Add MS 8746-8750

MAZARIN LETTER-BOOKS: Letters of Cardinal Giulio Mazarin and his secretary Giuseppe Zongo Ondedei; 1647-1651. Italian, Spanish, Latin and French. Copies, partly 18th cent. The letters are mainly addressed to Italian cardinals, princes and captains. Recipients include Cardinals Girolamo Grimaldi, Antonio Barberini, Rinaldo d'Este, Virginio Orsini, Giulio Sacchetti, Alderano Cibo, Ascanio Filomarino, Archbishop of Naples, and Mazarin's own brother Michele Mazzarino, Archbishop of Aix and Cardinal of St. Cecilia, Pope Innocent X, Kings Wladyslaw IV Vasa and John Casimir II Vasa of Poland, King Philip IV of Spain, the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de' Medici, the Duke of Modena Francesco I d'Este, the Duke of Bavaria Maximilian I, the Prince of Monaco Onorato II Grimaldi, the Duke of Parma Ranuccio II Farnese, the Duke of Mantua Carlo II Gonzaga Nevers and his mother Maria Gonzaga Nevers, the Doge of Venice Francesco da Molin, the Doges of Genoa Giambattista Lomellini and Giacomo de' Franchi, Princes Tomaso and Maurizio of Savoy, the Duke of Bracciano Paolo Giordano II Orsini, the papal nuncio to Florence Annibale Bentivoglio, the Venetian Ambassadors Alvise Contarini and Michele Morosini, Giacinto Serroni, Archbishop of Orange, Hugues de Lionne, French secretary of state for the foreign affairs, other French officers or agents such as Marchese Giannetto Giustiniani, Domenico Roncalli, Francesco de Bonsi, Paolo Maccarani, Mario Calcagnini, Antonio Francesco Farsetti, Giovanni Villa, Elpidio Benedetti, Mazarin's father Pietro Mazzarino, and other prominent ecclesiastical figures, diplomats and military captains. Add. 8749 and 8750 contain the same collection of letters and various texts relating to 1650-1651, including copies of letters of King Louis XIV of France and Grand Duke Leopold of Austria. Add. 8749 is an 18th-cent. MS., apparently from a different set of MSS. The letters and texts relating to 1650 in Add. 8749 and 8750 were published in Epistolario inedito del Cardinal Mazzarino pubblicato da Carlo Morbio coll'aggiunta d'alcuni suoi scritti (Milan, 1842). Other copies of Mazarin's letters dated 3 Jan - 5 May 1648 in Add. 17322; a collection of autograph letters of Cardinal Mazarin to Giannetto Giustiniani in Genoa, Archivio Storico Civico, MS. 49, for which see V. Ricci, 'Lettere del Cardinale Giulio Mazzarini a Giannettino Giustiniani patrizio di Genova', in Miscellanea di Storia Italiana, t. iv (Turin, 1863), pp. 3-235; B. Marinelli, Un corrispondente genovese di Mazzarino: Giannettino Giustiniani (Università di Genova, 2000; Quaderni di Storia e Letteratura, 7), citing Add. 8746-8750 and 17322 on p. 84. For a list of MSS. in some Italian libraries containing Mazarin's letters see U. Silvagni, Il Cardinal Mazzarino (Turin, 1928), pp. 586-587. Old shelfmarks '371', '372' and '374' in ink in the fifth spine compartments of Add. 8747, 8748, 8750; old shelfmark '370' can be read under the front pastedown of Add. 8746; old shelfmark '373' written in pencil by a later hand in top margin of f. 1 in Add. 8749. The MSS. are identifiable with Mattei MSS. nos 370-372, 374 and possibly 373, in Guilford's catalogue Add. 8220, f. 20v. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '531' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedowns of Add. 8747 and 8748, and on first front flyleaf of Add. 8750. All purchased, together with Add. 8751, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 531 (part).

Paper. Five volumes. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. Four Italian hands: (a) Add. 8746, ff. 1-215v; - (b) Add. 8746, ff. 216-524, Add. 8747; - (c) Add. 8748 and 8750; - (d) Add. 8749: Lorenzo Ruga. 17th-cent. binding of vellum for Add. 8746-8748, 8750. Guilford binding of quarter vellum with covers of marble paper over pasteboards for 8749.