BY A FRIEND OF MACHIAVELLI
FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE SECRETARY TO HENRI II, PRINCE DE CONDÉ
BUONACCORSI, Biagio, and Niccolò VALORI.
Diario de’ successi piu importanti seguiti in Italia, & particolarmente in Fiorenza dall’anno 1498 in fino all’anno 1512. Raccolto da Biagio Buonaccorsi in que’ tempi coadiutore in Segreteria de Magnifici Signori Dieci della Guerra della città di Fiorenza. Con la Vita del magnifico Lorenzo de’ Medici il Vecchio, scritta da Niccolò Valori Patrizio Fiorentino. Nuovamenti posti in luce.
Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1568.
[bound after:]
MALESPINI, Ricordano, and Giachetto MALESPINI. Historia Antica di Ricordano Malespini Gentil’huomo Fiorentino dall’edificazione di Fiorenza per infino all’anno M.CCLXXXI. Con l’aggiunta di Giachetto suo nipote dal detto anno per infino al 1286. Nuovamente posta in luce. Florence, Filippo & Jacopo Giunta, 1568.
Two works in one vol., 4to, pp. Historia: [14], [2 (blank)], ‘173’ (recte 175), [17], Diario: [56], 184, [8]; several quires of the Diario misbound, bifolium 2A2.3 of index bound after the title; large woodcut Giunta devices to Historia title and to both colophons, woodcut Medici arms to Diario title, woodcut initials and head-pieces; occasional very light foxing, but very good copies; bound in contemporary stiff vellum, vestigial ties to fore-edge, spine lettered in ink with later gilt morocco label; partial losses to endbands, some light wear to covers; near-contemporary ownership inscription ‘Di Claud. Enoch Virey’ to Historia title (see below).
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Diario de’ successi piu importanti seguiti in Italia, & particolarmente in Fiorenza dall’anno 1498 in fino all’anno 1512. Raccolto da Biagio Buonaccorsi in que’ tempi coadiutore in Segreteria de Magnifici Signori Dieci della Guerra della città di Fiorenza. Con la Vita del magnifico Lorenzo de’ Medici il Vecchio, scritta da Niccolò Valori Patrizio Fiorentino. Nuovamenti posti in luce.
First edition of an insider account of Medici politics by Biagio Buonaccorsi (1472–1522), colleague and confidant of Machiavelli, bound with the first edition of Malespini’s history of Florence and owned by Claude-Enoch Virey, secretary to Henri II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé.
In 1498, Machiavelli assumed the role of secretary to the Dieci della Guerra, the Florentine council responsible for matters of warfare and diplomacy; in the same year Buonaccorsi, a notary, was employed as Machiavelli’s assistant and ‘soon became his most fervent admirer and friend, as evidenced by the many letters the pair exchanged between 1499 and 1512’ (DBI trans.). His Diario is a chronological account of Florentine and Italian history and provides valuable firsthand insights into the politics of Machiavellian Florence, recording precise details, key figures, and dates of battles in the Italian Wars, as well as decisions taken by the Dieci; though it would only be published posthumously, it was well-known by his contemporaries and would serve as the primary basis of Jacopo Nardi's important Storie della Città di Firenze (1582).
Prior to its publication the Diario circulated widely in manuscript among Buonaccorsi’s contemporaries, with some twenty-one surviving copies are recorded in Moyer (The Intellectual World of Sixteenth-Century Florence (2020), p. 78). Buonaccorsi’s relationship with Machiavelli, combined with the content and scope of his Diario – which spans the period of his employment by Machiavelli and ends in 1512, when the Medici were ousted from power – has resulted in frequent though false attributions to Machiavelli himself.
Provenance: The title-page bears the ownership inscription of Claude-Enoch Virey (1566–1636), secretary to Henri II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé. Virey had studied law in Padua, and amassed a library of over four thousand volumes during his lifetime, later expanded by his son, Jean-Christophle.
Diario: BM STC Italian, p. 130; EDIT16 7829; USTC 817155; Adams B-3275; Brunet I, col. 1393; Gamba 635; Graesse I, p. 573; Pettas, pp. 247-8. Historia: BM STC Italian, p. 406; EDIT16 28306; USTC 839758; Adams M-293; Brunet IV, col. 1337; Gamba 1274; Graesse IV, p. 351.
