Beschreibung:

[Florence] Pier Francesco Portinari
A collection of 109 letters and documents relating to Portinari's time as Florentine ambassador in England, 25 October 1527-14 September 1528,
including 56 letters from the Dieci di Balìa of Florence with updates and instructions; 7 from Niccolò Capponi, Gonfalonier of Florence; 15 from Giuliano Soderini, Bishop of Saintes; 13 from Bartolomeo Gualterotti in Venice; 45 copies of related diplomatic reports, letters or treaties including; 1 letter from Cardinal Wolsey; 4 letters to Portinari as Florentine envoy to Pope Clement VII at Bologna, October and November 1529, comprising 3 from the Consoli di Lana of the Republic of Florence and one from Marietta his wife; together with 2 later documents, including a notarial petition (17 October 1617) on behalf of Odoardo and Dionigi Portinari as descendants of the founder of the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence, and with 16 earlier letters and accounts of the Portinari family, especially from their time in London (c. 1482-1502), and a few letters and documents written by or to members of the family (mostly late fifteenth-century)
folio (c. 310 x 220mm.), an eighteenth-century index on flyleaf entitled "Lettere originali, scritte da diversi a Pier Francesco Portinari nel tempo della sua Ambasceria appresso Enrigo VIII Re d’Inghilterra per la Repubblica Fiorentina nell’anno 1527, & 28", eighteenth-century carta rustica, some fraying and creasing at edges of letters, occasional staining and a few small holes in some letters (as a result of opening them), upper hinge loose
A fascinating collection of documents from a period of frenetic political activity across Europe, written mostly from a Florentine perspective but encompassing the wars in Italy and the threat from the Ottomans in the wake of the Battle of Mohács in 1526.
The years during which these letters were written, 1527-1530, formed a brief interlude in Florence’s domination by the House of Medici. Following the sack of Rome in May 1527 by the troops of Charles V, the Medici pope Clement VII was imprisoned and Florence declared itself to be a republic again, only to be defeated in battle by the Imperial forces in August 1530 and returned to Medici rule.
During this time the Florentines considered that Henry VIII could be a potential ally and they established a new embassy to London. The first document in the volume dates from 25 October [1527], with instructions from the Dieci di Libertà e Pace to Portinari on his departure for England via Paris, mentioning not only the hoped-for freedom of Florence but also the considerations of allies such as the French king (who did not, in the end, help as promised) and the English king. The letter goes on to explain the position of other city states and potential allies and the financial situation of the war, and subsequent letters, sometimes sent every few days, often in duplicate or triplicate, contain further updates from the Dieci on the changing political situation. Portinari’s remit was the courting of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey for both money and support. Some of the letters are partly in cipher, with an interlinear transcript. The letters from the Dieci are also recorded in the State Archives of Florence.
Included in the volume are autograph letters from Niccolò Capponi (the Gonfaloniere), Donato Giannotti and Giannozzi Pandolfini in Lyon, and letters signed by Giuliano Soderini, bishop of Saintes, writing from Paris with regular updates, where he was attempting to woo the French king. Bartolommeo Gualterotti, the ambassador to Venice, writes several letters, as does a Florentine in Nuremberg (a merchant from the Antinori firm?), with news of the King of Bohemia [Ferdinand I, who also claimed the throne of Hungary]. As well as political shifts in alliances, the letters increasingly report on troop movements across Europe.
The second half of the volume contains various copies of letters and reports from across Italy and Europe of military manouevres, including the Imperial army’s response to the Turkish threat following their victory at Mohács in 1526. One letter is a copy of that sent by the Florentine representative Marco del Nero, from the French camp of Lautrec “below the walls of Naples”, written on 1 May; Lautrec died on 16 August and del Nero died a prisoner in Naples in September 1528 after the French defeat [item 143].There is a letter from Cardinal Wolsey addressed to the Florentine Republic, dated 26 October 1528, [item 133], attesting to the efforts of Portinari on behalf of Florence.
The volume concludes with some more miscellaneous documents relating to the Portinari family, some of which date to the late fifteenth century, including a copy of letter by the banker Folco Portinari (Pierfrancesco’s father) dated 1484.
PROVENANCE:Stewart, Wheatley & Adlard, sale, 28 May 1828, lot 15; Sir Thomas Phillipps, his Middle Hill ink stamp on flyleaf, Phillipps MS 3757 (and later number 26276), in a section of mss purchased from Wheatley, “quorum pars ex Abb. Tongerloo” (but this volume not from Tongerloo)
Another Phillipps volume (MS 11863) of Portinari letters, from his time as ambassador to Siena in 1529, is now in University of Pennsylvania library, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Oversize Ms Codex 466; this was lot 16 in the Stewart, Wheatley & Adlard sale.