Machiavellica … (Manuscript) — Italy, ca. 1645 [sold]

Machiavellica Hoc est Apologia duplex Qua(rum) priore Sacrae Romanae Ecclesiae de Nicolai Machiavelli libris decreta defenduntur. Posteriore (Eiusd(em) Machiavellin innocen(ti) a adversus Calvinistas, precipuè Italici nominis hostes propugnator … Anno M.D.C.XIX.

Manuscript in Latin on paper. Italy, circa 1645

Folio (304 x 215 mm). 1 leaf (title), 85, (113), leaves, 1 blank. Brown spot to upper margin of last leaves. Outer edges uncut. 

Contemporary Spanish red morocco, gilt spine, narrow border round sides enclosing, on front cover, the arms of Felipe Ramirez de Guzman, Duke of Medina de las Torres, and his second wife Anna Caraffa, princess of Stiglione, rear cover with Guzman’s emblematic signet Revoluta foecundant. Slightly rubbed in places.

Provenance: Medina de las Torres (1600-1668), named also Don Ramiro Núnez de Guzmán, viceroy of Naples from 1637 to 1644. A large part of his books passed into the library of the English diplomat William Godolphin (?1635-96), who served Charles II of England in Madrid during the 1660s, became full ambassador in 1671, converted to Catholicism and forfeited his office in 1678; contemporary annotations in Latin;  a manuscript shelf signature on title.

¶ Caspar Schoppe, 1576-1649, German controversialist and scholar, converted to Roman Catholicism in 1599. In service of Popes, Emperors, Dukes and Cardinals, and in relation to all eminent and representatives intellectuals of his time – from Markus Welser to Tommaso Campanella and Galileo Galilei. His Apology of Macchiavelli was written in 1619 and circulated as manuscript in European courts and academies. It was never printed. – See d’Addio, Mario: Il pensiero politico di Gaspare Scioppio e il Macchiavellismo del Seicento. Milano 1962.