Overview
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Vatican City
Vatican City
RVF 102, 105
Description
293x222 mm (fols. 114-123: 210x138 mm); II + 358 + I fols.
paper; seventeenth-century cursive hand by various hands; two layouts for commentary and lecture: single lines or small sections of Petrarch’s poems underlined and included in prose text of the commentary; single lines or small sections of Petrarch’s poems set in central blocks, with prose text of lecture distributed across the page beneath either every single line or section of text.
<inc> ‘Mai non uo più cantare’ Si come noi nell’egloghe Latine del Pet[rarca] (fol. 17r)
fols. 17r-21v: anonymous commentary on RVF 105 (<inc> ‘Mai non uo più cantare’ Si come noi nell’egloghe Latine del Pet[rarca] hauemo: poi che fù dimorato gra[n] tempo i[n] qu[est]o suo amore uide non poter fuggere [sic] alcun premio di tante sue fatiche, diuentò già uecchio; <exp> non dalla sensualità mosso li attribuisce al desiderar souerch[_] ‘32 che colpa è d[_] stelle o delle cose belle’ q[ue]l desiderio che p[ri]ma lo infiammaua, hora lo affrena perche diuenta casto, gl’affetti che attribuisce agl’occhi di L[aura] attribuisce al p[re]senteà se. ‘Non ueggio’ Il poet);
fol. 114r-114v: blank;
fols. 115r-123r: anonymous academic lecture on RVF 102 (<inc> Gran pensieri et diuersi (nobilissi[mi] ascoltatori) m’hanno combattuta la mente per ch’io sia salito in q[ues]to luogo, p[_]he dall’una par[_] considerando che qui non sagliono senon g[_] di ualore, scrittori, et ornati di tutti libri belli et gentili; <exp> ricorsi di lontano ad un essempio di m[esse]r Cino da Pistoia mostrando \ poco conuenirmi \ di non hauere mai auertito nel P[etrarca] et qui facendo fine di noiare più longam[ent]e l’orecchie ui rendo a tutti quelli maggiori gratie ch’io posso della cortesiss[im]a audienza che m’hauete prestata);
fol. 123v: blank;
Other contents:
The ms. contains numerous Latin and vernacular works, mostly anonymous, on diverse topics. In addition to writings on literary criticism (fols. 13r-15v: ‘Critica d’Alcune Commedie dell’Intronato’), the ms. includes works on philosophical matters (fols. 101r-113v: Alessandro Scotto’s ‘ORATIO DE PERFECTI PH[ILOSOPH]I IDEA E[T] OP[ERI]BVS QVIBUS AD EAM PERVENIATUR’; fols. 138r-140r: ‘De comparatio[ne] Platonis at Aristotelis. Lectio’), on numismatics (fols. 80r-84v: Bernardo Davanzati’s ‘Lezione di Bernardo Dauanzati sopra Le monete. Stampata già suoi opuscoli’), on law (fols. 169r-190r: ‘Disputatio utru[m] iudex delegatus sit maior iud[ic]e ordinario’), on art history (fols. 22r-23v: biographical sketches on famous artists), and literary works (fols. 194r-288r: Raffaele Maffei’s Agnese: ‘L’Agnese Rappresentazione delsig[no]r Proued[ittor]e Raffaello Maffei recitata in Volterra l’anno 16 [sic] e copiata da Benedett[_] Lisci l’anno 1645’; fols. 330r-336r: Latin fragments from Homer’s Odyssey ‘Ex Homeri Odyssea’). For a detailed list of works and incipits, see Cozzo 1897, 230-33.
Material Copy
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Vatican City
Vatican City
The commentary illustrates and contextualises RVF 105. The author both focuses on the literal sense of Petrarch’s lines, and discusses how Petrarch’s feelings evolve within the RVF. Much attention is given to clarifying single words and expressions: e.g. ‘altero: ch[e] si leua da cose uili, e basse, come passa qu[est]o termine diuenta sup[er]bo’ (fol. 18v).
The anonymous lecture is divided into two parts. The first part demonstrates that this is a correspondence sonnet in response to Antonio da Ferrara’s ‘Cesare poi che riceue il presente’. The second part rejects four criticisms elaborated by some unidentified ‘spositori’, namely: 1) that the historical examples listed by Petrarch do not correspond with his own feelings; 2) that there might be a contradiction between this sonnet and RVF 35; 3) that Petrarch could find other ways to hide his feelings; 4) that the depiction of Caesar contrasts with other depictions of him in Petrarch’s works.
Cozzo 1897, 230-33; Vattasso 1909, 245-46