Add MS 8807

LELIO MARRETTI: Ricordi Politici, vol. ii; circa 1610-1611. Italian. Copy, 18th cent. Lelio Marretti (1530-1617), a nobleman of Siena and a member (from 1557) of the Accademia degli Intronati in Siena (with the name of Attonito), was Prior of Santa Maria in Via Lata in Rome and 'familiare' of Cardinals Alessandro (d. 1581) and Francesco Sforza (d. 1624). For Cardinal Francesco he wrote the relazioni of the conclaves for the elections of Gregory XIV (1590), Innocent IX (1591), and Clement VIII (1592). After leaving the Cardinal's service, around 1610-1611, Marretti put together his Ricordi Politici, a vast collection of political instructions to Princes on how to govern their states. He dedicated the work to Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1609-1621), for whose brother, the young Cardinal Francesco de' Medici, Marretti had already written (around 1609-1610) another treatise of political instructions at the request of their mother Maria Cristina. The Ricordi Politici are divided into three parts: the first part is entirely dedicated to the education of the Prince, while the second and the third parts are less coherent compilations of exemplars from the classics (mainly Tacitus and other Roman historians) and from more recent historical events. The present MS. is an 18th-cent. copy of the second part. The MS. is mentioned in P. O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum, iv (1989), p. 68. Other isolated copies of the second part of the Ricordi in Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS. Magliabechiano II-III 377, Vat. MSS. lat. 9946 and 10311. Complete copies of the work in Add. 48137-48142 (Yelverton MSS. 152-154: two sets, each in three volumes), Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MSS. Palat. 768 (with autograph annotations) and Magliabechiano II-III 374-376, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MSS. Ital. 234, 236, 237; a late 17th-cent. copy of the first part only in Add. 31049. The work was never published. For copies of the relazione of the conclave of Gregory XIV see Add. 8418, ff. 350-563v, Vat. MS. Urb. lat. 1661, ff. 155 sqq., Siena, Biblioteca degli Intronati, MS. K.IV.6. For copies of the Instrutione data al Cardinal de' Medici come si deve governar nella Corte di Roma see Add. 48134 (Yelverton MS. 149), art. 14, ff. 379-434v, Royal 14 A.XX, art. 8, ff. 643-702, Vat. MS. Ottobon. lat. 268, pp. 142 sqq., Rome, Biblioteca Corsiniana, MS. 38.A.22, Siena, Biblioteca degli Intronati, MS. K.III.11 (with autograph annotations). For Lelio Marretti see F. Brocchi, Collezione alfabetica di uomini e donne illustri della Toscana dagli scorsi secoli fino alla metà del XIX (Florence, 1852), p. 116, B.L. copy 10631.cc.22; for a discussion of Maretti and his work (based on MSS. Magliabechiani II-III 374-376), a detailed bibliography and list of other MSS. see A. M. Martellone, 'Nel Seicento della decadenza italiana. Lelio Marretti, o della lezione delle storie tra tacitismo e pratica politica alla corte pontificia', in Archivio storico italiano, 158 (2000), ii (584), pp. 255-305, in particular pp. 255, 282, 291, 304. The present MS. is entitled (f. 2) 'Ricordi politici di Lelio Marretti Gentil'huomo Sanese'. Inc. (f. 2) 'Huomini grandi prudenti, cose grandi / Un huomo grande che sia stato amico o parente al Prencipe, mutandosi stato, hara gran fatica di potervi stare / Ancorche paresse buono il consiglio d'Androno', expl. (f. 283v) 'quello che promesse nel primo ragionamento ch'hebbe in Senato fatto Imperatore, leggasi Tacito, nel libro xiii de gl'Annali'. The text is divided into six sections, entitled 'Huomini grandi prudenti, cose grandi' (ff. 2-54v), 'Ministri' (ff. 54v-93v), 'Artifitii et errori' (ff. 94-154), 'Stati Città' (ff. 154v-174), 'Repubbliche e Populi liberi' (ff. 174-251), 'Sudditi Populo vulgo' (ff. 251v-283v). A note (f. 1) in ink referring to the contemporary detailed table of contents (ff. 284-298), possibly a copy of the one compiled by Luigi Gualtieri in the MSS. Magliabechiani II-III 375 and 377. Stamp of the Colonna library 'Libraria Colonna' in red on ff. 1, 8, i verso; for the Colonna library stamp see Bragaglia, vol. iii, T 32: c. 1750. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '62' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8552, 8563, 8568, 8572, 8625 and 8672, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 62 (part).

Paper; ff. 298+i, plus five unfoliated blanks after f. 283. Modern foliation in pencil '1-298' (followed here), omitting one leaf after ff. 164 and 222, omitting nos. 211 and 295. Old pagination in ink '1-603' (ff. 1-298), including blanks after f. 283. 262 x 199mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. One Italian hand. 18th-cent. Italian binding of full reversed skin over limp pasteboards.