Details

Other Title:

Lettere del Cardinale Francesco M. de'Medici scritte al Marchese Montauti inviato di Toscana all corte cesarea [1690-1696]

Subjects:

Medici, House of.
Ambassadors -- Italy -- Tuscany -- 17th century.
Ambassadors.
Holy Roman Empire -- History -- Leopold I, 1658-1705.
Tuscany (Italy) -- History -- 17th century -- Sources.
Italy -- Tuscany.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Letters.
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Letters to Abbot Marquis Anton Francesco Montauti in Vienna, where he was special envoy to the court for Cosimo III. Many are partly in cipher. Letters from Cosimo III are mostly about the negotiations for the marriage of his son, Gian Gastone, to Princess Anne of Saxe-Lauenburg, widow of the Count Palatine. Also mentioned are Cosimo's daughter, Anna Maria Ludovica, and her husband William, Elector Palatinate. Other letters deal with Tuscan support for the troops of the Holy Roman Empire and imperial wars.
Letters from Cardinal Francesco Maria de'Medici concern relations between the imperial court, the Tuscan court, and the Papal court, where Francesco appears to have conducted some negotiations as a representative of the Holy Roman Empire. Some of the letters are personal and emotional in tone as there appears to have been a personal friendship between Montauti and Cardinal Francesco Maria de'Medici (cf. Ms. Codex 536 for other letters from this period).

Contents:

In two sections: Lettere del Gran Duca Cosimo III [de' Medici], dated 1694-1696, ff. 1-41 (16 letters).
2. Francesco de Medici. Lettere del Cardinale Francesco M. de' Medici scritte al Marchese Montauti inviato di Toscana all corte cesarea, dated 1690, 1694-1696, ff. 52-118 (34 letters).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Titles from title pages (f. 1r, f. 51r).
Foliation: Paper, i + 124 + i; [1-124]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Script: Written in various cursive scripts by multiple hands, including autograph letters of Cosimo III.
Binding: Contemporary parchment, with title "Lettere del Gran Duca" and Medici coat of arms (in colored inks) on cover. Evidence of repairs (title page, new endleaves).
Origin: Written in Florence and other Italian cities, 1690-1696.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Libraria Antiquaria Hoepli (Milan), 1952.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 154-155 (Ms. Lea 30).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 531

Contributor:

Montauti, Anton Francesco, Abbe Marquis.
Francesco I, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, 1541-1587.

OCLC:

155965402