Masque of Blackness 18

Archivio Mediceo del Principato, Firenze, Filza 4187

Plans for the Queen ’s masque mentioned in a dispatch, dated 28 [i.e. 18] December 1604, sent home by the Florentine agent Ottaviano Lotti , headed ‘Inserto de 28 de Dec. 1604’. Filza 4187 is a collection of letters bound in parchment and numbered in pencil; this passage is on fol. 637.


La Regina, è
... stata impegnata in condurre una bella mascherata per le feste di Natale, come fece l’anno passato, di non poca spesa.
Translation
The Queen has been occupied with a beautiful masque for the Christmas festivities, as she did last year; it will be very costly indeed.

Bibliography
Orrell (1977-78), 160