Farnese.

Collection of 233 letters and 18 documents concerning the history of the Italian noble family, containing autographs by the 1st to the 8th and last Duke of Parma and Piacenza as well as by all important clerical and secular rulers which the family produced.

      Parma, Piacenza, Rome, and other places, 3 July 1539 through 13 April 1723. - Manuscripts on paper and vellum. Altogether 283 pp. From the wealth of letters and documents contained in this collection, only a few can be cited here as examples; it may be assumed with certainty that a careful study of the documents will yield new facts about the history of the Farnese family. A copious correspondence of Ottavio (1524-1586) with the Conte di San Secondo gives a detailed account of the organization of the salt monopoly and other tax affairs in the principalities of Parma and Piacenza. Curiously, the varying duties to be paid are apparently largely determined by the different building projects, debts, or dowries of the members of the family. The governments cooperated by exchanging lists of criminals and banished men: on 5 July 1583, Ottavio requests a list of all exiles, "li banditi capitalm(en)te della Giurisdizione di VS", and offers to cooperate with the Officio Criminale of Parma in these matters. The subjects of Francesco’s (1678-1727) correspondence with Frederico Rossi include family affairs - Farnese negotiates in the marriage crisis of Marchese Soragna, whose wife, the Duke of S. Secondo's sister, refuses to continue living under the same roof with her husband ("non volendo la dama coabitare col marito") and has fled to the monastery S. Caterina di Siena (includes a 2-page letter to the Marchesa di Soragna) -, letters of recommendation (such as that for Giovanni Fedolfi, logician and theologian, "esaminatore sinodale"), internal matters of the clergy, interventions on account of a prelate's libel suit, orders for arrest and banishment of the licentious priest Gio. Mezzardri (26 August 1698), efforts to accommodate troops, on the planning of a Corpus Christi procession, and for the exchange of artists, such as the musician Matteucci (1666-1737) for a church festivity. Apart from a Latin document (dated 26 May 1564) in which Camilla Gonzaga waives her claim to a donation by her husband Pietro Maria in favour of her first-born, Count Troilo Rossi, the collection also contains documents so diverse as Duarte Farnese’s intervention concerning Helena Orsini's inheritance (February 1591), his recommendation of Tiburtio Antonini at Filippo Colanna's suggestion, a letter by Margherita Farnese about an unsuccessful stay at a health resort in Lucca (14 July 1600), a 24-page document signed by Cardinal Odoardo on 20 May 1607 concerning the amalgamation of two Roman brotherhoods and listing all their possessions, or Ferrante Farnese’s appeals (April and November 1570) to his brother, the ruling Duke of Parma and Piacenza, that a banishment already passed be rescinded. - Includes several letters addressed to members of the Farnese family, among them 7 significant letters to Margaretha of Austria (daughter of Charles V, wife of Ottavio Farnese, Duchess of Parma and governor of the Netherlands). - A detailed catalog of all letters and documents is available upon request. [Attributes: Signed Copy]