In describing what he calls the most beautiful palace in Italy, the Montefeltro palace in Urbino, Baldassare Castiglione proceeds from a description of the fertile surrounding countryside, to the building itself, then descriptions of its opulent furnishings and precious objects, paintings and statuary, reaching finally the library, the climax of this tour: “con grandissima spesa [Federico] adunò un gran numero di eccellentissimi e rarissimi libri greci, latini ed ebraici, quali tutti ornò d’oro e d’argento, estimando che questa fusse la suprema eccellenzia del suo magno palazzo” (Il libro del cortegiano, Book I, 2).

Our knowledge of these richly bound volumes depends largely on a post-mortem inventory. In August 1540, about a month after Federico’s death, the duchess Margherita Paleologa and Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, who were named in Federico’s testament as guardians of his four children, instructed a notary from Rimini, Odoardo Stivini, to take an inventory of Federico’s assets, and also those of his mother, Isabella d’Este (d. 13 February 1539). Stivini completed the work in October 1542, presenting his inventory in a series of loose fascicules, organised according to the location and category of the goods. The fascicule for Federico’s books has 179 entries, however many entries mention two or more books, and the total number of volumes is at least 211. Stivini’s inventory of Isabella’s library (133 entries) reveals no internal arrangement: books and manuscripts are mixed together, also formats, and there is no organisation by language. In contrast, Federico’s books are organised both by language (Latin, Italian, Spanish, French) and by format (folio, quarto, octavo), and the inventory perhaps documents how they were arranged.¹ Federico’s inventory reveals an interest in the Latin classics in the original language; a taste for history, with numerous chronicles in Italian, French, and Spanish; for literature, particularly chivalric romances;² and for books relating to the various arts of the court: horsemanship, fencing, falconry, etc. Overall, it is orientated more toward entertainment than for study.

In 1928, E.P. Goldschmidt commented on three bindings decorated with the impresa of Federico: a mountain, around which ascends a spiral road, with a temple or altar on its summit, and the motto FIDES lettered above.³ This impresa had been adopted by Federico soon after his father’s death (29 March 1519); it appears on a seal he used to close a letter dated 14 April 1519, and on coins and medals struck or cast from about 1520 until 1530, when the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor Charles V raised the marquisate of Mantua to a duchy.⁴ Five more bindings featuring the same impresa have since been recognised. Supposing that four presentation manuscripts in fact entered Federico’s library, the total of the known surviving volumes is twelve (see List below).

The upper covers of six bindings display Federico's impresa within a quadrangular frame on upper covers (Fig. 1) and the same frame encloses the word Olympus in Greek (ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ) on lower covers (Fig. 2). Two bindings are decorated by a different mountain-Fides stamp impressed without a frame (Fig. 3), and one has in addition a circular mountain-Fides stamp (Fig. 4). One of the presentation manuscripts is not decorated by Federico’s impresa, but lettered on the upper cover “Amor | Servitvs | Spes | Fides” (no. 9). The other three manuscripts (nos. 7, 10-11) have no external decoration linking them to Federico.

The  bindings follow very different decorative schemes, and, judging by reproductions, have no tools in common besides the emblematic stamps. A title is lettered in gilt on the upper covers of six. The covers of no. 2 (Curtius Rufus) have a border filled with alternating tools of a leafy tree trunk entwined with flowers and a six-petalled flower, and the Gonzaga impresa stamped in each corner. G.D. Hobson thought this binding might be Venetian, likewise no. 6 (Plautus), its covers tooled in gold, with blind lines, to a panel design, the impresa here stamped in the centres, with an acorn and two-leaf tool applied at the outer corners.⁵ E.P. Goldschmidt believed these two and no. 5 (Mena) were bound for Federico at Mantua. De Marinis placed three bindings in Venice (nos. 5 Mena, 6 Plautus, 9 Manfredi) and one in Rome (no. 12 Zani).⁶ One of Federico’s bindings (no. 1 Boiardo) is parti-coloured, divided at the spine, with one cover black and the other brown, in the manner favoured by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza while ambassador in Venice.⁷ It is yet further evidence of the strong influence of Venetian patterns.

Seven of the twelve volumes correspond to entries in Stivini’s inventory according to title and format.⁸ The text in the Bibliotheca Brookeriana, Flavius Josephus’s De bello iudaico in Italian translation, is recorded by Stivini twice, once among the “Libri volgari in folio legati a varie fogie” and once among the “Libri volgari in ottavo”. Josephus seems to have been a text particularly appealing to the Gonzagas. In 1536, Isabella d’Este requested the Mantuan ambassador in Venice, Benedetto Agnello, to procure a copy. Agnello queried in his reply (5 September) whether she required a Latin edition, or Italian translation.⁹ Isabella’s part of the correspondence is lost, however a second letter from Agnello (14 September) advises that a copy has been sent, and that it cost tre marcelli (marchesini, a silver coin). Since no copy of the work appears in Isabella’s inventory, it is likely that one of the volumes included in Stivini’s list of Federico’s books is the one sent by Agnello to Isabella. The price suggests that it was the copy in folio format now in the Bibliotheca Brookeriana. On 22 March 1540, Federico wrote to Ludovico Tridapale, Agnello’s secretary, asking for nine books, one of them “Iosepho della Guerra Iudaica”. The book then supplied might be one of Vittore Ravani’s octavo editions (1531, 1536).¹⁰

None of the volumes seems to hold evidence about the dispersal of the Gonzaga library. The palace, already drained by sales in 1627 and the sack of 1630-1631, was emptied in 1707 when Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga (1652-1708), the tenth and last duke of Mantua, fearful of imperial punishment, fled to Venice, taking with him his chief assets, the ducal collection of paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and other portable works of art, including the library. A year later, on 5 July 1708, the duke died in Padua, and his possessions were sold to satisfy the huge debts he had incurred. The circumstances of the sale of the ducal library are unknown, however an inventory prepared by the librarian, Giuseppe Bosio, as the books were packed for transport via the Po River from Mantua to Venice, was recently discovered, and it may assist in identifying what was dispersed 1627-1631 and what was sold in Venice in 1707-1708.¹¹

printed books associated with federico ii gonzaga

(1) Matteo Maria Boiardo, Libri tre di Orlando inamorato, del conte da Scandiano Mattheomaria Boiardo (Venice: Niccolò di Aristotile de’ Rossi detto lo Zoppino, 1532 [colophon: March 1533]), bound with other works

provenance
● Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, supralibros, impresa of Mount Olympus with motto FIDES on upper cover, and the same impresa with the word Olympus in Greek (ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ) on lower cover
● Inventory by Odoardo Stivini, completed October 1542; Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p.84 no. 77 (“Libri volgare in quarto … Inamoramento di Orlando”) [link]; Ferrari, op. cit. 1999, p.90 (note 74); Ferrari, op. cit. 2003, p.319 no. 6801
● Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Yd 227-230 (opac Rel. italienne du XVIe siècle [link])

literature
Adolfo Tura, “Provenance” in Nouvelles du livre ancien 94 (printemps 1998), p.11 (upper cover reproduced)
Canova, op. cit., p.81 (“… come prova la legatura, ed è assai probabilmente l’essemplare registrato dal notaio Stivini”), pp.83-84 & Fig. 1


(2) Quintus Curtius Rufus, De los hechos del magno Alexandre rey de Macedonia, nuevamente traduzido y suplidos los libros que del falta de otros autores (Seville: Juan Cromberger, 1534)


provenance
● Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, supralibros, impresa of Mount Olympus with motto FIDES on upper cover, and the same impresa with the word Olympus in Greek (ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ) on lower cover
● Inventory by Odoardo Stivini, completed October 1542; Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p.85 no. 137 (“Libri spagnuoli in folio … Quinto Curtio”) [link]; Ferrari, op. cit. 1999, p.90 (note 123); Ferrari, op. cit., p.321 no. 6861
● Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919)
● Christie Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the second portion of the library of C. Fairfax Murray, London, 18-21 March 1918, lot 206 (“old Italian black morocco, with gold border and centrepiece on sides, g.e. (portion of blank margin wanting to fol. 62)”)
● Francis Edwards, London - bought in sale (£18)
● Karl W. Hiersemann, Leipzig, typed version of their description laid to front pastedown; their Catalogue 547: España y Portugal con sus antiguas posesiones de ultramar (Leipzig 1925), item 888 & Pl. 1 (M1800; “Proveniente de la biblioteca del duque Federigo Gonzaga de Mantua (1519-1540) … Este volumen es el num. 137 del catálogo de la biblioteca del duque, publ. recientemente en el Giornale stor. della lett. Italiana, vol. XLII, p.85.”)
● London, British Library, C.66.h.8

literature
Charles Fairfax Murray, A list of printed books in the library of Charles Fairfax Murray (London 1907), p.69 (“original morocco gilt”) [link]
Geoffrey Hobson, Maioli, Canevari and others (London 1926), p.8 (“A third Gonzaga binding is related to Venice by its border, which is composed of alternate stamps of a leafy tree trunk and a flower … [footnote:] Reproduced by Hiersemann, Catalogue 547, Pl. 1.”)
E.P. Goldschmidt, Gothic & Renaissance bookbindings exemplified and illustrated from the author’s collection (London 1928), p.244 (“lately acquired by the British Museum”)
Canova, op. cit., pp.83-84
British Library, Database of Bookbindings [link]


(3) Dio Cassius, Dione historico delle guerre & fatti de romani. Tradotto di greco in lingua uulgare, per m. Nicolo Leoniceno (Venice: Niccolò di Aristotile de’ Rossi detto lo Zoppino, March 1533)

provenance
● Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, supralibros, impresa of Mount Olympus with motto FIDES on upper cover, and the same impresa with the word Olympus in Greek (ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ) on lower cover
● Inventory by Odoardo Stivini, completed October 1542; Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p.84 no. 78 (“Libri volgari in quarto … Dione istorico”) [link]; Ferrari, op. cit. 1999, p.90; Ferrari, op. cit. 2003, p.319 no. 6802
● Luigi Lubrano, Naples; their Bollettino del Bibliofilo: Notizie, illustrazioni di libri a stampa e manoscritti 1 (1919), pp.165-184 (“Legature pregiate del XVI-XVIII secolo”, item 9); … 2 (1920), pp.80-81 item 150 (Lire 200; “Legatura origin. in cuoio scuro. Al bordo riquadratura a secco. Nel mezzo altra riquadratura in oro formata da una larga striscia di ferri curvi e piccoli aldi ripieni. Nel centro un quadrato con le parole: FIDES e sopra a lettere grandi tra due gigli: DIONE. Al piatto posteriore nel quadrato identico: ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ. Taglio dorato. Dorso a cordoni con riquadratura ad impressioni a secco e nel centro un piccolo rosone.” [link])


(4) Flavius Josephus, Iosepho Della guerra giudaica tradotto in lingua toscana et nuouamente con diligentia stampato (Florence: Heirs of Filippo I Giunta, 6 November 1526)


provenance
● Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, supralibros, impresa of Mount Olympus with motto FIDES on upper cover, and the same impresa with the word Olympus in Greek (ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ) on lower cover
● perhaps the volume “Iosepho della Guerra Iudaica” included in a list of nine books which Duke Federico on 22 March 1540 requested from Ludovico Tridapale, secretary of the Venetian ambassador Benedetto Agnello (see discussion above)
● Inventory by Odoardo Stivini, completed October 1542; Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p.82 no. 32 (“Libri volgari in foglio legati a varie fogie … Joseph della guerra Judaica”) [link]; Ferrari, op. cit. 1999, p.90; Ferrari, op. cit. 2003, p.319 no. 6808
● unidentified owner, armorial exlibris, motto “Sic propriis consuluit otiis”, either Cardinal Luigi Valenti Gonzaga (1725-1808) or Alfonso Fontanelli (1706-1777) [for Valenti Gonzaga’s library, see David Benvenuti, “Un episodo di collezionismo nel Settecento: incunaboli nelle biblioteche di Silvio e Luigi Valenti Gonzaga” in Le fusa del gatto (Pienza 2014), pp.141-148; Jacopo Gelli, 3500 ex libris italiani (Milan 1908), pp.411, 517, Tav. CXXXII no. 736, as both Valenti-Gonzaga (Mantua) and Fontanelli (Reggio-Emilia) [link]. For the Fontanelli library, see Gli ozi di un illuminista: I libri di Alfonso Vincenzo Fontanelli alla Biblioteca Estense di Modena (Pisa & Rome 2008); Egisto Bragaglia, Gli ex libris italiani dalle origini alla fine dell’Ottocento (Milan 1993), nos. 971-972 (cf. no. 557)]
● Meda Riquier Rare Books Ltd, London
● T. Kimball Brooker, purchased from the above, 2019 [Bibliotheca Brookeriana #1354; to be offered by Sotheby's in 2024-2025]


(5) Juan de Mena, Las CCC con otras XXIIII coplas y su glosa, y la coronacion del mesmo poeta: y otras cartas: y coplas y canciones, agora nuevamente anadidas (Seville: Jacob Cromberger, 1520)


provenance
● Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, supralibros, impresa of Mount Olympus with motto FIDES (2 versions), inscription “Ill.mi D.ni Marchionis”on title-page
● Inventory by Odoardo Stivini, completed October 1542; Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p.85 no. 130 (“Libri spagnuoli in folio … Giovan di Mena”) [link]; Ferrari, op. cit. 1999, p.90 (note 117); Ferrari, op. cit. 2003, p.321 no. 6854
● perhaps sale of the Gonzaga Library, in Venice, ca 1707-1708 [cf. Irma Pagliari, “La Biblioteca dei Gonzaga. Le ‘Rivelazioni’ di Santa Brigida appartenute a Vincenzo I Gonzaga” in Civiltà mantovana 114 (2002), pp.7-18 (p.17: “All'inizio del XVIII secolo una parte della biblioteca gonzaghesca potrebbe essere stata trasportata a Vienna…”] [citing Encyclopédie, ou, Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, Paris 1751, II, pp.234-235 - link]
● Vienna, Österreichische Natonalbibliothek, 77.C.10 (opac, catalogue link; digitised, link)

literature
Theodor Gottlieb, Katalog der Ausstellung von Einbänden: K. K. Hofbibliothek (Vienna 1908), no. 81 [link]
Theodor Gottlieb, Bucheinbände: Auswahl von technisch und geschichtlich bemerkenswerten Stücken (Vienna 1910), Pl. 19 (“Einband aus Mantua, vor 1530 … Für den Markgrafen (seit 1530 Herzog) von Mantua, Friedrich von Gonzaga, wie die Aufschrift des Titelblattes: Illmi Dmn Marchionis Mantue zeigt.”)
Geoffrey Hobson, Maioli, Canevari and others (London 1926), p.8 (“The binding can be definitely dated between 1523 and 1530”)
Goldschmidt, op. cit., p.244
De Marinis, op. cit., no. 2257ter (“Legatura fatta intorno al 1530 per Federico Gonzaga marchese di Mantova. Cornici di filetti dor. ed a secco; agli angoli esterni il motto Fides. Sul piatto anteriore, entro una targhetta, il nome Juan. D. Mena”)
Canova, op. cit., pp.83-84 (“Il piatto superiore porta il motto Fides e l’imagine dell’Olimpo al centro e ai quattro angoli. Nella pagina del titolo è leggibile la nota di possesso ‘Ill.mi D.ni Marchionis Mantue’: probabilmente il libro non entro nella collezione prima del 1530, anno in cui Federico divenne duca.”)


(6) Titus Maccius Plautus, Ex Plauti comoediis XX quarum carmina magna ex parte in mensum suum restituta sunt MDXXII (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, July 1522)

provenance
● Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, supralibros, impresa of Mount Olympus with motto FIDES on upper cover, and the same impresa with the word Olympus in Greek (ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ) on lower cover
● not traced in posthumous inventory taken by Odoardo Stivini, 1540-1542
● E.P. Goldschmidt, London
● William King Richardson (1859-1951) [E.P. Goldschmidt & Co. stockbook, entry #1491, recording the passage of the book from Goldschmidt’s private collection into stock (Company archive in Grolier Club); sold to Richardson, 28 February 1933, £35 14s; his bequest to Harvard, 1951]
● Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Houghton Library, WKR 3.2.15 (B) (opac Contemporary brown morocco, gilt-stamped with the emblems and motto of Federigo Gonzaga, duke of Mantua; edges gilt [link])

literature
Mostra storica della legatura artistica in Palazzo Pitti (Florence 1922), no. 240 (“Signor Ernst Goldschmidt, Vienna”)
Exposition du livre italien, Mai-Juin 1926: Catalogue des manuscrits, livres imprimés, reliures (Bois-Colombes 1926), no. 946 (“Reliure en maroquin brun faite pour le marquis Frédéric Gonzague, puis tard (1530) duc de Mantoue. Dans le premier plat son ‘impresa’ une montagne avec le mot fides et dans le second le mot ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ. A M. E.P. Goldschmidt, Londres”)
Geoffrey Hobson, Maioli, Canevari and others (London 1926), p.8 & Pl. 18 (“The property of Mr E.P. Goldschmidt”)
E.P. Goldschmidt, op. cit., p.244 no. 158 & Pl. 58 (“brown morocco”, “in the centre of front cover a quadrangular emblematic stamp: a mountain, and above it the word Fides; on the reverse is a similar stamp in Greek letters ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ. These are the motto and personal emblem or ‘impresa’ of Federigo Gonzaga … and recorded as such in Giovio, Dialogo delle Imprese, 1559. On the front cover the author’s name in gold letters. The interesting and very well preserved back has three bands, and each of the four compartments is richly tooled in blind to a complicated ornament with a six-petalled rose in the centre.”)
De Marinis, op. cit., no. 1938
Canova, op. cit., p.83 (“… fra i libri latini dell’inventario npon cpompare alcun Plauto né alcuna generica indicazione di commedie latine”)

presentation manuscripts associated with federico ii gonzaga

(7) Giovanni Benevoli (Benivoli, Bonavoglia), Manuscript “Monumentum Gonzagium” (Gonzagium Monumentum), ca 1522-1525, dedicated to Federico: Ad S.R.E. ac excel. Reip. Floren. Generalem Armorum Imper. ac invictiss. prin. Federicum Gonzagum Mantue Marchionem V. Joannis Benivoli Andini Archidiaconi Pisaurensis Gonzagium Monumentum

provenance
● Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (?)
● not traced in posthumous inventory taken by Odoardo Stivini, 1540-1542 (Clough p.60)
● perhaps sale of the Gonzaga Library, in Venice, ca 1707-1708 [Rostagno p.145, reports that a manuscript of the Gonzagium Monumentum is mentioned (with extracts) in three letters addressed by Apostolo Zeno to Annibale degli Abati Olivieri of Pesaro, sent from Venice, January-March 1736]
● multiple copies are known, but the dedication copy to Federico II has yet to be identified: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Nouv. acq. lat. 1813 (opac “Reliure ancienne veau gaufré [link]); Pesaro, Biblioteca Oliveriana (cited by Frati). The manuscripts Mantua, Biblioteca Comunale, MS no. 120 (A.IV.26) [link] and British Library, Add. Ms. 16394, are said to be 17C copies (Barbieri, p.286).

literature
Enrico Rostagno, “Il ‘Monumentum Gonzagium’ di Giovanni Benevoli o Buonavoglia” in La Bibliofilía 1 (1900), pp.145-168
Enrico Rostagno, “Ancora del ‘Monumentum Gonzagium’ e del suo autore” in La Bibliofilía 1 (1900), pp.186-189
E. Viterbo, Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d'Italia, 29: Inventario dei manoscritti della Biblioteca Oliveriana di Pesaro (Florence 1923), pp.201-202
Carlo Frati, “Il codice mantovano del ‘Monumentum Gonzagium’” in La Bibliofilía 25 (1924), pp.374-376
De Marinis, op. cit., no. 1948 (“Marr. scuro, dec. a secco: cornice di meandri, rosone centrale … Sul primo piatto il titolo dorato: Monumētv | Gongiacv”) [Paris Ms]
Ubaldo Meroni, Mostra dei codici gonzagheschi: La biblioteca dei Gonzaga da Luigi I ad Isabella (Mantua 1966), p.69 no. 16 [British Library Ms]
Cecil H. Clough, "The Library of the Gonzaga of Mantua" in Librarium: Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Bibliophilen-Gesellschaft 15 (1972), pp.50-63 (p.60) [link]
Nicoletta Ilaria Barbieri, Cultura letteraria intorno a Federico Gonzaga, primo duca di Mantova, PhD thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, 2011-2012, p.286


(8) Luigi Gonzaga (d. 1549), Ms “Cronaca del soggiorno di Carlo V in Italia” (August 1529-April 1530) [an eye-witness account of the coronation of Charles V in Bologna, commencing: Hauendo deliberato il Ser.mo et Iuittissimo Carlo di Austria]

Image courtesy of Federico Macchi

provenance
● possibly Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, supralibros, impresa of Mount Olympus with motto FIDES on upper cover, and the same impresa with the word Olympus in Greek (ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ) on lower cover
● inscription (partly erased), “… Gonzaga fece questo libero [sic]” (Marchi-Bertolani)
● not traced in posthumous inventory taken by Odoardo Stivini, 1540-1542
● unidentified owner, “da alcune rozze annotazioni sulle ultime carte appare pero che il codice gia fin dal 1584 era in possesso di privati” (Marchi-Bertolani)
● Biblioteca Universitaria di Pavia, Ms. 30.E.18 (Aldini 198)

literature
Giacinto Romano, Cronaca del soggiorno di Carlo V in Italia, dal 26 luglio 1529 al 25 aprile 1530: documento di storia italiana estratto da un codice della regia biblioteca universitaria di Pavia (Milan 1892), p.42 (“Il codice è legato in cartone coperto di cuoio impresso con fregi dorati. Nel mezzo del fregio centrale dalla parte superiore c’è impresso il motto FIDES, e nell’ inferiore ΟλΥΜΠΟΣ. Anche il taglio delle carte è dorato”); pp.285-286 (“Ciò toglie ogni dubbio al fatto che il codice appartenne originariamente alla libreria ducale di Mantova; e rende a-sai probabile l’altro che esso fu composto tra il 1530 e il 1540. Dico assai probabile, perchè que’ motti furono adottati anche da Francesco III e da Guglielmo, successori di Federico II (1540-1561), e quindi non può escludersi l’ipotesi che sia stato composto più tardi … nostro codice si contenga una copia contemporanea della Cronaca del Gonzaga, fatta certamente per essere collocata nella libreria ducale come una specie di relazione ufficiale di cui probabilmente non furono fatte altre copie, sia rimasta interamente ignota agli erudii. Come poi il Codice dalla libreria di Mantova sia potuto arrivare alla Biblioteca di Pavia, se ciò sia avvenuto per mezzo di S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro o del Collegio Ghislieri o per altra via, sono questioni che lascio volentieri a bibliofili.” [link])
Luigi di Marchi & G. Bertolani, Inventario dei manoscritti della R. Biblioteca universitaria di Pavia (Milan 1894), pp.109-110 no. 198 [link]
Ubaldo Meroni, Mostra dei codici gonzagheschi: La biblioteca dei Gonzaga da Luigi I ad Isabella (Mantua 1966), p.69 no. 3 and p.85 no. 31
Paola Tosetti Grandi, “Luigi Gonzaga e la Cronaca del soggiorno di CarloV in Italia (dal 26 luglio 1529 al 25 aprile 1530)” in L’impero di Carlo V e la geopolitica degli Stati Italiani nel quinto centenario dell’elezione imperiale (1519-2019) (Mantua 2021) pp.215-242 (p.233)


(9) Lelio de Manfredi, Manuscript, poem in terza rime, dedicated: “Allo illustrissimo Principe et ex.mo Signore S. Federico Da Gonzagha Marchese di Mantua Laelio de Manfredi” [Bologna’s transcription, differing from others; in “Lettere capitali in rosso”]

provenance
● Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1500-1540), upper cover lettered AMOR SERVITUS SPES FIDES
●  not traced in posthumous inventory taken by Odoardo Stivini, 1540-1542; cf. Canova, op. cit., p.83 (“Il testo celebra proprio Federico e il codice porta la nota di possesso ‘Illustrissimi Ducis Mantuae’, ma non è riconoscibile entro l’inventario.”)
● Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana, 908 (formerly L 43)

literature
De Marinis, op. cit., no. 2257bis & text illustration (II, p.124)
Caterina Santoro, “La biblioteca dei Gonzaga e cinque suoi codici nella trivulziana di Milano” in Arte, pensiero e cultura a Mantova nel primo Rinascimento in rapporto con la Toscana (Florence 1965), pp.87-94 (p.94)
Giulia Bologna, “I manoscritti italiani in rima del sec. XVI conservati alla Biblioteca Trivulziana di Milano” in Studi in onore di Alberto Chiari (Brescia 1973), I, pp.169-215 (pp.177-178: “Legatura coeva in cuoio marrone con filetti e piccoli ferri impressi a freddo e in oro; sul piatto anteriore: ‘Fides amor servitus, spes’ in caratteri capitali in oro sui quattro lati del piatto, racchiusi da filetti in oro a secco. Taglio dorato”)
Canova, op. cit., pp.83-84 & Fig. 2


(10) Gabriele Symeoni, has the appearance of a presentation ms, as written on vellum and embellished with two drawing (ff. 3v, 8v); the dedication “Al gran duca di Mantova suo signore illustrissimo et unico, Gabriello Symeoni Theopisto” is dated “Di Valchiusa il giorno X di febraro M. D. XXXVIII” [Valchiusa, 10 February 1538]

provenance
● perhaps the volume “Gabriele Teopisto” listed among “Libri volgari in quarto” in Odoardo Stivini inventory, completed October 1542; Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p.84 no. 71; Ferrari, op. cit. 1999, p.90 (note 68)
● Vatican BAV, Ms Ross.33

literature
Canova, op. cit., p.83
Barbieri, op. cit., p.489


(11) Bernardo Tasso, Manuscript, Epitalamio fatto nelle nozze del Duca Federico, 29 February 1532

Multiple copies were written: Tasso personally sent a copy to Margherita, on 28 February 1532, and the following day, with two distinct letters, he sent copies to Federico and to Isabella, in which he asked the recipients to preserve the text until such time as he could publish an edition of his verse; the texts of these three letters are printed by Barbieri, op. cit., pp.372-373. Federico’s and Margherita’s copies are unidentified; Isabella’s copy may be the manuscript in Gotha, which was expurgated by the Domenican Inquisitor Ambrogio Aldegatti in 1559 (Ramazzotti).

Federico’s copy: “Epitalamio in laude del Ill.mo S.or Duca et Ill.ma S.ra Duchessa” 
● Inventory by Odoardo Stivini, completed October 1542; Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p.83 no. 69 (among “Libri volgari in quarto”) [link]; Ferrari, op. cit. 1999, p.90 (note 66); Ferrari, op. cit. 2003, p.321 no. 6854

Margherita’s copy:
● unrecorded

Isabella’s copy: “Epitalamio di Bernardo Tasso scritto a mano in carta pergamena in quarto coperto di corame negro indorato”
● “Inventario de li Libri lasciati per la q. felice memoria dell’Ill.ma S.ra Isabella d’Este marchesana di Mant.a” taken by Odoardo Stivini, completed October 1542; Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p.78 no. 72 [link]; Ferrari, op. cit. 1999, p.90 (note 66; Ms not located); Ferrari, op. cit. 2003, p.318 (note 146) no. 6793

literature
Ubaldo Meroni, Mostra dei codici gonzagheschi: La biblioteca dei Gonzaga da Luigi I ad Isabella (Mantua 1966), p.69 & Tav. 132 (Ms in Gotha, Landesbibliothek, Cod. II, 107)
Cecil H. Clough, “The Library of the Gonzaga of Mantua” in Librarium: Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Bibliophilen-Gesellschaft 15 (1972), pp.50-63 (p.60: “found in both the inventory of Isabella and that of her son Federico”)
Brian Richardson, “Isabella d’Este and the Social Uses of Books” in La Bibliofilía 114 (2012), pp.293-326 (pp.320-321: “Cornelia Hopf of the Gotha library kindly informs me that the Tasso manuscript now has a light brown leather binding.”)
Mauro Ramazzotti, “Un ‘nuovo’ autografo di Bernardo Tasso: l’epitalamio per le nozze di Federico II Gonzaga e Margherita Paleologo” in Studi Tassiani 66 (2018), pp.9-28 (Ms in Gotha, Landesbibliothek, Cod. II, 107, presumed to be Isabella’s) [link]

(12) Andea Zani, Manuscript, “Rhythmi italici vulgo sonetti in laudem variorum regum, principium aliorumque illustrium virorum et feminarum praefixa duplici praefatione altera Latina altera italica ad Ferdinandum I. imperatorum” (opac); “Ad Ferdinandum Romanorum regem Andreae Zani vulgare opusculum” (Gottlieb)

provenance
● presumably Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, supralibros, impresa of Mount Olympus with motto “Fides” on upper cover
● not traced in posthumous inventory taken by Odoardo Stivini, 1540-1542
● Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (1503-1564) (Gottlieb, “Wurde König (Kaiser) Ferdinand I dargebracht”)
● Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 9960 (opac Rotbraunes Maroquin über Pappe, mit Handvergoldung und Blindlinien. Rom, 2. Viertel 16. Jhdt. [link])

literature
Theodor Gottlieb, Katalog der Ausstellung von Einbänden: K. K. Hofbibliothek (Vienna 1908), no. 82 (“Rotbraunes Maroquin mit Handvergoldung; in der Mitte einige Knotenstempel, strahlenförmig von Flammen umgeben; eine von Blindlinien flankierte Filete als Rahmen, mit Viertelkreisen (Olymp und Fides) in den inneren Ecken, an den äußeren Blumenstempel. An den Kanten Blindlinien. Einst je 4 Verschlußbänder. Von den Bunden zum Deckel ein Dreieck von Blindlinien. Goldschnitt. (22 x 16.3 cm)” [link])
De Marinis, op. cit., no. 564 & Pl. 97 (“Marr. scuro; agli angoli l’Olimpo col motto fides dei Gonzaga”)