ENGLISH VERSION Alessandra Anselmi. Il diario del viaggio in Spagna del cardinale Francesco Barberini scritto da Cassiano dal Pozzo. Ediciones Doce Calles, 2005

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro

CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION

Alessandra Anselmi

Il diario del viaggio in Spagna del cardinale Francesco Barberini scritto da Cassiano dal Pozzo

Ediciones Doce Calles, 2005

Isbn 84-9744-051-5

Titian, Equestrian portrait of Charles v, 1548, Madrid, Prado Museum

[N.B. On Cassiano del Pozzo please see in this blog also: The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo Series A Part Ten. Renaissance and Later Architecture and Ornament, Edited by Paul Davies e David Hemsoll. With contributions by Ian Campbell e Simon Pepper. Two volumes. Royal Collection Trust in association with Harvey Miller Publishers, 2013] 

[1] The work is published by a Spanish publisher, but it is entirely written in Italian. A Spanish version of the book was printed by the same publishing house in 2007

[2] Text of the back cover:

"The diary of the voyage to Spain of Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1626), written by the famous scholar, patron and collector Cassiano dal Pozzo, is a highly important document for the history of culture and in particular the history of art, preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library. Until now only brief excerpts had been published of it. Cassiano had joined in 1622 the Accademia dei Lincei, which placed - among the foundations of a new science – observing the world to gain an increasingly broader knowledge and understanding of it (‘guardare per capire’ [‘look to understand’]). Exactly in the spirit of the Lincei, Cassiano wrote the diary, focusing on the habits and customs of the locations he had visited, like for instance ceremonials, games, cooking, dancing, theatre, festivals, and clothing. With vivid and desecrating portraits, he also described many of the persons he had met. Moreover, he focused on the flora and fauna, on the way to fish and hunt, on weddings and funerals, and all in all on such a variety of uses to make his diary as a veritable anthropological memory.

He devoted special attention and room to the artistic aspect, with extensive and accurate descriptions of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, churches, monasteries, palaces and villas, always giving us interesting and sometimes highly valuable evidence to reconstruct the appearance of a place or a building, the original location of a work, the preparation and decoration of a room, the shape of a collection.

Importantly, the text does not focus only of Spain, as about one-third of it is dedicated to Italy, particularly to Florence (but also with accurate descriptions of Genoa, Arezzo, Perugia, Assisi, Spoleto, Foligno and notes on other Italian centres). Humorous and witty notations make the book an enjoyable text to read.

In addition to the integral transcript of the text, this edition is accompanied by an introductory essay, and a critical apparatus of notes and final indices. They will hopefully provide the reader with useful tools to take full advantage of what can be really defined as a very qualified source, and of extraordinary richness, for the history of seventeenth-century Europe".

Titian, Diana e Actaeon, 1556-1559, London, National Gallery

[3] The journey of Cardinal Francesco Barberini was part of the papal attempt to reach a diplomatic solution to the political and military strife between France and Spain for the Valtellina (see about PP. XXIX - XXXII). It should also be said that Barberini’s mission ended in a stalemate. The Cardinal went first to France (in 1625) and then to Spain (in 1626). In both cases, the scholar Cassiano dal Pozzo was among those accompanying him. He left us two voyage diaries, now preserved in the Vatican Library. The mark of the Spanish voyage is Barb. Lat. 5689. The diary has now been published in full for the first time. Cassiano’s narrative goes from 30^th January to 27^th October 1626 (with an appendix referring to May 1627). Alessandra Anselmi clarifies however, that the manuscript is not the original hand-written by Cassiano dal Pozzo: "This is a copy, ancient however almost certainly not coeval (in any case, it had not been reviewed by him); in fact, the difficulties sometimes met by the that copyist to interpret original words' indicate that the transcription was certainly carried out in the absence of the author "(p. xviii).

Titian, Portrait of Charles V with a dog, 1533, Madrid, Prado Museum

[4] There is no doubt that the description of monuments and works of art are the elements of greatest importance with those interested in art sources. One has the impression that Cassian’s words still need a more detailed examination; however, the wealth of information provided is remarkable, and not only in relation to Spain, but also to the Italian cities that Cardinal touched during of its long journey, Florence in particular. In the Spanish environment one is spoiled for choice:  in his introduction Ms Anselmi cites for example the descriptions of the churches in Madrid, Barcelona’s cathedral and the archbishop's palace in Valencia (p. XLIV), but the "main course" is clearly the guide to the pictorial cycle painted by Titian in the salón nuevo of the Alcázar, i.e. the Royal Palace of Madrid (see Anselmi’s words from p. XLVII onwards).

Titian, Religion saved by Spain, 15722-1575, Madrid, Prado Museum

[5] It remains to be said that the manuscript Barb. Lat. 5688 (i.e. the account of the voyage to France, dating back to 1625) has not yet been fully published. Francesco Solinas had announced in 1992 a critical edition edited by Cecilia Bartoli and himself (Francesco Solinas, Portare Roma a Parigi. Mecenati, artisti ed eruditi nella migrazione culturale in Documentary Culture: Florence and Rome from Grand-Duke Ferdinand I to Pope Alexander VII, in particular p. 235 n. 20), a critical edition that has however not seen the light yet. To date, only excerpts have been published, with particular reference to Cassiano’s impressions on the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci in France (judgments on the Mona Lisa and ‘St. John in the wilderness’ can be found, for example, in Mauro Pavesi, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Nicolas Poussin e la prima edizione a stampa del «Trattato della Pittura» di Leonardo tra Roma, Milano e Parigi in Tracce di letteratura artistica in Lombardia; specifically p. 106 n. 26.

[6] On Cassiano dal Pozzo as a collector see Donatella L. Sparti , Le collezioni dal Pozzo. Storia di una famiglia e del suo museo nella Roma seicentesca.