1757 Marques de Mina 2-Volume Manuscript History of the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Sicily

This is an extraordinary 2-volume 1755-57 manuscript account of the War of the Quadruple Alliance, fought over Sicily, drafted by a participant, the II Marques de la Mina, Jaime Miguel de Guzmán Davalos y Spinola. It is Mina's personal copy, emblazoned with his arms, rich with masterfully executed foldout manuscript maps and tables, and features exceptional provenance. At the time of writing, this work was suppressed in Spain, as the loss of the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape Passaro was a royal embarrassment, leading to it remaining unpublished for more than 140 years. The War of the Quadruple Alliance here represented, while not well known, had global ramifications, as it significantly diminished the Spanish navy, giving the British largely unopposed free reign on the colonial stage, particularly in the Americas.

A Closer Look

The work focuses on war events in and around Sicily from 1717 - 1720, for which the author was physically present and engaged. According to researcher V. Manfrè,

A talented narrator, Mina drew on his professional experiences acquired during the Italian campaigns against the Quadruple Alliance to compose his memoirs. The chronicle of the military operations in which he had participated provides us with a cross-section of cartography and siege warfare in the early 1700s. … Two thirds of the text deals with the expeditions to Sardinia and Sicily, and the rest with the war of 1734 - 1736 in Lombardy and the Two Sicilies. …

The text records Mina’s first-hand experiences, his retrospective appraisal of what he considered the highlights, and his analysis of the positive and negative results of the campaigns, starting with the conquest of Sardinia. In the prologue, Mina observed that as a twenty-six-year-old dragoon he had not been competent enough to write in any serious or instructive capacity about the events he had witnessed. The implication seems to be that he began work on both the Memorias and the Colección long after the actual expeditions, most likely when he was governor of Catalonia. He then stated that he wrote his chronicles thirty-six years after the end of the military campaigns, which would mean no earlier than 1753. The note to the reader (advertencia) in the printed edition of the Memorias (1898) confirms 12 June 1755 as the date of completion and Barcelona as the place. …

Mina’s Memorias were more than a record of events. They should also be understood as a tool of war propaganda and as one of many instruments designed to disseminate the greatness and power of the Spanish monarchy. …

In every case, the order of the maps echoes the chronology of the main events of the war as narrated by Mina: Cagliari, Alghero, Castello Aragonese, Palermo, Cape of Passaro, Syracuse, Augusta, Messina, Milazzo, Francavilla, Trapani, and Palermo. This leaves us in no doubt that the maps in the Colección were intended as an integral part of Mina’s record of Spanish military operations in the Mediterranean under the leadership of the Marquis of Lede against the Quadruple Alliance in the years 1717-1720.

The whole is meticulously detailed and embellished with 42 illustrations, including 13 hand-colored maps, 13 fortification plans, and numerous foldout tables. The maps are richly detailed and strikingly tinted in grey, light green, brown, chestnut, and carmine, with various shades of blue used for bodies of water. It is handsomely bound in near uniform contemporary paneled calf, rich with gilt. Volume one is further decorated on both front and back boards with the crest of the Marques de la Mina in original color. Volume two features a red morocco label.

War of the Quadruple Alliance

Although often relegated to a footnote in European history, the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718 - 1720) had long-reaching global repercussions. It was fought between Spain and an alliance of Britain, France, Austria, and the Dutch Republic. The war has its roots in the War of Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714), which effectively brought an end to the Spanish Empire in Europe - Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Duchy of Milan and Sardinia were ceded to Austria, the Kingdom of Sicily to Savoy, Prussian Guelders to the Kingdom of Prussia, and Minorca and Gibraltar to Great Britain. Sore at the loss, Philip V of Spain was determined to regain Sicily and Sardinia, where the Spanish maintained deep connections dating to the 13th century. To this end, he ordered a modernization of the Spanish military and massive shipbuilding efforts to commence, both in Spain and in its American colonies. In 1717, the Spanish sent their fleet into the Mediterranean. First, they captured Sardinia. Then, a year later, in 1718, Spain launched an impressive fleet for Sicily: 12 ships of line, 17 frigates, 7 galleys, 2 fireships, 2 bomb vessels, 276 transports, and 123 tartanes, carrying some 36,000 infantrymen and 8,000 horses, along with artillery, supplies, and ammunition. Stunned at the size of the fleet, Austrian officials in Palermo immediately abandoned the city, and within a month, all of Sicily, except Messina and a few coastal forts, fell to Spain.To support their Austrian allies, Britain dispatched Admiral George Byng, an experienced naval officer, with its own impressive fleet (20 ships of line, 2 fireships, 2 bomb vessels, a store ship, a hospital ship, and 2 tenders). Despite being smaller, the British fleet was the superior force, a fact that Spanish commanders were well aware. The Spanish thus established themselves in a defensive position at Paradiso, where they could be supported by shore batteries. At nearby Point Faro the fleets finally engaged. The British adeptly outmaneuvered and outgunned the Spanish in what became known as the Battle of Cape Passaro. The bulk of the Spanish fleet was devastated. Subsequent engagements saw the remainder of the Spanish fleet destroyed or scuttled. In the following months, Spain was forced to surrender its gains in Sardinia and Sicily. Moreover, Spain's navy was decimated. The destroyed fleet put Spain in a disadvantageous position at sea throughout its far-flung empire, particularly in the Americas, where the British found themselves without a counter and largely unimpeded in their own colonial efforts. Back in Spain, the defeat was an embarrassment, about which information was actively suppressed, leading to this document remaining in unpublished manuscript form for over 140 years.

Provenance

This is the author's own copy. After Mina's death, it was naturally passed down to his son, Fernando Valdés Héctor. An inscription to the verso of the title page by Valdés Héctor transfers the piece to Don Frutos Saavedra, a colonel and member of the Spanish Royal Academy. The inscription reads,

Para el Sr. de Saveedra, esta obra que ha sido de mí querido Padre, como un recuerdo suyo, y del agradecimiento que por sus bondades le deberá siempre, Fernando Valdés Héctor.

[For Mr. de Saveedra, this work that has belonged to my dear Father, as a memory of him, and of the gratitude that he will always owe him for his kindness, Fernando Valdés Héctor.]

Frutos Saavedra likely passed on these volumes to Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1828 - 1897) along with other Mina-associated manuscript material. It was preserved in the Biblioteca de Don A. Canovas del Castillo until acquired by the trade, and thus here offered. Cánovas del Castillo served six terms as Prime Minister of Spain and managed the 1874 restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. A prodigious scholar, he also wrote a biography of Mina for the 1898 issue of Memoria Militares de D. Jaime Miguel, published posthumously.

Publication History and Census

This manuscript was written by Jaime Miguel de Guzmán Davalos y Spinola, II Marques de la Mina. It is fully in manuscript, composed in a clean, uniform hand. The Biblioteca Nacional de España holds 2 similar manuscript examples and an additional example of volume 1. The Fundacion Lazaro Galdiano in Madrid holds a copy in one volume. While we have not examined them in person, it has been confirmed that the BNE examples are in the same hand, suggesting a professional scribe. Mina intended the detailed description to serve as a case study for military students, but being a national embarrassment, King Philip censured the matter, and so it was only after his death that documents were assembled, completed in 1755, and dedicated to Marquis de Llio in 1757. It remained unpublished until a limited facsimile issue was produced in 1898, of which we see examples in a few European libraries, but only one outside of Spain. The present example is co-owned with Robert Frew Rare Books

This work is accompanied by an export license from Spain.