Informatione dell’Illustrissimo signor Marcantonio Colonna ...

This manuscript and the two described under Doria were probably disbound from a volume containing a number of manuscripts similar to manuscript 7 of the Codici Minucciani (manuscripts owned by Minuccio Minucci) in the possession of the German Institute in Rome, see below. The number '4' probably refers to the volume number, recorded on each separate manuscript so that the scribe knew which manuscripts were to be bound together. The number '24' is a leaf number; the remaining five leaves are unnumbered, but it is clear from numbers in the same position in the two Doria manuscripts that the three manuscripts followed on, one after the other, and all come from the same volume. The date 1570 refers to the date of the events, not the date of transcription, although the hand seems to be that of the late 16th or early 17th century.

Marcantonio Colonna was the general commander of the combined Christian fleet formed by the Holy League (Venice, Spain and the Vatican) to come to the aid of Cyprus when the island was attacked by the Ottomans in July, 1570. The fleet gathered in Crete in August, but Doria delayed its departure. The fleet finally left Crete at the beginning of September, but turned back when news of the fall of Nicosia (9 September) reached the squadrons. According to Gennarelli, who published this manuscript, see below, Colonna was not its author. Apparently, there was another manuscript in the Colonna archive that constituted Colonna's reply to Doria. Our manuscript provides an account of the expedition focused on Doria's actions.

Another version of this manuscript was published in 1845 in Achille Gennarelli’s Il Saggiatore, (Il saggiatore, giornale romano di storia, letteratura, belle arti, filologia e varietà, vol. III, Rome, 1845, pp. 26-31) under the title: Informatione di quanto è successo nell’infrascritta Armata doppo che s’intese esser mente di S. Maestà Cattolica che le sue galere si unissero con quelle di S. Santità. According to Genarelli, the manuscript came from the Colonna or Caetani Family Archives. (The Colonna family archive is now in the Monastero Santa Scolastica, Subiaco). Interesting enough, Gennarelli mentions that this manuscript followed not only the two Doria manuscripts, but also another manuscript containing Colonna’s reply to Doria. The published text presents significant variations from the Ioannou copy of the manuscript. Furthermore, it seems that the printed version lacks a considerable part at the end: the present document continues with another 36 lines of text.

There are four copies of this manuscript known: 1) the Ioannou copy, 2) a copy sold at Christie's (lot 18, 13 December 2017; the lot contained a portion of a 17th century manuscript apparently containing this document and the one described under Doria, Relatione), 3) the copy published by Gennarelli, and 4) a copy at the German Historical Institute, Rome (Minucciani, ms. 7, no. 36, ff. 324r-329r; the latter has been published in I Codici Minucciani dell'Istituto Storico Germanico. Inventario a cura di Alexander Koller, Pier Paolo Piergentili e Gianni Venditti, Rome, 2009, p. 81.

With reference to all three manuscripts concerning Doria and the Cyprus expedition: The manuscripts were transcribed to order by a professional scribe, and the same scribe transcribed all three manuscripts. The number '4' probably refers to the volume into which all three manuscripts were bound. According to the folio number on the first leaf of each gathering, the order in which the manuscripts were originally bound was, first, the Colonna manuscript, then the Doria 'Parere' and finally the 'Relatione'. However, according to the Minucci volume, it is clear from the foliation that the correct order was first, the 'Parere', then the 'Relatione', and finally the 'Informatione'. This is confirmed by the note in a later hand on the first leaf of the 'Parere'.