Beinecke MS 467               Italy, 1579-85
Hunting Diary (in It.)

1.  ff. 2r-114v  1579 A di 15 di Ottobre.  Volendo l'Illustrissimo signor
Cardinale cominciare la caccia mando i bracchi ad esercitarsi...[21 March
1585] et doppo si ando A alloggiare alla Villa di Paolo Matthei.  Porci no.
5.

     Hunting diary of Ferdinando de' Medici, Cardinal, and Grand Duke of Tuscany;
this portion of the manuscript covers the period 15 October 1579 to 21 March
1585.

2.  f. 115r  Affixed to the leaf is a narrow strip of paper with rough notes
for the hunts of 19, 21 March (these two crossed out, as they have been entered
in full in the main text) and 22, 26, 29 March, 4 April; on the 5th of April
"si torno a Roma." ff. 115v-141v blank

     Paper (unidentified watermarks in gutter), ff. iii (paper) + i (contemporary
paper) + i (contemporary parchment) + 141 (contemporary foliation, Arabic
numerals, 2-141, unnumbered leaf between 116-117) + iii (paper), 225 x 159 (ca.
180 x 120) mm.  Pages folded vertically to delineate written space.
     Binding too tight to permit accurate collation.
     Written in a sprawling cursive script.
     Binding:  s. xix.  Dark green, hard-grained goatskin, gold-tooled, by the
same binder as MS 90.

Written in Italy, probably in Tuscany, between 1579-85, for Ferdinando de'
Medici (1549-1609); front cover of original limp vellum binding bound in at
front of manuscript, with contemporary inscription:  "Libro della Caccia che
si fe [?]/ Illustrissimo et Reverendissimo Signor Cardinale d'/ Medici mio
Signore e padrone."  Added below, in later hand:  "XIX."  Perhaps belonged to
Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford (1766-1827), and to be identified with
"Libro della Caccia che fu per Cardinale de Medici, 1584..." which appears in
his sale catalogue (Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, no. 41).  Belonged to Sir John Saunders
Sebright (1767-1846) for whom it was bound (cf. MS 90).  Acquired by H. P.
Kraus, from whom it was purchased by David Wagstaff.  Gift of Mr. and Mrs.
David Wagstaff in 1951.

Barbara A. Shailor