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Henry Nevill at Florence, 20 January 1665: Pisa, Rome, Gigery, News, and Exile

Primary Manuscript And Published Controls Ready Controlled Partial primary source research packet

Henry Nevill at Florence, 20 January 1665

Why this letter matters

Royal Berkshire Archives D/EN/F8/1/13 is an unusually rich letter by Henry Nevill (1619/20–1694), the political writer and later author of The Isle of Pines. Written at Florence to his brother Richard, it documents continental travel, a disciplined correspondence schedule, international postal routing, a £200 bill of exchange, courtly reception in Italy, alienation from England, seed exchange, printed-news reading, the aftermath of France's defeat at Gigery, and fast-moving political intelligence from Rome, Sardinia, Genoa, and Savoy.

This is the ambassador's grandson, not Sir Henry Neville (1561/2–1615). The letter belongs to the later history of the Neville family and to the biography of the republican author. It must not be imported into the ambassador's Elizabethan Italian itinerary.

Identity, date, and archive placement

The manuscript is signed Hen: Nevill. Its subscription reads:

Florence this

20th of January old stile

1664

The Old-Style year makes the modern-reckoning date 20 January 1665. The pencil shelfmark on the leaf is D/EN F8/1/13. Andrew Casson's published study independently identifies this exact shelfmark as Henry Neville's letter to his brother Richard, explains the Old-Style year, and reproduces letterforms from the document (*Notes and Queries*, 2017, 450–455, especially 452 n. 5).

The Royal Berkshire Archives `D/EN/F8` record describes correspondence mainly of the brothers Richard and Henry Neville and notes that Henry travelled extensively and had many Italian friends. The parent `D/EN/F8/1` record contains seventeen documents dated 1640–1697. The individual /13 description is not exposed online; the physical shelfmark and Casson's article supply that item-level control.

A recoverable itinerary: Florence, Pisa, Livorno, and Rome

The letter begins at the moment of departure:

I receaued just at this instant when I am taking boat for Pisa

Nevill expects to return to Florence and then go quickly to Rome:

Upon my returne to this place I shall hast with all

convenience to Rome

Livorno appears as Livorn, not as a destination in a grand tour but as a postal-routing point. Letters reaching Florence by the French route were being carried there in a large packet. Once Nevill understood this, he sent to Livorno and recovered letters from Richard and Harry.

The letter's controlled geographic sequence is Florence → Pisa → Florence → Rome, with Livorno embedded in the postal network.

The next passage refers to The Duke, kind remembrance, a journey undertaken to offer thanks, and taking leave. Ferdinando II de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1665 (Italian State Archives biographical record), so he is a strong research candidate. The surrounding manuscript wording is not yet clear enough to identify him as a fact.

A Tuesday-and-Friday correspondence system

Nevill describes letter-writing as a regular obligation. Since reaching Florence, he says, he had not failed to write on Fridays and Tuesdays except twice, when he wrote only to Harry:

have never failed Fryday nor Tuesday since I came

to Florence from writing to y^r selfe, faire wife or sister (except twice

when I writ to Harry only), nor doe intend to faile yow except I am

sick or in viaggio.

In viaggio means travelling or on a journey. Sickness and travel are the only prospective interruptions Nevill states. The sentence does not say that he was sick when writing; it shows how bodily condition and movement governed a twice-weekly correspondence schedule.

Bills of exchange and postal risk

The letter is also a financial document. Nevill had received Richard's letter of 7 December and two from Harry, dated 12 and 19 December. One contained a bill of exchange for £200. He asks Richard to notify Harry because, if the bill miscarried, Harry would not issue a second or third bill.

This joins several systems in one passage: family trust, long-distance credit, duplicate financial instruments, the French post, Florence, Livorno, and named English intermediaries. Nevill also says he cannot find items reportedly sent by Sir H. Blunt's order or anything from Lord Chandos. Their exact identities remain research questions.

Esteem abroad and persecution at home

The most forceful personal passage contrasts Nevill's reception in Italy with his position in England:

In y^e meane time I find a sensible difference betweene being

civilly treated, humbly visited and esteem'd by princes abroad, and not

only hated but persecuted at home.

Immediately before this, he says he is far from finding his Italian residence unpleasing and cannot see how returning home would serve his friends. The sentence is important biographical evidence for his self-understanding in 1665: Italy is not merely scenery. It is the place where he experiences recognition, hospitality, and princely regard, against English hostility and persecution.

This does not identify the cause of every grievance. It does establish the comparison in Nevill's own words. It belongs beside his republican career and Commonwealth service, while remaining distinct from any unsupported claim about Shakespearean exile.

Celery seed as material exchange

Nevill had sent three ounces of selleri seed with a Tuesday letter and one more ounce a week earlier. He adds:

This place is counted y^e best in Italy for them.

The detail gives the correspondence a material dimension. Letters carried money instruments, political reports, social obligations, and horticultural goods. The seed may also offer a future route into estate and garden records for Billingbear and the later Neville household.

Gigery, Provence, and a printed Gazette

Nevill's international-news report concerns France's failed 1664 expedition to Gigery, or Djidjelli. He writes:

Yow need not feare that

y^e K. of France will be disengag'd in Africa by y^e losse at Gigery, since

we heare weekly from Provence nothing but preparations for a new and

gagliardo rinforzo

Direct image collation gives the political verb disengag'd and the Italian phrase gagliardo rinforzo: a strong or vigorous reinforcement.

The Bibliothèque nationale de France record for Gigeri controls the subject as the 1664 expedition. A modern scholarly account documents contemporary Gazette reports of the campaign and reinforcements (Presses universitaires de Rennes).

Nevill then explicitly cites y^e printed Gazette. The following news lines are cancelled and overwritten and do not presently yield a continuous, recoverable report. Identifying the exact Gazette available in Florence could recover the report without forcing the damaged manuscript.

Death news from Rome and Sardinia

Nevill reports two deaths:

y^e death of y^e Card. Aldobrandino, who dyed on Monday last at

Rome, and that of y^e prince Lodovisio, w^ch happened in Sardegna, whither

he was newly gone for Viceroy.

The first is Cardinal Baccio Aldobrandini. The Italian archival family record identifies Baccio (1613–1665) as a cardinal from 1652 (SIUSA); the public episcopal chronology gives his death in Rome on 21 January 1665 (Catholic-Hierarchy). That published date does not align neatly with Nevill's Monday last after calendar conversion. The disagreement is preserved rather than silently harmonized; a contemporary Roman avviso is needed.

The second is Niccolò Ludovisi. Treccani documents his political career (Dizionario Biografico), and the Boncompagni Ludovisi digital archive states that he became viceroy of Sardinia in 1662 and died at Cagliari on 25 December 1664 (archive account). The match to prince Lodovisio ... in Sardegna ... Viceroy is exact in title, place, office, and timing.

Genoa, Savoy, and the fragility of Italian peace

The manuscript says:

There is of late some disgust arisen

betweene y^e Genoeses and y^e Duke of Savoy concerning their concerns,

w^ch makes a great deale of talke here

Nevill then explains why the report matters: Italy enjoys peace, everyone wishes to preserve it, and even a small disturbance produces speculation. Some words remain difficult, but the paragraph's direction is controlled. The University of Genoa's research record confirms repeated seventeenth-century Genoese–Savoyard conflict and supplies a focused archival route (University of Genoa). The exact January 1665 disgust still needs identification in Genoese and Savoyard state papers.

Family and household network

The closing sends duty to Nevill's mother and service to Richard's wife, sister, and daughter. It then includes several personal names, among them readings that appear to include Mr Young, Mr Theodore, and Mr Hunt. The leaf is creased and the hand compressed in this area. Those names are retained as research targets, not expanded into identities without corroboration.

The secure reference to my mother is consistent with Elizabeth Smythe Neville Thorowgood, who lived until 1669. The letter therefore links Nevill's Italian travel to the remarried family household already documented through the Thorowgood probate and Hull archive records.

What this adds to the biography of the author of The Isle of Pines

Three years before The Isle of Pines appeared, its author was living in an international information environment. He moved through Tuscan cities, maintained fixed correspondence days, handled bills of exchange, read printed news, gathered oral reports from Provence, received Italian political and death intelligence, and reflected on the difference between princely esteem abroad and persecution at home.

That context does not solve the tract's sources or political allegory. It gives future research a much firmer basis than a generic label such as “Italian traveller.” The letter shows the actual channels through which Nevill received and evaluated information: family packets, posts, merchants' bills, courtly contacts, printed Gazettes, and geographically distributed correspondents.

Research programme opened by the letter

  1. Search Medici court diaries and correspondence for an English Henry Nevill

    2. at Florence and Pisa in January 1665.

  2. Identify the printed Gazette circulating in Florence and compare January

    3. 1665 issues with the cancelled manuscript lines.

  3. Trace the £200 bill of exchange and Sir H. Blunt through English merchant,

    4. diplomatic, and family correspondence.

  4. Search Roman avvisi for Aldobrandini's death and Sardinian/Spanish records

    5. for the first circulation of Ludovisi's death news.

  5. Identify the Genoa–Savoy disgust through January 1665 diplomatic

    6. dispatches.

  6. Reconstruct Nevill's Tuesday-and-Friday correspondence network from the

    7. surviving D/EN/F8 sequence.

  7. Seek a human palaeographic review of the Duke passage, prospective-marriage

    8. clause, cancelled Gazette report, and compressed family names.

Public sources