_Pilgrimages to the Holy Land_ (Vol. v., p. 289.).--I beg to inform W.
M. R. E. (Vol. vii., p. 341.) that, though I have never met with a
printed copy of the "Itinerary to the Holy Land" of _Gabriele
Capodilista_ (the Perugia edition of 1472, mentioned by Brunet, being
undoubtedly a book of very great rarity, and perhaps the only one ever
printed), I have in my possession a very beautiful manuscript of the
work on vellum, which appears to have been presented by the author to
the nuns of St. Bernardino of Padua. It is a small folio; and the first
page is illuminated in a good Italian style of the fifteenth century. It
is very well written in the Venetian dialect, and commences thus:
"Venerabilibus ac Devotissimis D[=n]e Abbatissæ et
Monialibus Ecclesiæ Sancti Bernardini de Padua salut[=e] in
D[=NO].--Ritrovandomi ne li tempi in questa mia opereta descripti,
Io Gabriel Capodelista Cavalier Padoano dal su[=m]o Idio inspirato
et dentro al mio cor concesso fermo proposito di vistare
personalmente el Sanctissimo loco di Jerusalem," &c.
This MS., which was formerly in the library of the Abbati Canonici, I
purchased, with others, at Venice in 1835.
If W. M. R. E. has any wish to see it, and will communicate such wish to
me through the medium of the publisher of "N. & Q.," I shall be happy to
gratify his curiosity. I do not know whether there is any MS. of
Capodilista's Itinerary in the British Museum.