Add MS 8765

CARAFA LETTER-BOOK: Register of dispatches to and from Pier Luigi Carafa as papal nuncio to Cologne (15 June 1624 - 20 Nov. 1634); 1625-1634. Italian, French, and Latin. Copies, partly autograph. Most dispatches were written by or addressed to Cardinal Nepote Francesco Barberini and Cardinal Antonio Barberini, Cardinal of St. Onofrio and brother of Pope Urban VIII. Other correspondents include Cardinal Giulio Mazarin, Jacqueline de Bueil, Comtesse de Moret, Marquise de Vardes and mistress of King Henri IV of France, the papal nuncios to France Bernardino Spada, Bishop of Damietta, Giovanni Francesco Guidi del Bagno, Bishop of Patras, and Alessandro Bichi, Bishop of Carpentras, the papal nuncio to Spain Cesare Monti, Patriarch of Antioch, the papal nuncio to the Flanders Fabio de Lagonissa, Bishop of Conza, the papal nuncio to Venice Francesco Vitelli, Bishop of Thessalonica, and Philipp Christoph von Sötern, Bishop of Trier. Other collections of dispatches to and from Carafa in Add. 8766-8768 and 8769. The dispatches to and from Cardinals Barberini are published from the present MS. with full reference to MSS. and comprehensive bibliography in Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland, nebst ergänzenden Aktenstücken. Die Kölner Nuntiatur, ed. by Joseph Wijnhoven, Band vii, vols. 1-4 (Paderborn etc, 1980-1995), passim, with summaries of the contents of the present MS. in vol. 1, pp. LVII-LVIII, vol. 2, p. XVII, vol. 3, pp. XV and XX, vol. 4, pp. XVII-XVIII. For Pier Luigi Carafa see DBI, 19 (1976), pp. 596-599. Old shelfmark 'V/v/5' in ink at centre of front flyleaf. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '390' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown of the detached binding. Purchased, together with Add. 8699, 8731, 8733, 8770, 8771, 8773, 8774, and possibly 8776, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 390 (part).

1. ff. 1-41v. Dispatches from Cardinals Francesco and Antonio Barberini to Carafa; 4 Oct. 1625 - 21 Oct. 1634. Copies. Inc. 'Di Roma a 4 ottobre 1625 / Col passato ordinario scrissi a Vostra Signoria', expl. 'Di Castelgandolfo a 21 d'ottobre 1634 ... Il di cui negozio lascio in arbitrio di lei di participar, o no al suo successore'.

2. ff. 42-93. Excerpts of dispatches from Carafa to Cardinals Francesco and Antonio Barberini; 16 Feb. 1625 - 22 Sept. 1634. Autograph copies. Inc. 'Di Colonia a 16 di febraro 1625 / Doppo questa negoziazione il Padre visitò un Consegliere', expl. 'Di Liegi a 22 di settembre 1634 / Intorno alla postulazione di Spira ... il secreto in questo affare per ogni rispetto'.

3. ff. 94-100. Correspondence of Carafa with Alessandro Bichi and the Marquise de Vardes; 25 Jan. - 1 Jul. 1632. Partly French. Copies. Inc. 'Monsignor Nunzio di Colonia a Monsignor Nunzio di Francia a 25 gennaio 1632 / Il Signor Conte di Morett è stato qui per visitar sua Madre', expl. 'Monsignor Nuntio in Francia a Monsignor Nunzio di Colonia / da Pont a Monson al primo di luglio 1632 / E' vero ch'era molt'a proposito ... la pratica a mio credere caminaria con più fondamento, e forse più felicemente'.

4. ff. 101-107v. Letters to Carafa from Cardinal Mazarin and various papal nuncios; 1626 - 21 Oct. 1633. Copies in Carafa's hand. Inc. 'Da Parigi / Di Cardinal Spada / Se Vostra Signoria havesse qualche lume dell'autore di due libelli', expl. 'Venezia. a 21 d'ottobre 1633. Il Nuntio / Devo partecipare a Vostra Signoria Illustrissima quello che mi occorse ... perchè giunga a lei vero, et intiero, è stato necessario ch'io ne dia questo lume a Vostra Signoria Illustrissima'.

Paper; ff. 107+ii, plus one unfoliated interleaved blank after ff. 41 and 100. 301 x 202mm. Occasional horizontal catchwords. Two main Italian hands: - (1) ff. 1-40, 94-99v, possibly Carafa's secretary Antonio Abbondanti (see Nuntiaturberichte, op.cit., vol. 1 p. LXXII); - (2) ff. 40v-93, 101-107v: Carafa's hand (see Nuntiaturberichte..., op.cit., t. 1, p. LXX). 17th-cent. binding of vellum on limp pasteboards detached and kept separately.