NOTICE.
Petruccio Ubaldini, the compiler of the following Description of Scotland, and her adjacent Isles, was born at Florence about the year 1524. Although descended from one of the most ancient, and allied to many of the most powerful families of Italy, he was, early in life, under the necessity of abandoning his native country, in consequence, as has been supposed, of the liberality of his religious opinions. He repaired to England, and engaged in the service of Edward the Sixth, a zealous opponent of the Court of Rome. Upon the death of this young Prince in 1553, Ubaldini returned to Italy, and resided for some time at Venice, where he occupied himself with a translation of Cebes, which he dedicated to the Grand Duke Cosmo the First. This work was never published, and is still preserved among the Manuscripts in the Laurentian Library at Florence.
Ubaldini afterwards returned to England, where he appears to have spent the remainder of his life, and to have enjoyed a considerable share of favour in the Court of Elizabeth. He died towards the close of the sixteenth century.
In the short Notice of Ubaldini in the Biographie Universelle, he is styled Historien but he is better known as a miniature painter and illuminator on vellum. His name is frequently mentioned in the Rolls of New-years gifts, formerly preserved in the Jewel Office; and it is recorded, that in return for occasional grants of money and gilt plate, he presented Elizabeth with various volumes in the Italian language, transcribed and illuminated by himself, one of which, at least, according to Vertue, is still extant in the Bodleian Library. He was also much employed by persons of distinction, in executing ornamental works. Of these, Vertue particularly notices a copy of the Psalms of David, which, from an inscription upon the volume, appears to have been written for the Earl of Arundel, who is described as the Artistʼs Mæcenas; and a Scriptural book on vellum, and highly ornamented with miniatures, presented by Sir Nicholas Bacon to the Lady Lumley.
Besides the works of Ubaldini enumerated by Vertue as still preserved in manuscript in the British Museum, and several inconsiderable, and now almost forgotten printed tracts, of which a list may be found in Wattʼs Bibliotheca Britannica, he published La Vita di Carlo Magno at London in 1581, and in 1591 a work very slightingly noticed by Walpole, entitled Le Vite delle donne Illustri del Regno dʼInghilterra & del Regno di Scotia. During the intermediate period, his Description of Scotland was published at Antwerp in 1588, under the title of Descrittione del Regno di Scotia, et delle Isole sue Adjacenti. It may be, as stated in the Proemio to this work, that the author drew his information partly from his own personal observations, and partly from other sources of unquestionable authenticity; yet it is obvious he has borrowed so largely from Hector Boece, that his book is little more than an enlarged paraphrase of that historianʼs Scotorum Regni Descriptio, a transcript of which by Ubaldini, dated 1576, is now in the British Museum. Although this certainly detracts greatly from the value and originality of the Descrittione, it is still one of those curious trifles which Walpole describes as at all times acceptable to the antiquary, and as such alone it is presented to the Bannatyne Club.
NOVEMBER,
M.DCCC.XXIX.