Add MS 40077

"HOSPITALIS titulo Sanctae Mariae noue in urbe Florentina principium, ordo et institutio": copy of the regulations of the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova at Florence, founded by Folco dei Portinari in 1288 (not 1278 as in this MS.). Latin. Addressed (in this MS.) by Francesco dei Portinari, papal prothonotary, to Henry VII of England, with prefatory letter and epilogue, from which it appears that the king was contemplating the foundation of a hospital ("amplissimum paras egrotantium domicilium et subsidium condere") and had requested an account of the regulations of the Florentine institution. This would probably be the Hospital of the Savoy, which was founded under the terms of Henry VII's will (see W. J. Loftie, Memorials of the Savoy, p. 87). But L. Passerini, Storia degli stabilimenti di Beneficenza ... della Citta di Firenza, 1853, p. 304, states that the request was made by Henry VIII in 1524. He gives no authority for the date, but that king's name appears in a transcript made, apparently from another copy, then in the hands of Antonio Cocchi (d. 1758), by Giovanni Targioni, which Passerini prints, op. cit., p. 851. The patent for the Savoy was passed in 1511 (confirmed 1512) and the statutes were confirmed in January 1524 (cf. Loftie, op. cit., pp. 96, 100, and for an abridged copy of the statutes see Cotton MS. Cleop. C. v, f. 2). Vellum; ff. iii + 21. 9 3/8 in. x 6 in. Early xvi cent. After the prefatory letter (f. 1 b) are the royal arms of England within a laurel wreath, and the first page of the text opposite (f. 2) is enclosed on three sides in a frame of renaissance foliage in colours on a gold ground. A panel with Virgin and Child and adoring angels is inserted between frame and text at the top, and in the frame at the bottom is a roundel with the arms of Portinari, or, a door supported by two lions rampant sa., with a prothonotary's hat, flanked by two gold shields charged with a crutch, the stall vert, the crosspiece gu. (cf. f. 2 b, "cum sigillo hospitalis id est scipione ex panno uel uiridi uel ruffo"). Illuminated initials in gold and colours. In a case (Italian, 17th-18th cent.) of red morocco, gilt-tooled, with fan and other patterns, with attachments for ribbons. Later the MS. was found in Lithuania by Michel Hausmaann, Secrétaire de la Noblesse du Gouvernement de Minsk, who presented it to [Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy] in 1860 (cf. his letter formerly preserved with the MS., now Add. 40166, f. 29). Bookplate of arms of [Sir] Thomas Brooke, F.S.A., Armitage Bridge. Sir John Arthur Brooke sale-cat., Sotheby's, 1921, lot 797.