The original copy of "Gerusalemme Liberata," in the handwriting of
Tasso, is in the Soane Museum. It was purchased by Sir John Soane, at
the sale of the Earl of Guilford's Library, in 1829. This literary
treasure, which cannot be contemplated without emotion, once belonged to
Baruffaldi, one of the most eminent literary characters of modern
Italy. Serassi describes it, and refers to the emendations made by the
poet in the margin (Serassi's edit. Florence, 1724;) but expresses his
_fear_ that it had been taken out of Italy. In allusion to this
expression of Serassi, Lord Guilford has written on the fly-leaf of the
MS., "I would not wish to hurt the honest pride of any Italian; but the
works of a great genius are the property of all ages and all countries:
and I hope it will be recorded to future ages, that England possesses
the original MS. of one of the four greatest epic poems the world has
produced, and, beyond all doubt, the only one of the four now existing."
There is no date to this MS. The first printed edition of the
Gerusalemme is dated 1580.
There are other rare and valuable MSS. in this Museum, the most
remarkable of which are a Commentary in Latin on the epistle of St. Paul
to the Romans, by Cardinal Grimani. It is adorned with exquisite
miniature illustrations, painted by Don Giulio Clovio, called the
Michael Angelo of miniature painters. "The figures are about an inch in
height," says Mrs. Jameson, "equaling in vigor, grandeur, and
originality, the conceptions of Michael Angelo and of Raffaelle, who
were his cotemporaries and admirers." Also, a missal of the fifteenth
century, containing ninety-two miniatures by Lucas van Leyden and his
scholars, executed in a truly Dutch style, just the reverse of those of
Clovio, except in point of elaborate finishing.