filippo 4^o. sino alle rivolutioni di Catalogna, con la vita, e Politica del Conte Duca'; circa 1643. Inc. (f. 2) 'Ritorno, lodato Dio, da Madrid alla Padria, à presentarmi alli piedi di Vostra Serenità', expl. (f. 156v) 'con buona licenza della Serenità Vostra terminerò questa mia relazione con augurarle accrescimento di stato, et il compimento de suoi desiderij / Fine'. Including papers by King Philip IV in Spanish. Another copy of the text in Add. 8700, with variants and Italian translation of Spanish texts.

2. ff. 157-190. 'Caduta Del Conte Duca d'Olivares'; [1643]. Inc. 'La strana metamorfosi che di ripente si è veduta in questa Corte Cattolica', expl. 'Prego Dio, che la guardi con la felicità che lo desidero Madrid / Devotissimo et Obligatissimo Servitore'. Another copy of the text in Add. 16479, ff. 271-316v (anonymous). Spanish translations of the text in Add. 10254, ff. 1-147 (with different ending and attributed to Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas) and 229-259v (dated 15 Feb. 1643), and 25688, ff. 72-132v (dated 18 Feb. 1643); Eg. 315, ff. 65-91 (attributed to Eugenio Carretto, Marqués of Grana, and dated 15 Feb. 1643), and 2053, ff. 117-147v (attributed to Carretto and dated 13 Feb. 1643).

Paper; ff. 192+iv. Modern foliation in pencil 1-190 (followed here), omitting one leaf after ff. 135 and 184. 294 x 200mm. One Italian hand. 18th-cent. binding of brown gilt tooled morocco with decorated pastedowns; edges mottled in red.