Details

Subjects:

Medici, House of.
Ursins, Marie-Anne de La Trémoille, princesse des, 1642-1722.
Cosimo III, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, 1642-1723.
Ambassadors -- Italy -- Tuscany -- 17th century.
Ambassadors.
Tuscany (Italy) -- Early works to 1800.
Italy -- Tuscany.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Correspondence.
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

Italian with one passage in Latin.

Summary:

Collection of 129 autograph letters of the Prince Ferdinando III of Tuscany, son of Cosimo III de' Medici, written between 1689 and 1713 to Lodovico Fantoni, diplomat and statesman and to Anton Francesco Montauti, special envoy from Tuscany to the imperial court in Vienna, and one letter from Lodovico Fantoni, written in 1723, about the death of Cosimo III. Most letters contain brief exchanges of information about everyday activities between the Prince, who spent most of his time in Florence or Pisa, and Fantoni, who lived in Vienna, Madrid, Paris and, eventually, Venice. The letters usually deal with the events the Prince attended (banquets and dinners) and with other aspects of his daily routine. The Prince also comments very briefly on various European sovereigns (including the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and his wife, Margaret Theresa, and Madame Ursins, a lady of the Spanish court) and their lives. However, some of the names that appear in the passages are concealed in ciphers. Throughout the collection there are also occasional hints to the unhappy marriage between Ferdinando and Violante of Bavaria (simply referred to as wife in the letters), and to the affairs that the Prince had with various gentlemen, including a Venetian man named Cecchini (f. 73r). There are also mentions of an ongoing friendship with Anton Francesco Montauti (first mentioned on f. 73r). Bound at the end of the volume is also a letter (probably written in 1698) addressed to Montauti where Ferdinando asks him to make sure that the stay of Lodovico Fantoni, who was going to spend some time at the Viennese court, is pleasant and comfortable. Also bound at the end of the volume is a long, detailed account of the last moments of the life of Ferdinando, who died in 1713, written to the sister of the Prince, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, referred to as the Elettrice Palatina. The last document also contains a description of the succession problem that arose at the death of the Prince, as Ferdinando III died without heirs.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f. 1r).
Written on various sizes of paper, some with remainders of seals.
Foliation: Paper, 271; [1-271]; modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto.
Script: Written in a cursive script, by multiple hands, including that of Ferdinando III de' Medici.
Binding: Contemporary parchment.
Origin: Written in Italy between 1698 (f. 5r) and 1723 (f. 269r).

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Piero Ginori-Conti (bookplate inside upper cover).

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. 225 (Ms. Lea 391).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1440

Contributor:

Anna Maria Luisa, Electress, consort of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, 1667-1743, addressee.
Fantoni, Lodovico, addressee.
Montauti, Anton Francesco, Abbe Marquis, addressee.
Ginori Conti, Piero, 1865-1939, former owner.

OCLC:

312781292