[Adrianeo]

A rare and singular manuscript of which this is the only known copy. This untitled chronicle details the festivities held on the occasion of the baptism of Adriano Gianni Amedeo, son of Charles II, Duke of Savoy (1486-1553). Adriano was the first son of Charles and his wife, Beatrice of Portugal. The advent and birth of this child was greeted with great joy and tremendous festivities at Ivrea, the seat of the Dukes of Savoy in Piedmont. He was baptized in December, 1522. The first five leaves constitute a table of contents; leaves [6-7] are blank; leaves [8]-[10] contain the prologue, with an initial space left blank on leaf [8]. The text consists of four books, beginning “Incomincia el primo libro del Adrianeo, dove linmenso aparato, cerimoniosi, processi, et riti baptismali, vederete cvm il ficto narrato de la castiglana”. Each book describes some aspect of the festivities on the occasion of Adriano’s baptism, with the first book listing the guests. The child’s godfather was Pope Adrian VI. The fourth book, narrated by various ladies of the court, describes the world and the realms belonging to the Dukes of Savoy. In chapter six Dame Agnes de Tavora describes the islands of the Mediterranean, including a 2-page description of Cyprus. In 1485 Duke Charles I had received the hereditary rights to the crusader kingdoms of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and Armenia.

There are two ownership inscriptions on the first leaf. They indicate that, firstly, this manuscript belonged to Isabelle, the Countess of Challant (1531-1596), daughter of Rene (or Renato) de Challant. Rene de Challant assisted at the Baptism, holding up the coverlet over the infant during the procession. At the end of book 4 there is a chapter (XI) narrated by the then Countess of Challant, Bianca Maria Scaperdone, first wife of Rene, (married in August, 1522, d. 1526) in which she discusses the difference between love and passion. It is possible that this manuscript was either prepared for or given to either Rene de Challant or his countess Bianca Maria, and was later claimed by Isabelle, with her signature on the first leaf. Whatever the case, it remained in the Challant family until it was given to Ange Scozia in 1777, who marked it as his own in the second ownership inscription on leaf 1. According to Dufour, Ange Scozia was a Piedmont bibliophile who had a considerable library. This person must be Ange Scozia du Pin d'Azan, abbot of the monastery of St. Maurice in the Valais. Many of his letters (from 1782 to 1793) to the Duc de Challant are preserved in the Challant archives (see J. C. Perrin, Inventaire des archives des Challant, Aosta, 1976).

The manuscript eventually came into the hands of Count Roussy de Sales, who allowed its publication in 1865, with the text edited by Auguste Dufour (1813-1889), in volume 9 of the Memoires et Documents of the Société savoisienne d’histoire et d’archéologie, pp. 249-347. After its publication in 1865, it disappeared from sight until its purchase by the Ioannou Foundation at an auction in Germany in 2021. It seems clear that the manuscript was transcribed from an earlier text by a professional scribe. There are very few corrections, the writing is clear and smooth, and the gatherings were prepared and ruled, and then bound. The watermark is similar to no. 100123 from the Piccard watermark collection. The manuscript is composed of 12 unsigned gatherings, with catchwords at the end of each gathering; the first gathering is of 6 leaves, the second is of two blank leaves. Gatherings 3-10 consist of 12 leaves each, gathering 11 of 8 leaves, and gathering 12 of three leaves (of 6, missing blank leaves 4-6). Spaces left blank for initials, with guide letters, precede each book and chapter. The prologue tells us that the author of the text is one Antonin, a Lombard soldier from the wars of Milan of the early 16th century, who took refuge in Ivrea because he had a relative there. He has been identified as Antonin dal Pozzo.

Dufour’s edition of ‘Adrianeo’ has provided material for many works on the medieval courts of France, see in particular Thalia Brero, Les baptêmes princiers. Le cérémonial dans les cours de Savoie et Bourgogne (XVe-XVIe s.), pp. 40, 61-68, 282, Lausanne, 2005 (Cahiers lausannois d’histoire médiévale, 36). The whereabouts of the manuscript itself were unknown at the time Brero’s book was published. She states (p. 282) that the original manuscript “reste à l’heure actuelle introuvable, et le seul accès à ce document demeure la transcription qu’en a donnée Auguste Dufour en 1865”.