Add MS 8775

FALCONIERI LETTER-BOOK: Letters and dispatches to and from Ottavio Falconieri, abbot of St. Jerome in Fiesole, as papal internuncio at Brussels (Oct. 1672 - 3 Nov. 1674); 1672-1675. Italian, French, and Greek. Partly copies, mostly in cipher. Correspondents include Lorenzo Magalotti, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, possibly Girolamo Alberti, the Venetian correspondent at London, and perhaps Opizio Pallavicini, nuncio at Cologne, Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri, nephew and prime minister of Pope Clement X, Galeazzo Marescotti, nuncio at Madrid, and Francesco Bonvisi, nuncio at Warsaw. The name of Girolamo Alberti is suggested by a note on f. 24, 'Zifra tra il signor Alberti residente veneto in Londra e monsignor Falconieri'. Italian translations of texts in cipher added to the dispatches by Falconieri: for comparison see his autograph letters to P. Varese, nuncio in Venice, in Add. 8592, ff. 103-108v; see also reproductions of other Falconieri's autographs in Lettere di Ottavio Falconieri a Leopoldo de' Medici, ed. by L. Giovannini (Florence, 1984), figs. I-IV and pl. 3. For other letters to Falconieri from Lorenzo Magalotti and the anonymous correspondent in London [Girolamo Alberti?] see Add. 8776. Title (f. i) 'Lettere in cifra', added by a later hand. Letters and dispatches bound without regard to chronological order. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '586' in pencil in top margin of f. i. Purchased, together with Add. 8704, 8734, and 8735, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 586 (part). Contents include:

1. ff. 1-5, 10-11, 15-23. Letters to Falconieri from an anonymous correspondent [Girolamo Alberti ?] at London; 2 Sept. 1673 - 18 Aug. 1675. Italian. Autograph. Inc. (f. 4) 'Londra 4 giugno 1675 / Sempre piu animate si sono le due Camere dimostrate'. Including (ff. 15, 17) copies of two proclamations issued by Charles II of England, 17 June 1675. With interlinear notes by Falconieri providing the Italian translation of ciphers. Other letters to Falconieri from the same correspondent in Add. 8776, art. 1, ff. 2-19v, 238-494.

2. ff. 8, 59. [Lorenzo Magalotti], Letter and a letter fragment to Falconieri; 12 Jan. 1674 and n.d. Italian. Partly autograph. Inc. 'Puo essere ogni cosa'. Other autograph letters of Lorenzo Magalotti to Falconieri in Add. 8776, ff. 20-54v, 56-234 (all unsigned), to Sir R. Southwell in Add. 34343, ff. 105-106, 136-137, and to Henry Oldenburg in London, Royal Society Library, Early Letters Sequence, M. I, 45-52.

3. ff. 12-13. Letter to Falconieri from Cologne [Opizio Pallavicini ?], in cipher; 10 ottobre 1673. Inc. 'Colonia 10 ottobre 1673'.

4. ff. 24-29, 38-40, 43, 45-48, 51-54. Tables of conversions for the ciphers, of which: - (a) ff. 24v-25, code between Alberti and Falconieri; - (b) ff. 27-28, code provided to Falconieri by the Curia, 28 Nov. 1672; - (c) ff. 39-40, code provided by the Curia to all the ministers, 20 June 1670.

5. ff. 30-32, 35, 65-123. Dispatches to Falconieri from Rome [Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri ?], in cipher; 25 March 1673 - 29 Sept. 1674. Inc. 'Di Roma 25 marzo 1673'. Occasionally with Italian translations of the contents added by Falconieri.

6. ff. 41, 42. Two letters to Falconieri, possibly from Cardinal Francesco Barberini; 16 June - 21 July 1674. Italian. Partly in cipher. Inc. 'Roma 16 giugno 1674 / Non ho havuto comodità d'essere'. Same hand as in Add. 8776, art. 4, ff. 235-236.

7. ff. 44-44v. [Ottavio Falconieri], Draft of letter to Cardinal Francesco Barberini; 20 Oct. 1674. Italian. Autograph. Inc. 'Bruxelles li 20 ottobre 1674 / Al Signor Cardinal Barberino / In cifra / Sarà difficile che si possi cavare'.

8. ff. 49-49v. [Claude] Mauger, Letter to Falconieri; 31 May 1675. French. Autograph. Inc. 'Monsegneur / Je ne puis m'empecher de vous temoigner ... de Londres ce 31 de May 1675 ... Mauger'. The correspondent is probably identifiable with Claude Mauger, French linguist and philologist operating in London between 1653 and 1676, who published a collection of letters as Mauger's Letters, written upon several subjects: faithfully translated into English for the great facility of those, who have a desire to learn the French tongue... / Les Lettres de Mauger ecrites sur divers sûjets... (London, 1671; 2nd enlarged ed. London, 1676); see S. A. Allibone, A critical dictionary of English literature & British and American authors ... from the earliest accounts to the middle of the 19th century (London, 1859-1871), 3 vols.

9. ff. 55-56. Giovanni Battista Centurione and Giovanni Luca Durazzo, Reply to the manifesto of Count Catalano Alfieri; n.d, [but June 1672]. Italian. Copy. Inc. 'Quanto più improviso è che lungi da ogni credere'. Another copy of the text in Add. 8754, art. 3 (d), ff. 45-46.

10. f. 58. Giovanni Da Verrazzano, Letter to Falconieri; 3 Oct. 1674. Italian. Autograph. Inc. 'Illustrissimo ... / Ho visto dalla gentilissima sua del primo corrente la missione fattami di ordine del Lorenzo Magalotti ... Amsterdam adi 3 ottobre 1674 / Di Vostra Signoria ... Gio da Verrazzano'.

11. ff. 62-64. [Galezzo Marescotti ?], Three letters from Madrid, in cipher; 28 Feb. - 20 June 1674. Inc. 'Madrid 20 giugno 1674'. With Italian translations of the contents added by Falconieri.

12. ff. 101-102. [Francesco Bonvisi ?], Letter from Warsaw; 19 Jan. 1674. Inc. 'Varsavia 19 gennaio 1674'.

Paper; ff. 123+i, plus 52 unfoliated interleaved blanks throughout. Modern foliation in pencil '1-123' (followed here), omitting nos. 31 and 80, repeating nos. 78 and 79. ff. 4-5 possibly misplaced, should probably precede ff. 1-3. 305 x 208mm. Several Italian hands, of which the hand of ff. 1-5, 10-11, 15-23 is the same as in Add. 8776, art. 1 (ff. 2-19v, 238-494). Guilford binding of quarter vellum with covers of marble paper over pasteboards.