Add MS 8753

GUIDI DEL BAGNO LETTER-BOOK: Dispatches and letters of Niccolò Guidi del Bagno, Bishop of Athens, nuncio to France 25 June 1643 - Dec. 1656; 1655-1657. Italian and Latin. Copies. The dispatches are mainly addressed to the secretary of state Giulio Rospigliosi and date 21 May 1655 - 5 Feb. 1657 (dispatches relating to 1655 on ff. 2-174v, to 1656 on ff. 174v-373, to 1657 on ff. 373-376). Correspondents include: Cardinal Giacomo Corradi, Pope Alexander VII, the Pope's brother Mario Chigi, the Pope's nephews Agostino, Sigismondo, Flavio Chigi, and Giovanni Bichi, Queen Christina of Sweden, and Carlo Gualterio, secretary of the briefs at Paris. The MS. also includes letters sent to Guidi del Bagno and to the nuncio to Spain Camillo Massimi by Henri-Auguste de Loménie, Comte de Brienne, Secretary of State of Louis XIV, and a letter to Guidi del Bagno from Francesco Buti, Secretary to Cardinal Mazarin. A blank space is left (ff. 302v-303) after the heading for a letter to Guidi del Bagno from François de Harlay de Champvallon, Archbishop of Rouen, which was never copied. Also included are copies of: - (a) ff. 151-152, 273v-277v, two papal briefs to the Bishops' assembly at Paris and their reply, in Latin, 1655-1656; - (b) ff. 255-257v, a speech by the French Chancellor Pierre Séguier, Duc de Villemor, to the assembly of the Parisian Clergy, 1656; - (c) ff. 369v-370v, accounts of the Bishoprics of Ferrara and Rimini, 1656. Other correspondence of Guidi del Bagno in Add. 8734 and 8735 from a different set of volumes; for his correspondence with papal nuncio Fabio Chigi at Münster see Add. 8774. Title (f. 1) 'Registro / di lettere scritte da Monsignor Bagni Arcivescovo d'Atene Nuntio in Francia a Monsignor Rospigliosi Secretario di Stato, dalli 21 maggio 1655, sino li 5 febraro 1657 da Spoleti nel ritorno della sua nuntiatura. / Tomo ottavo'. Inc. (f. 2) 'All'Illustrissimo Monsignor Rospigliosi / li 21 maggio 1655. in piano / Professo a Vostra Signoria Illustrissima le riverenti obligationi, che devo del favore', expl. (f. 376) 'li 5 febraro 1657 / In Spoleti / Ho preso ardire ... poche occorrenze che mi bisognassero; Et a Vostra Signoria Illustrissima faccio humilissima fede / Il fine'. The notations 'In piano' and 'In Cifra' follow the dates of the dispatches and distinguish the ones originally written in cipher. According to the title (f. 1), the MS. comes from a set of eight volumes and it is possibly identifiable with Mattei MS. no. 315 in Guilford's catalogue Add. 8220, ff. 19v, 27. Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford, with shelfmark 'L/18/E' (front pastedown). '87' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8391-8393, 8660, 8721, 8722, 8723-8724, 8754, 8755, and 8772, possibly 8366, 8589, and 8727, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 87 (part.).

Paper; ff. 377+i. Modern foliation in pencil '1-376' (followed here), repeating no. 308. 263 x 189mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. Two Italian hands: - (a) ff. 2-109v, 270-376; - (b) ff. 110-269v. Guilford binding of quarter vellum with covers of marble paper over pasteboards.