Again via Everett Wilkie: the LATimes reports today that an 18th-century Italian manuscript has been stolen from an exhibit case at UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library. "A bound volume of documents from a collection about the politically powerful Orsini family of Rome was stolen sometime between the late afternoon of Feb. 9 and the morning of Feb. 12, according to police."
The 208-page manuscript, composed 1715-36, concerns the Orsini Palace in Rome. It was on display "in connection with an international scholarly conference ... 'The Orsini: A Roman Baronial Family in Context. Politics, Society and Art'" held 1-3 February.
UCLA acquired 540 boxes of Orsini-related material in 1964.
Nancy Greenstein, speaking for the UCLA police, told the paper "detectives were pursuing a few leads that she declined to discuss. She suggested that the thief probably had some familiarity with the volume." Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact UCLA police detectives at (310) 825-9371.
