Beinecke MS 36 (olim Z111.0147)                                        Italy, s. XVII
Cesare Speciano, Propositioni christiane et civili subalternate a Dio

     1. f. 1r    [Title page:] Propositioni christiane et ciuili
     subalternate a Dio...Questo libro si commincio a Roma d'Ottobre l'anno
     1585.

     2. ff. 2r-3v    Monitione, followed by Preface to the reader in which
     the author states that he completed the work while he was serving as
     Papal nuntius of Pope Clement VIII in Prague in 1597.

     3. ff. 4r-271r    Chi ha luoco principale appresso un Prencipe sauio e
     buon mezzo da conseruarselo...perche ne riuscira male al sicuro et dara
     occasione di disgusti in abondanza.

          N. Mosconi, "Per la storia della riforma Cattolica,"
          Convivium 
	3 [1931] pp. 347-63.

          Paper (unidentified watermarks: paschal lamb, with countermark PP
     plus clover; bird on mountain enclosed in a circle), ff. 273 + iv
     (paper; iv = pastedown), 282 x 200 (216 x 155) mm. Written in ca. 23
     long lines; no visible system of bounding lines or prickings.
          The binding is too tight to permit collation. Catchwords appear on
     most folios, below written space, on both recto and verso.
          Written by a single scribe in a neat italic hand.
          Binding: s. xvii. A fine binding of vermilion goatskin, gold-tooled, 
     with unidentified arms of a cardinal (vair) stamped in gilt on both covers.
     Edges gilt and gauffered. Unobtrusive repairs at head and tails of spine
     and joints.

          Written in Italy in the seventeenth century, possibly for the
     unidentified cardinal for whom it was bound. Ownership evidence
     includes the following, but the precise sequence of owners is unclear:
     inscriptions on ff. 1r and 271r "G. Stork a Milano 1802 In. No. 12203";
     mutilated tag of bookdealers inside front cover "Milano. Pietro e
     Giusseppe Vallardi"; circular stamp in f. 1r "HL Musee Napolean epreuve
     d'essai"; signature on f. 271r: "Ex libris Albertus Comes Potocki";
     this appears to be the same Potocki family from whose collection a
     Psalter (now Bib. Narodowa 8003) was acquired by the National Library
     in Warsaw in 1933 (see Z. Ameisenowa, Francuskie rekopisy illuminowane
     z Wilanowa w Bibljotece Narodowej [Cracow, 1933] p. 4) and who owned
     Paris, B. N. n. a. l. 540. Bequeathed to Yale University in 1883 by
     Joseph J. Cooke.

     Bibliography: De Ricci, v. 1, p. 169, no. 36.

     Barbara A. Shailor