Add MS 8730

COLLECTION OF 87 AVVISI TO THE PAPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FROM FRANCE; 1624-1627. Italian, Latin, and French. Partly copies, partly in cipher. Imperfect. The avvisi list miscellaneous news (wars and politics, trade, gossip and natural events) and were sent as enclosures to the nuncio's weekly reports to Rome. The present MS. contains a collection of avvisi sent together with his dispatches by Bernardino Spada, papal nuncio to France between 30 Dec. 1623 – 27 Feb. 1627. The dispatches cover the period 2 Aug. 1624 - 31 Jan. 1627, and refer to the reign of Louis XIII of France. Inc. (f. 1) 'Di S. Germano 20 Agosto 162[4] / Il Re doppo essere partito da Compiegne', expl. (f. 376) 'Di Parigi li 28 Maggio 1626 / Si manda un essemplare stampato di due lettere scritte dal Re à i Parlamenti, e Governatori delle Provincie sopra la cattura del Marescial'. The sequence of the avvisi in the MS. is not strictly chronological. They are interspersed with: - (a) ff. 18-19, copy of a letter to Spada from Maximilian I of Bavaria, 7 Oct. 1624; - (b) ff. 30-31v, original letter from Girolamo Gori concerning the marriage of Charles Prince of Wales to Henrietta Maria of France, London, 16 Dec. 1624; - (c) ff. 37v-38, a plan of the Huguenot attack on Port-Louis led by Benjamin de Rohan, Signeur de Soubise in Jan. 1625; - (d) ff. 41-49, avvisi relating to the Huguenots and copies of letter from Henri duc de Rohan to Louis XIII, articles of peace between them, and letter from Benjamin de Rohan to the town of La Rochelle, 1622-1625; - (e) ff. 57-59, papers relating to Paolo Emilio Ferillo, suspected of being a spy, the death of James I of England, and the Duke of Neubourg; - (f) ff. 63-66v, copies of letters from the Secretary of the Concilium of Monasteries in Westphalia, Giovanni Pesaro, Johannes Tserklaes, Count of Tilly, Aug. 1625; - (g) ff. 72-75, 78-80v, copy and translation of a satiric letter addressed to Louis XIII, in French, [June 1625]; - (h) f. 100, copy of a letter from Jean de Saint Bonnet de Toiras, governor of La Rochelle, to his brother Claude, Bishop of Nimes, concerning the captivity in La Rochelle of Ascanio Piccolomini, 17 Sept. 1625; - (i) f. 178, copy of a letter to Louis XIII from Peter Ernst von Mansfeld, 19 Jan. 1626; - (j) ff. 179-179v, anonymous letter from England, in Latin, 16 Feb. 1626; - (k) ff. 198-198v, copy of letter from the Danish Ambassador to the French Prime Minister, in French, n.d. (sent to Rome on 9 Apr. 1626); - (l) ff. 279-289v, papers and copies of letters by Taberna, Angelo Badoer, Pietro del Bene, concerning the attack by an agent of the Venetian Republic on the exiled Angelo Badoer, partly in French, Aug. 1626 (on the episode see DBI, 5 (1963), p. 101, and P. Preto, I servizi segreti di Venezia (Milan, 1994); - (m) ff. 295-298, list of French servants of Henrietta Maria of France, wife of Charles I of England, in French; - (n) f. 309, copy of letter of Louis XIII to the Comte de Lens, in French, [Oct. 1626]; - (o) ff. 353-353v, copy of letter of Charles I of England to Christian IV of Denmark and Norway, in Latin, [Dec. 1626]. A note at the end of the volume (f. i) points out that some avvisi have been copied twice: 'Di questi avvisi ve ne sono parecchj duplicati' (4 Jul. 1625 on ff. 70-71v, 76-77v; 12 Dec. 1625 on ff. 131-133, 140-142; 16 Jan. 1626 on ff. 145-150, 151-156; 27 March 1626 on ff. 190-191v, 192-193v; 21 Apr. 1626 on ff. 200-203v, 204-208; 16-17 Aug. 1626 on ff. 257-258, 259-260; 25 Aug. 1626 on ff. 261-265, 269-270 imperfect). Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '265' in pencil in upper left margin of f. 1. Purchased from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 265 (part).

Paper; ff. 358+i, plus 44 interleaved blanks throughout. Composite volume. Lacking one or more leaves after f. 270; f. 90 misplaced after f. 89. Modern pencil foliation 1-376 (followed here), omitting nos. 101-120, repeating nos. 298 and 344 twice. 317 x 210mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. Possibly a cancelled stamp from a previous collection on verso of blank before f. 81.