Overview
Biblioteca Jacobilli
Foligno
Italy
RVF 52, 54, 104, 360
Description
280x200 mm; 89 fols. (foliation has been put into square brackets for unnumbered fols.).
paper; sixteenth-century script; single lines or small sections of Petrarch’s poems set on left, with prose text of lectures distributed across the page beneath either every single line or section of text; in the second, third, and fourth lectures, small sections of Petrarch’s poems are inserted in capital letters in the text of the lecture.
‘Espositione \ sopra \ el Sonetto L’aspettata uirtu che ’n uoi fioriua’ (fol. [62r])
fols. [61r]-[61v]: parchment cover of the quire;
fols. [62r]-[65v]: Petronio Barbati’s lecture on RVF 104 (‘Espositione \ sopra \ el Sonetto L’aspettata uirtu che ’n uoi fioriua’; <inc> Questo nobiliss[im]o et perfettiss[im]o Animale creato dall’ottimo Dio mass[im]o a sua sembianza, R[eueren]do S[ignor] Priore et Voi nobiliss[im]i et honoratiss[im]i Auditori, chiamato huomo, Fu composto di due parti contrarie, cioè di materia, et di forma; <exp> faro fine alla espositione del presente sonetto Ringraziando humilissimam[ente] Le cortesie u[ost]re. [†††] e no[n] solo le prego mi uogliano scusare doue hauesse mancato in negligenza ma p[er] donarmi doue hauessei sp[††]to p[er] ignoranza);
fol. [66r]-[66v]: blank;
fols. [67r]-[68v]: Barbati’s lecture on RVF 52 (‘Espositione sopra il Madrigale Non al suo amante piu Diana piacque’; <inc> Dolce e solazzeuole gioiueuole molto alle uolte suole essere il tramettere in mezzo de iseruilissimi studij qualche cosa solazzeuole et allegra; <exp> p[er] darui alquanto di solazzo et piacere a Laude d’Iddio altissimo che sempre ui mantenga in stato felice);
fols. [69r]-[72v]: Barbati’s lecture on RVF 54 (‘Espositione sopra il Madriale Perch’al uiso d’amor portaua insegna’; <inc> R[everen]do Priore et uoi Nobiliss[imi] et cortesi Auditori Essendo l’huomo composto come dissi l’altro giorno composto di ragione e di senso potenze al tutto contrarie e inimiche; <exp> alla mia ignoranza maggior cagione di tutto [—] cosi hauemo spedito il presente madrigale a laude dell’altissimo et onnipotente Dio);
fols. [73r]-[84v]: Barbati’s lecture on RVF 360 (‘Espositione sopra la Canzone del Petrarcha Quel’antico mio dolce empio signore’; <inc> Egli è Certo grauiss[imo] peso \ questo da uoi \ Nobilissi[ima] Schiera mi fu e stato imposto: che io debba leggere et isporre la presente Canzone dell’Ecc[ellen]ti[ssimo] m[esser] fran[esc]o petr[arca]; <exp> porta distinte le due accuse in spetie proposte in genere nella stanza precedente cio e dell’ingan[n]o et dell’ingratitudine et rendendo gratie al sommo creatore facimo fine p[er] oggi alauda sua);
fol. [85r]-[85v]: parchment cover of the quire;
Other contents:
fols. 1r-12v: Barbati’s letters to Lodovico Domenichi, Laura Terracina, Benedetto Varchi, Angelo Albertoni, Ludovico Dolce, Alessandro Gentili, Bernardo Tasso, Bernardo Cappello, Gerolamo Fabrio, Censorio Martiale, Dionigi Atanagi, Claudio Tolomei, Annibal Caro, Monsignor of Cursula, Fra. Gio. Matteo Barimino, Alessandro Piccolomini, Pier Matteo Vanni, Anibal Tosco, bishop of Pescara-Penne, Ercole Barbarasa;
fols. 13-60v: letters addressed to Barbati by Francesco Torello, Benedetto Varchi, Giovanni Paolo Amanio, Claudio Tolomei, Pompeo Pellini, Annibal Caro, Lodovico Domenichi, Cinzio Clavario, Alessandro Piccolomini, Dionigi Atanagi, Girolamo Ruscelli;
fols. 87r-90r (of smaller format: 210x140): one of Iacopo Marmitta’s canzoni (‘Di M[esser] Iac[opo] Marmitta – by another hand: da Parma E instampa nel libro d’altre sue Rime’; <inc> Ben ueggio Donna homai, che più non sono);
fol. 90v: blank.
Material Copy
Biblioteca Jacobilli
Foligno
Italy
Barbati’s first, third, and fourth lectures move from the assumption that Petrarch was a poet as much as a philosopher (‘no[n] meno filosofo ch[e] poeta’). The first lecture on RVF 104 is conceived as an exposition aimed at inviting listeners to pursue the study of literature (‘studio delle belle lettere’), which is also the subject of Petrarch’s sonnet in Barbati’s opinion. He relies mostly on Platonic theories derived by way of Cicero. In the third lecture, Barbati reads Petrarch’s madrigal as an example of submission of the senses to reason. The fourth lecture explores the various forms of love and provides more developed (in comparison to other lectures by Barbati) stylistic observations on the canzone examined. In analysing its subject, he combines Platonic and Aristotelian theories and deals with the virtues and effects of love. By contrast, the second lecture is conceived, in accordance with the status and subject of the madrigal, as a pleasant break from the seriousness of studying literature. Barbati argues that this madrigal is addressed to Laura (and not to an unknown shepherdess) dressed as a shepherdess. All these lectures have two common elements: 1) a definition of the metrical form (sonnet, madrigal, and canzone respectively) adopted by Petrarch, with a focus on its metrical aspects; 2) a line-by-line explanation of the literal sense of the poem.
Mazzatinti LXI, 60