Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
The able writer has noticed that the very mutilated and incorrect manner
in which Muratori has printed all that he has given of Sanuto, and
especially _Le Vite de' Dogi_, of which the original copy still remains
inedited in the Estensian Library at Modena. There can be no doubt that
some ignorant or indolent transcriber made the mistake of _iudeo_ for
_richo_, so satisfactorily and happily elucidated by SIR FREDERICK
MADDEN. How much it is to be regretted that the _Diary_ of Sanuto, so
remarkable for it simplicity and ingenuous truthful air, should still
remain inedited. It relates to an epoch among the most interesting of
Modern History, and the extracts given in the _Ragguagli_ only make us
wish for more.
From this Diary it appears that the Valori were among the most
distinguished citizens of a state which could boast that its merchants
were princes. The palace they inhabited is no known by the name of the
Altoviti, its more recent owners, and many of the tombs of the Valori
are to be found in the church of St. Proculus. Macchiavelli mentions
Bartolomeo Valori among the _Cittadini d' autorita_, and, according to
Nardi, he was Gonfaloniere in the first two months of the years 1402,
1408, and 1420. He was also one of the Platonic Academy that Ficino
assembled around him. In this Diary of Sanuto will be found many minute
and interesting details respecting Savonarola, and the relation of the
tragical death of Francisco Valor, who had also been several times
Gontaloniere, and whom Savonarola, in his confession, said it was his
intention to have made perpetual Dictator.
I would have given a specimen of this very interesting diary, but that I
scrupled to occupy space which your correspondents enable you to fill so
effectively, for I fully subscribe to the dictum of the
_Ragguagliatore_, "Il Sanuto si presenta come la Scott degli Storiei,
compincendosi come Sir Walter delle giostre, delle feste, e delle
narrazioni piacevole e di dolce pietà.
S.W.S.
Mickleham, Nov. 23, 1849.
* * * * *
MSS. OF ROGER TWYSDEN.
Sir,--An answer to the following "Query" would be most interesting to
myself, and, perhaps, not altogether without its value to the literary
world.
Among Sir Roger Twysden's MSS. I have a letter from him to his son at
Oxford, requesting his intercession with the University for the loan of
the MS. of Walter Mapes "_de nugis curialium_," in order that he might
prepare it for publication. He instances the liberality of the
Archbishop of Canterbury in having lent him from Lambeth the _Epistles
of Amselm and Becket_; and adds, that, by being permitted to retain
these MSS. in his hands for some years, he had now prepared them for the
press.
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