2.7 Modern history
Click on the pictures to view them in full screen format
- MS 298 Italy, ca. 1650-1680
- MS 1998 Russia, 1752-1770
- MS 1072 Mexico City, ca. 1820-1830
- MS 4457 USA, 1865-1879
- MS 2475 Burma, 1886-1900
BENEDETTO VARCHI: ISTORIA FIORENTINA COMINCIATA DALL' ANNO 1527 TOM I-II. LIBRO 1 - 16. ALL' ILLUSTRISSIMO ET ECCELLENTISSIMO SIGNORE COSIMO MEDICI DUCA 2. DI FIRENZE ET SIENA
MS in Italian on paper, Roma, Italy, ca. 1650-1680, 2 vols., 516 +522 ff. + 35+32 blanks (complete), 31x21 cm and 29x21 cm, single column, (24x13 cm - 25x14 cm), 25-31 lines in Italian cursive script, title in square capitals, by 1 scribe, pen flourishes beneath some chapter ends.
Binding: Roma, Italy, ca. 1650-1680, vellum over pasteboard, sewn on 5 thongs, title in brown ink on spine.
Context: Vol. 31-32 of the 257 numbered vols, MSS 269-525, from Biblioteca Mattei (103 vols.), and other cardinals' family libraries, possibly including the Barberini or Chigi collections, now in the Vatican Library. The MSS are mostly copied from the Papal State archives, and contain partly unpublished and highly important source material of the history of Europe mainly 1540-1650. By the same scribe as MSS 283, 297, 326, 433, 504.
Provenance: 1. Bibliotheca Mattei, Roma (late 17th c. -); 2. Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford (ca. 1810-1827); 3. R.H. Evans, London 8.12.1830:508; 4. Sir Thomas Phillipps, Cheltenham, Ph 6016 & 6019, (1830-1872); 5. Katharine, John, Thomas & Alan Fenwick, Cheltenham, (1872-1946); 6. Robinson Bros., London (1946-1978); 7. Kraus list 203(1980): 313.
Commentary: An extremely detailed history of Florence which Varchi had originally planned to cover the last years of the Florentine republic (1527-1530), but which he later extended to 1538, covering the rule of Duke Alessandro and the first year of the reign of Cosimo I. It is an excellent example of 16th-century historiography being based upon original source documents which Cosimo had made available to Varchi. The history was not published until 1721 and in the interim circulated in manuscript copies.
WORLD CHRONICLE, WITH THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA, AND GENEALOGY OF THE RUSSIAN TSARS
- GENEALOGY FROM ADAM AND EVE TO THE PATRIARCH JOSEPH
- HEBREW AND BABYLONIAN GENEALOGIES FROM JOSEPH TO THE EXODUS
- THE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH AND THEIR CONTEMPORARIES
- THE PROPHETS
- THE 5 CITIES OF BABYLON, JERUSALEM, TROY, ROMA, AND CONSTANTINOPLE
- GENEALOGY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
- FOUNDATION OF ROMA AND THE CEASARS
- GENEALOGY OF THE EMPERORS OF ROMA AND CONSTANTINOPLE
- GENEALOGY OF THE THEOTOKOS
- CHURCH FATHERS AND HERESIARCH
- FOUNDATION OF RUSSIA; ITS PEOPLES, CITIES AND PRINCES, AND TSARS
- GENEALOGY OF THE GREAT TSARS OF RUSSIA UP TO 1740
- CHRONOLOGY OF RECENT TIMES UP TO 1752, MENTIONING THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH PETROVICH AND DIMITRY METROPOLITAN OF ROSTOV
- CAPITAL CITIES OF THE MAJOR STATES OF THE WORLD
MS in Russian on paper, Russia, 1752-1770, 40 ff. (complete), 37x24 cm, single column (ca. 32x18 cm), up to 60 lines in a small neat Cyrillic semi-uncial by Ierei Ioann Iakovlev who also made the illustrations, with circles, trees, frames, and ca. 75 diagrams and tables, in pastel washes, decorated with flowers and birds, a full-page frontispiece of floral elements, and a full-page miniature of the Temptation of Adam and Eve.
Binding: Russia, ca. 1760, plain brown leather over wooden boards, sewn on 6 cords.
Provenance: 1. Ierei Ioann Iakovlev (ca. 1752-1770); 2. Petra Aleksandrova (1770); 3. Aronov Collection, New York (-1995); 4. Sam Fogg, London.
PABLO BEAUMONT: CRONICA DE MECHOACAN
MS in Spanish on paper, Mexico City, ca. 1820-1830, 4 vols., 1653 ff. (complete), 32x22 cm, single column, (25x15 cm), 23 lines in cursive script by 2 scribes, a pen drawing of a plan, a 2-page pen drawing with coloured wash.
Binding: Cheltenham, England, ca. 1850, Middle Hill boards, sewn on 4 cords.
Context: Copied from the original in the Archivo de la Nacion, Mexico City, mss 17-19, at the request of Lord Kingsborough who was in the process of compiling his Antiquities of Mexico.
Provenance: 1. Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough (ca. 1820-1830); 2. Thomas Rodd (1842); 3. Sir Thomas Phillipps, Cheltenham, Ph 11692-11694, (1842-1872); 4. Katharine, John, Thomas & Alan Fenwick, Cheltenham, (1872-1946); 5. Sotheby's 24.6.1919:345; 6. H.P. Kraus, New York.
Commentary: A fascinating chronicle of the early years of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, written in 1792 by Pablo Beaumont, professor of anatomy and surgery at the Royal Hospital of Mexico.
Published: First published in 1873.
CHEYENNE CHIEF LITTLE SHIELD'S LEDGER BOOK RECORDING THE INDIAN WAR OF PLATTE RIVER IN 1865
MS in Suhtaio and English on paper, Nebraska, 1865-1879, 73 ff. of 96 ff. (illustrations complete), 7x15 cm, single column, (6x15 cm), 18 ruled lines in name glyphs and English cursive script by Little Shield and Black Moon, 9 pencil sketches, 105 full-page paintings in colours, of which 92 by Little Shield, 13 by 4 other warriors.
Binding: U.S.A., ca. 1865, brown morocco, sewn on 2 cords, with flap.
Context: Other Indian ledger drawing books are MSS 2956/1-2 and 3018/1-2.and 4605.
Provenance: 1. Cheyenne chief Little Shield, Central Plains (1865-1879); 2. Judge Charles H. Loud, Miles City, Montana, and his descendants (-2000); 3. Bruce Ferrini, Akron, Ohio.
Commentary: The present ledger is a major pictographic source for
the Platte River Indian war, written by one of the legendary participants and
leaders, who also participated at Beecher Island, Washita, Summit Springs and
the Little Big Horn battles. He was killed January 1879 at Fort Robinson,
fighting for his people and their freedom.
The ledger records 38
encounters with whites and 22 with Shoshoni, Pawnees, Omahas and Navajos.
The artist possessed an astonishing virtuosity in both draftsmanship and
composition and also technical brilliance and attention to details. This is
the earliest complete Cheyenne ledger known.
In the last 3 decades of the 19th c. Indians of the Apache, Cheyenne, Sioux, Kiowa and other tribes of the Great Plains, often deprived of traditional artistic and ceremonial venues because of their confinement to reservations, turned to drawings in small books and discarded ledgers as a way to make sense of the profound cultural stress to which they were subjected. The indigenous style evolved into a new form of Indian art, characterised by meticulously detailed depictions of clothing and paraphernalia. The Indian art is today highly recognised, represented in most major art museums in USA, to such a degree that most good ledgers have been broken up into single leaves for exhibition and collecting, making the present intact high quality ledger a rare survival.
Published: To be published by Winfield Coleman: The Little Shield Ledger. A Cheyenne warrior's Pictographic Record of the Platte River war of 1865.
DEPORTATION OF KING THIBAW FROM BURMA IN NOVEMBER 1885
MS in Pali on cream paper, Mandalay, Burma, 1886-1900, 29 ff. (complete) leporello form, 40x18 cm (full length 537 cm), 1 line in Burmese script, 7 huge pictures covering 2-6 pp., up to 40x107 cm, gouache, in full colours.
Binding: Burma, 1886-1900, black lacquer cover.
Provenance: 1. Sam Fogg cat. 19(1998):123.
Commentary: The British annexed Burma in 3 stages, following bitter
disputes about commercial and diplomatic relations, in 1826, 1852, and Upper
Burma in 1885, when the British expeditionary force under General Prendergast
proceeded up the Irrawaddy to the Capital at Mandalay. By the end of November
King Thibaw and his family had been deported to India, the Kingdom of Burma
had ceased to exist, annexation being declared on 1 Jan. 1886. After the
capture of Mandalay Palace, the contents of the Royal library, including the
stunning painted folding manuscripts of court life, became known to the
outside world. The palace scribes and artists continued to produce MSS, and
the deportation of the King was included in the iconography.
The present
MS bears remarkable stylistic resemblance to London: Victoria and Albert
Museum 1.M.87-1936.