Rectangular vellum, 30.5 x 11.7 cm, written in Latin, 7 lines, brown ink, in a nice, legible hand, flourished monogram on the 2cm fold at bottom, from which hangs Mocenigo’s substantial lead seal. Ink very slightly faded in places, three 1cm holes affecting text, else good.
"An interesting document, unusually complete with its lead seal, written by the 96th Doge of Venice Aloysius [Luigi] Mocenigo during the last year of his reign (and life). It is a letter in which Mocenigo guarantees the truthfulness of the documents drawn up by the notary ‘Paulus de Grandis Venes’. He says: ‘We notify to each and every friend who might be expecting a false transaction that Paulus, who on the 6th of February wrote and made public the following document, which caused Donna Lisia, wife of Leonello de Le[onelli], to be nominated proxy in order to carry out what was written in the said documents, [we notify] that, in order to avoid that he [Paulus] is deprived of good opinion and of success, good faith should be granted to both the said documents and to those that he will write in the future’. At the end, before the date, Mocenigo also states the place where the document was written, i.e. the beautiful Palazzo Ducale in Piazza San Marco, Venice. The seal reads ‘Alo/ isius/ Mocenigo/ Dei.Gra.Dux/ Venetia’ on one side, and depicts Mocenigo kneeling in front of St Mark, patron saint of Venice, on the other. Luigi Mocenigo was Doge of Venice from 1570 to 1577, when he was killed by the plague. During his reign, in 1571, Venice lost to the Turks the fortresses of Nicosia and Famagosta in Cyprus, acquired for the Republic by another Mocenigo (Pietro) in 1473. In the same year, however, the Venetians and the Christian coalition won the famous battle of Lepanto, in which Mocenigo took part not only with his fleet, but also by treating personally with the Sultan. In 1574 he gave a magnificent welcome to the French king Henry III. He was a man of great value to the Republic and much loved by its inhabitants."
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439404/datastre...
