Add MS 8808

COLLECTION OF POLITICAL TREATISES; late 15th-18th cent. Latin, Italian, and French. Partly autograph. Acquisition note (f. 17) relating to art. 4 (ff. 18-59v) 'Comperato nella vendita dei libri del Commendator Buondelmonti'. Armorial bookplate of 5th Earl of Guilford with shelfmark 'L/17/A' (front pastedown). '521' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8761, 8762, 8809, and 8810, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 521 (part).

Paper; ff. 59+ii, plus one unfoliated blank after ff. 7 and 59, and two after f. 26. Composite volume. Old foliation in ink '1-42' (art. 4, ff. 18-59), omitting blanks after f. 26. Art.1 lettered 'C' at the beginning in the top right corner. 305 x 210mm. Four hands. Guilford binding of quarter vellum with covers of marbled paper over pasteboards.

Contents as follows:

1. ff. 1-6. 'Hermolai Barbari de officio Legati', the unfinished tract on the office of ambassador by Ermolao (Almorò) Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia; circa 1489-1491. Latin. Copy, 16th cent. Inc. 'Legati munus est mandata Reipubblicae suae', expl. 'vel canendi, calculis etiam ludendi. ampla'. With horizontal catchwords on each leaf. Lettered 'C' on f. 1. Published in E. Barbaro, De coelibatu. De officio legati, ed. V. Branca (Florence, 1969), pp. 157-167, the list of manuscripts and early printed editions on pp. 25-50, omitting the present MS. For Ermolao (Almorò) Barbaro see DBI, 6 (Rome, 1964), pp. 96-99.

2. ff. 7-7v. 'Discorso di Zanobi Buondelmonti sopra li vari generi de Governi', introduction to a political tract by Zanobi Buondelmonti of Florence, head of the failed conspiracy against cardinal Giulio de' Medici in 1522; [1521?]. Italian. Imperfect. Inc. 'Li generi de Governi son tanti', expl. 'che senza il seguito suo non si potrebbe sostentare'. Possibly the introduction to the lost memorial given by Buondelmonti to Giulio de' Medici in 1521: see F. de' Nerli, Commentarii de' fatti civili occorsi dentro la città di Firenze dall'anno MCCXV al MDXXXVII (Augsburg: David Raimondo Mertz and Gio. Jacopo Majer, 1728), book vii, p. 137, B.L. copies 664.f.9 and 177.g.15; DBI, 15 (Rome, 1972), p. 227.

3. ff. 8-16. 'Discorso della militia del signor Giulio Cesare Brancatio gentil'huomo napolitano fatto in Venetia [alli xx di gennaro: crossed out] 1572', tract on warfare by Giulio Cesare Brancaccio; 1572. Italian. Inc. 'Tutta la guerra consiste in tre parti principali', expl. 'servirse dell'occasioni che gli si rappresenteranno / Fine'. Other copies of the work in Vatican Library, Vat. It. 2597 and Milan, Bibl. Ambrosiana, MS. R. 105: see C. Promis, 'Gl'ingegneri militari che operarono o scrissero in Piemonte dall'anno 1300 all'anno 1650', in Miscellanea di storia italiana, xii (Turin, 1871), pp. 435-437; see also B. Croce, 'Un capitano italiano del Cinquecento. Giulio Cesare Brancaccio', in Varietà di storia letteraria e civile, s. i (Bari, 1935), pp. 57-78, mentioning the treatise on p. 71; DBI, 13 (Rome, 1971), pp. 780-784.

4. ff. 18-59v. Anonymous review of a political and philosophical treatise on the ancient Roman Republic, possibly offered to Commendator Giuseppe Maria Buondelmonti (d. 1757) at the time of the reign in Tuscany of Maria Theresa of Austria (mentioned as princess on f. 26v), wife of Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine; circa 1738-1765. French. Autograph. Dedication letter (f. 18) 'À Monsieur le C. de B. / Les reflexions sur la Republique Romaine', inc. (f. 19) 'L'auteur des considerations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains', expl. 'la Raison humaine unique objet de nôtre auteur, et de son ouvrage immortel'. With corrections, amendments and marginal notations in the same hand of the text. The acquisition note (f. 17) states the provenance of this portion of the MS. from the sale of books of Commendator Buondelmonti.