Controversial manuscript on the expulsion of Jesuits from South America

[“Ministro di Stato” (= Bernardo Tanucci (1698-1783)?].

Notizie Anecdote.

Italy (Naples?), 1759.

4°, 8 pp. Manuscript in black ink in a notarial hand on 18th century paper.

Ruthlessly anti-Jesuit manuscript, possibly by Bernardo Tanucci: prime minister of Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The text summarizes the events involving the Jesuits in the years 1755-1759, from the controversy over the Paraguayan Missions to the trials for the assassination of Joseph I of Portugal. This autograph is not signed but clues to the identity of the author can be found in a rare 1759 published analysis of the contents of this manuscript, titled Sposizione letteral delle notizie anecdote giustificative della condotta de' MM. RR. PP. Gesuiti nel Paraguai, e nel Portogallo per aggiungere al loro manoscritto di Napoli (Barcelona [= Naples?], Antonio Michele Cervellò). In the second edition of this work (1760, same publisher), editor Alfonso Nicolini identifies the manuscript’s author as a “gran Ministro di Stato” of Naples, and the receiver of the letter as an "altro gran Ministro” of Spain. The Minister from Naples who he refers to has to be the fiercely anti-Jesuit Bernardo Tanucci (1698–1783), who was infamous for his strongly opiniated letters.
In the second edition of the analysis the content of the manuscript is copied in its entirety and interestingly the present manuscript differs in many details from that text. This makes it highly unlikely that our manuscript is a copy after the text in Nicolini’s book. But it remains unconfirmed if this manuscript is from Tanucci’s hand or a copy after it. It is remarkable that Nicolini gives little introduction or context about the manuscript, as if it is was very well-known.
A German edition of Nicolinis analysis has also appeared, without place or date: Wahrhafte und schon in mehreren Sprachen in Druck erschienene Urkunden von dem Jahr 1751, bis auf das Jahr 1759, sowol was die Affairen von Paraguai als die Verfolgungen der PP. Societ. Jesu in Portugall anbetrift.

Condition: leafs nearly detached, minor spotting, very slight wear at old fold on last leaf, otherwise in very good condition.