Overview
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
Venice
Italy
RVF and Triumphi
Description
280×220 mm; II + 165 (numbered at both recto and verso as I-VI, 3-308) + II fols.
paper; sixteenth-century cursive hand; single lines or small sections of Petrarch’s poems set on left, with Latin commentary (alternated with small sections in vernacular), distributed across the page beneath either every single line or section of text; two portraits.
Annotationi breuissime, soura le rime | di M[esser] F[rancesco] P[etrarca] le quali contengono molte cose, | à proposito di ragion ciuile, sendo stata la | di lui prima profissione, à beneficio de li | studiosi, hora date i[n] luce, co[n] la traduttio- | ne della Canzona chiare fresche & dolc’- | acque. Italia mia. Vergine bella. et d[e]l so- | netto. Q[ua]n[do] veggio dal ciel scender l’aurora. In latino.
fols. IIIv-IVv: address to readers (‘A li lettori’; <inc> Si come Virgilio lume & splendore della lingua latina; <exp> (come Horatio dice de gli esemplari grechi) di giorno & di note habbiatelo pronto & alle mani s[e]mp[re]);
fol. IVv: few lines beneath the text, probably conceived as colophon: Socrate a Platone. Nel phaedro. A quocumq[ue] discendum, tametsi quercus ip[s]a loquatur;
fol. Vr: prose text on Petrarch’s death taken from a chronicle composed in Padua (‘Memoria cauata da una chronica di padova’; <inc> Negli an[n]i del n[ost]ro s[ignor] Iesu christo M ccclxxiii; <exp> doppo la morte di detto M[esser] Francesco P[etrarca] trovossi hauer composti molti libbri, quali poi furono dati in luce & publicati);
fol. Vv: blank;
fol. VIr: Petrarch’s note on Laura (‘Poeta med. Lo istesso poeta.’ <inc> Laura, propriis uirtutibus illustris; <exp> acriter ac uiliter cogitanti);
fol. VIr: blank;
fols. 3-134: RVF 1-128 with commentary (‘Annotationi breuissime, soura le rime di M[esser] F[rancesco] P[etrarca] le quali contengono molte cose, à proposito di ragio[n] ciuile, sendo stata la di lui prima profissione , à beneficio de li studiosi, hora date i[n] luce, co[n] la traduttione d[e]lla Canzona. Chiare fresche e dolc’acque. Italia mia. Vergine bella. et del sonetto. Quando veggio dal ciel scender l’aurora. In latino’; <inc of commentary> Libbro primo. Sonetto primo proemiale; <exp of commentary> Augentibus propositiq[ue] firmitatem, arguentibus ut dicu[n]t et[iam] nostri L. Batista ff. ad treb.);
fol. 134: short introductory paragraph to Pietro Amato’s Latin translation of RVF 128;
fols. 134-139: Pietro Amato’s Latin translation of RVF 128 (<inc> Letales ut cu[m]q[ue] tuo sint corpore clades; <exp> pace[m] Palladie, pace[m] resonante camaenae);
fols. 139-285: RVF 129-366 with commentary (<inc of commentary> Virg. Hinc metunt, cupiu[n]t, dolent[que], gaudent[que]; <exp of commentary> sic uolat herodius inquit P[etrarca] met noster, ut uitae n[o]st[rae] dies);
fol. 285: short introductory paragraph to Pietro Amato’s Latin translation of RVF 366;
fols. 285-290: Pietro Amato’s Latin translation of RVF 366 (<inc> Virgo quae solis radians amictu[m]; <exp> exua[m] ut quando in numeru[m] cooptet | pace locatum);
fols. 290-308: commentary to few lines or segments of lines from Triumphi: (<inc of commentary> totu[m] hoc carmen q[u]i[a] inornatu[m] est; <exp of commentary> quanto magis. ff. de iureiu. egli in questo caso sarà beatissimo);
fol 309: blank;
fol. 310: list of errata (‘Errori di stampa’);
fol. 311: blank.
Material Copy
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
Venice
Italy
There are multiple Latin and Italian marginal annotations by the same hand that transcribed the text. These notes include additions and corrections to both commentary and (more rarely) Petrarch’s poems. Between fols. 14 and 15: one unnumbered folio with commentary on RVF 22 (‘Sestina, a qualunque animale’: <inc of commentary>: quiui assolutamente parlando il P[etrarca] intende; <exp of commentary> che questa sua dolc’alba di Laura, arriui al Sole del suo Amore); between fols. 121 and 122: two unnumbered folios (a, b): fol. ar: twenty misplaced lines of Marco Antonio Flaminio’s Latin translation of RVF 126 (<inc> Sic et grata proteruitas; <exp> Unqua[m] sede quisquam; the last line is followed by a brief note in Italian: ‘e Canzone in q[ue]lla parte’);
fol. av: blank;
fol. br-bv: lines 1-64 of Flaminio’s Latin translation of RVF 126 (‘Tanto piacque la presente canzonetta, e di lei s’inuagio tanto, sendo in uita il Flamminio, che fu forzato di lingua italiana tradurla i[n] latina. però no[n] tanto ne è ella da lodare, sendo di M[esser] F[rancesco] P[etrarca] thoscana, quanto da ammirare questa del fla[m]minio latina, ch[e] così canta’; <inc of translation> O fons Gargaphie sacer; <exp of translation> certe sanguinis una est); between fols. 247-248: one unnumbered folio: Marcantonio Luigini’s Latin poem (<inc> Diua, quae nobis croceis rubente[m]; <exp> Riccius docti senior uocabit | Carmine Plectri); between fols. 285 and 286: two unnumbered folios: commentary on RVF 366 (<inc of commentary> Aporalis p[er] signum magnum apparuit; <exp> ‘Miserere di me gridano à lui | Miserere d’un cor contrito humile’).
The title page, dated 1566, serves the function of a title-page in print. The place is shown as the name of the author (‘Mantoua’ for the Italian city Mantua). This manuscript is presumably a preparatory copy for the work, which was printed in 1566: Marco Mantova Benavides, Annotationi brevissime, sovra le rime di Messer Francesco Petrarca (Padua: Lorenzo Pasquale).
On the top of the title page, there are two medallion portraits of Laura and Petrarch facing each other; beneath Laura’s portrait, there is a dedication to Laura Terracina inscribed in a circle shape (‘Alla Virtuosissima S[ignora] Laura Terracina Napoletana’); beneath Petrarch’s portrait, there is a dedication to Giovanni Bernardino Bonifacio, marchese d’Oria, inscribed in a rectangular shape: ‘All’illustrissimo Marchese d’Oria’.
Iter, II, 275a
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Kirkham 2011; Tomasi 2015