Relationi delli Principi de Italia (Accounts of the Rulers of Italy), in Italian, manuscript on paper

BOOK DESCRIPTION: UNPUBLISHED ITALIAN DIPLOMATIC MANUSCRIPT, in Italian, manuscript on paper, Italy, Tuscany(?), 1605. Dimensions 260 x 196 mm., 16 folios on paper, complete, written in Italian cursive script in brown ink in 24 long lines. BINDING: Modern binding, blue paper cover with typed title pasted on the front cover, Relatione [sic] delli Principi de Italia. TEXT: The roots of modern diplomacy with our embassies and their ambassadors come into focus in this modest paper pamphlet. It belongs to an understudied category of Early Modern documents that consist of records known as Relazioni that ambassadors compiled on their travels and residencies, a practice that began already in the fifteenth century. Most likely written by an Italian ambassador of the early 17th century, this set of unpublished diplomatic records offers a snapshot of the Italian political scene at the time of its creation and survives as an excellent reminder of the pervasive manuscript culture that existed after the popularization of print. PROVENANCE: Produced in 1605 based on internal evidence on f. 9, where the eldest son of Carlo Emanuele I, the principe of Savoy, is said to be eighteen years old. The fact that the text spends little time discussing Tuscany might be an argument for the localization of the manuscript there, since an ambassador would not concentrate on his own region; name added in pencil below the typed title pasted on the front cover, "Plat"; owners' or booksellers' annotation inside of the back cover in pencil, "3535 ike"; private collection. CONDITION: small tears ff. 12, 13, 14, 16, otherwise good condition. Full description and images available. [TM 400] (Inventory #: TM 400)