LIVRE DE FETES – MANUSCRIT Descrizione delle feste seguite in Genova all’occasione del Arrivo di Sua Maestà Maria Teresa Arciduchessa d’Austria Regina di Sardegna. Compilata dal Segretaro di Stato Parruzia Segretaro di S.M. pel cerimoniale di Corte per essere inscritta ne’ Registri del Grand Magistero delle Cerimonie.

Interesting handwritten Genoese festival book.

The scribe, identified as Parruzia, Secretary of State, describes in detail the celebrations and ceremonies that took place in Genoa during the visit of Maria Theresa of Austria-Este between 10 August and 15 September 1815. Official welcome; arrival of the Prince of Carignan; religious ceremonies; kissing of the hand of the nobility, magistrates and university; Te Deum; regatta organised by the Chamber of Commerce; cantata performed at the Sant'Agostino theatre; delegations from the cities of the kingdom (Torino, Alessandria, Tortona, Ventimiglia, Serravalle, Savona).

Pages 37 to 80 contain a lengthy description of a Chinese festival held on 2 September in the Palazzo Doria. The book also gives details of the decorations and lighting used in the streets of Genoa during the festivities. On 4 January 1815, the Congress of Vienna granted the territory of the former Republic of Genoa to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in order to give it a permanent outlet to the Mediterranean. Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1773-1832), wife of King Victor Emmanuel I, presided over the celebrations organised to mark the incorporation of the former independent state into the kingdom. Well preserved.