They Don't Make Hats Like This Any More

All 40 of the additions made on June 16 to Digita Vaticana come from the collection of Marquess Alessandro Gregorio Capponi (1683-1746), which became part of the Vatican Library at his death. Capponi did not collect classical books at all, but left many manuscript documents with a bearing on eighteenth-century Roman life, drawings from the period and archaeological notes.

There is a very old catalogue (Christies sale) and the 1897 catalogue by Cozzo on archive.org, but very little information is attached to the manuscripts online at the BAV, making it hard to browse them. Here is a 17th-century heraldic blazon with a fanciful hat, from Cappon. 51, described in the catalog as a stemma di tipo flammingo: Look closely for the head.

Digita Vaticana seems to be bringing manuscripts online by a series of campaigns on individual collections: the Archcapitular Library of St Peters was first up, and now the Capponi collection is in focus. If you are hanging around for material in the Vat.lat. series, it may be a long wait. Here is the full June 16 list:

1. Cappon.17
2. Cappon.24
3. Cappon.27.pt.1
4. Cappon.28.pt.2
5. Cappon.28.pt.3
6. Cappon.29
7. Cappon.32
8. Cappon.41
9. Cappon.43
10. Cappon.51, Cicero in Italian with above blazon
11. Cappon.52, Libellus super ludum scaccorum or the Book of Chess, here in an Italian translation. See my more comprehensive notes with Barb.lat.366, a manuscript in the original Latin. Digita Vaticana is using this one as a fund-raiser (see below).
12. Cappon.53
13. Cappon.54
14. Cappon.55
15. Cappon.56, with 16th century illustration including map below, poem by Lorenzo Bonincontri (catalog)
16. Cappon.57
17. Cappon.58
18. Cappon.59
19. Cappon.60
20. Cappon.61
21. Cappon.64
22. Cappon.65
23. Cappon.66
24. Cappon.68
25. Cappon.69
26. Cappon.70
27. Cappon.73
28. Cappon.77, handwritten copy of typographer Ludovico Vincentino's book on italic design, more on Digita Vaticana fundraiser site
29. Cappon.78.pt.1, description of churches of Naples, Assisi, Ancona and Osimo
30. Cappon.78.pt.2,
31. Cappon.79
32. Cappon.81
33. Cappon.83
34. Cappon.84, La Gazeria del Cavalier Marino
35. Cappon.85
36. Cappon.89
37. Cappon.90
38. Cappon.91, description of the museum
39. Cappon.92
40. Cappon.93

Above is a fine little borderless map (Cappon. 56) of the Near East with Damascus, Jerusalem and the Red Sea, which is satisfyingly .... red.

Still to come is one of the most interesting Capponiani items: autograph writings of Machiavelli in Cappon.107, comprising parts of his drafts of his History of Florence and his Letter to Vettori, according to Silvia Ruffo-Fiore. Cappon.52 has been chosen as a fund-raiser item, so consider donating for it:

Cappon.52. The book of #chess (14th cent.) http://t.co/oAiIiwgALR pic.twitter.com/aSLIwoAifm

— Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) July 30, 2015

As always, if you can tell us more about any of these items, use the comments box below. [This is Piggin's Unofficial List 16.]