Lettere volgari diverse, da diversi personaggi, [et] altri iscritte i[n] diversi tempi, allo eccellen[te] dell'una [e] l'altra legge dottore M. Marco Mantoa, in tre libbri divise.

Lettere volgari diverse, da diversi personaggi, [et] altri iscritte i[n] diversi tempi, allo eccellen[te] dell'una [e] l'altra legge dottore M. Marco Mantoa, in tre libbri divise.

[Venice], di XX die febraio MDLV [1555]

181 leaves : paper ; 258 x 191 (190 x 95) mm bound to 278 x 205 mm
1 microfilm reel : negative (MN 94-3109) and positive (Robbins MS 63)

The manuscript is a collection of several hundred letters written to Marco Mantova Benavides (1489-1582), jurisconsult and doctor in both laws, copied by his nephew, Giovanni Mantova. Most of the letters are from noted humanists, jurists, artists, and political and ecclesiastical figures active during the first half of the sixteenth century. Among them the future Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547); Pietro Aretino (1492-1556); the poet C. Cornelio Frangipani (16th cent.); the sculptors Alessandro Vettorio (16th cent.) and Bartolomeo Amannati (1511-1592); the Bishops of Alexandria, Chioggia, Feltre, and Trent; Cardinal Borromeo (St. Charles Borromeo, 1538-1584); the Dukes of Ferrara, Florence, and Urbino; Lucrezia d'Este; and so on. The letters were selected from among the papers in Marco Mantova's private archive and copied in no particular order by his nephew, Giovanni Mantova (marginal note on fol. 1v: "M. Giovani suo nipote minore"). According to two marginal notes in this later hand (fol. 174r and 176v [pp. 343 and 348] respectively), these letters were to be inserted on p. 343, after the last letter of the third book. It is possible that the manuscript (with the exception of the last four pieces) was used for the 1555 edition printed in Venice by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrara (seventeenth-century note on the front inside cover). Margins on fol. 10, 18, 24, 39, 46, 48, 57, 62, 65, 67, 72, 73, 74, 75, 81, 82, 86, 87, 95, 98, 99, 100, 102, 110, 114, 120, 133, 154, and 155 partly or fully excised.

Ms. codex.
Title from the caption title for the first book (fol. 3r).
Collation: Paper (watermark: Monts, similar to Briquet 11783), fol. ii + 177 + ii; 1⁸ (+1) 2-22⁸. Leaves 3-177 paginated 1-350.
Layout: Written in 31 long lines; center of text, plus inner and outer margins, guided by folding.
Script: Main text and marginal notes written in a cursive script by one hand. Additional letters on final 2 folios - with accompanying marginal notes - written in a second hand in darker ink.
Origin: The earliest original letters date from 1517, the latest from January 1555. The manuscript appears to have been completed on 20 February 1555 (colophon on fol. 174r [p. 343]). The final four letters (two of which are dated 1557 and 1567 respectively) were copied in a different hand on fol. 176v-177r (p. 348-350), following the index of authors.
Shelfmark: Berkeley, CA, The Robbins Collection, UC Berkeley School of Law, Robbins MS 63.

Italian.

The manuscript was once part of the library of Walter Sneyd (his bookplate on the inside of the front cover: "Ex libris Gualteri Sneyd") of Keele Hall (Staffordshire) and probably part of lot 433 in the Sneyd sale (note in pencil on inside front cover) of 16 December 1903 in London.

Bound in vellum over pasteboard; front and back flyleaves and pastedown of paper decorated with painted floral pattern. Handwritten on spine is title: "Lettere M. Marco Manoa."

Ronnie H. Terpening, "Pietro Bembo and the Cardinalate: unpublished letters to Marco Mantova," Lettere italiane 32 (1980): 80, n. 26.

RESTRICTED ORIGINAL. USE POSITIVE MICROFILM COPY ONLY: Use of original only by permission. Inquiries concerning this item should be directed, in writing, to the reference librarian for The Robbins Collection.

Italy -- Venice.

Robbins MS 63

Italian