Descrizione

THE LIBRARY OF A SIENA CARDINAL SOLD AT AUCTION IN PARIS
228x147 mm. VIII, 168 pp. Editor's printed wrappers (spine repaired). Price results supplied by a contemporary hand in the margin for all the lots. Some light browning, but a good, genuine copy.
This is a rare auction catalogue of the library of Cardinal Antonio Felice Zondadari (1740–1823). The sale took place in Paris in 1844, with Jean François Nicolas Regnard acting as commissaire-priseur. The catalogue comprises 1,338 lots of books, arranged by subject, and 170 lots of autographs. The book section comprises early manuscripts and incunabula, including a selection of early editions of Savonarola, as well as scientific editions. The most valuable lots include the 1607 and 1616 Brussels editions of Don Quixote and a 1513 autograph by Niccolò Machiavelli.
Antonio Felice Zondadari was born in Siena in 1740 into a noble family that had already produced a cardinal in the 18th century. He studied at La Sapienza University in Rome, earning a doctorate in utroque iure (both canon and civil law) on 23 July 1768. In 1785, he was elected titular archbishop of Adana; in 1786, he was named assistant at the Pontifical Throne and nuncio in Flanders. However, he was accused by the government of combating Febronianism and supporting the agitation that followed the introduction of a new organisation of the seminaries. Consequently, he was expelled in February 1787 and sought refuge in Liège before returning to Rome. From 1789 to 1795, he served as secretary of the S.C. of Propaganda Fide before being transferred to the metropolitan see of Siena in 1795. While the pontiff was en route to Florence after being expelled from Rome in February 1798, he received Pope Pius VI in Siena. He was created a cardinal in 1801. He was named chaplain to Napoléon I Bonaparte's sister, Elisa Bonaparte, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, and travelled to France in 1809. He attended the marriage of Napoléon I and Maria Louise and was one of the “red cardinals”. He also participated in the Gallican Council of 1811. He died in Siena in 1823.
Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\UTO\1122730.