Add MS 8764

MORONE LETTER-BOOK: Dispatches from and to Giovanni Morone and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese; 1539-1540. Italian and Latin. Copies, 17th cent. The dispatches relate to Germany and the diets of Hagenau and Worms (1540), and are dated 30 Nov. 1539 - 7 Oct. 1540. Morone was Bishop of Modena and papal nuncio (1536-1541) to Ferdinand, King of the Romans. Most of his dispatches included in the present MS. are addressed to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III Farnese, and to Guido Ascanio Sforza, Cardinal Camerlengo, also called Cardinal di Santa Flora. In addition the letter-book includes dispatches sent by Alessandro Farnese at the time of his legation to France and Germany. Correspondents of Morone and Farnese include Paul III, Marcello Cervini degli Spannocchi, Bishop of Nicastro and secretary to the Pope, the Dutch theologian Albert Pighius, Giovanni Poggi, papal nuncio to Charles V, Ernest of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Bishop of Salzburg, and his brother Christopher, Archibishop of Bremen, Girolamo Ghinucci, Bishop of Worcester and Auditor of the Papal Chamber, Dukes William IV and Louis X of Bavaria, Girolamo Rorario, papal nuncio to Poland and Hungary, Cristoforo Madrucci, Archbishop of Trento. The MS. also includes: - (a) ff. 69v-74, propositions by German princes electors and Lutheran towns to the Emperor regarding an agreement with the Catholic church on religious matters, Italian and Latin, n.d.; - (b) ff. 96-97v, memorial on the Chapter of Basel, Latin, n.d; - (c) ff. 178-180, memorial of Christopher of Brunswick, Bishop of Bremen, Latin, n.d; - (d) ff. 199v-200, memorial of Ernest I of Brunswick, Bishop of Salzburg, Latin, n.d; - (e) ff. 247v-249v, memorials of the Bishop of Meissen and the administrators of Prague, Latin, Aug.-Sept. 1540. The dispatches are partially published from a similar MS. (now Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, Cod. L. 4), in Nuntiaturberichte Giovanni Morones vom deutschen Königshofe 1539. 1540, ed. by F. Dittrich (Paderborn, 1892; Gorres-Gesellschaft. Quellen und Forschungen aus dem Gebiete der Geschichte, vol. 1, t. 1), pp. 57-211 passim, and in Nuntiaturen Morones und Poggios, Legationen Farneses und Cervinis, 1539-1540, ed. by L. Cardauns (Berlin, 1909; Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland, etc, pt. i, vol. 5), passim. For other Farnese's dispatches from his legation to France and Germany see Add. 8716, art. 1, and 8717, art. 1. The present MS. is entitled (f. 1) 'Registro di lettere scritte, e ricevute dal Vescovo di Modena, che fu poi il Cardinal Morone nella sua Nuntiatura di Germania per negotii della Religione, e del Concilio sotto Pavolo [sic] 3^o'. Inc. (f. 2) 'Reverendissimo et Illustrissimo Signor Osservandissimo / Sperava in molti mali di queste cose di Germania / [in margin] Al Cardinale Farnese ', expl. (f. 249v) 'licet in secundo gradu non sit concedendum'. The names of author and recipient are occasionally quoted in the outer margin at beginning of dispatches. The MS. was most probably copied in Rome, as suggested by the indication of the date of their arrival to Rome at the end of dispatches. It is listed in Iter Italicum, IV (1989), p. 68b. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '378' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8715, 8716, 8717, and 38162, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 378 (part).

Paper; ff. 250+xxiv. Modern foliation in pencil '1-249' (followed here), omitting one leaf after f. 210. 298 x 214mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. One Italian hand. 17th-cent. binding of vellum.