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[RVF 1-71 with Filelfo’s commentary and Triumphi with Pseudo-Filelfo’s commentary]

Overview

Current Location

Kupferstichkabinett library
Berlin
Germany

Shelfmark
78 D 11
Date
second half of the fifteenth century
Related to Petrarch's

RVF 1-71 and Triumphus Amoris I, III.1-109 + IV.10-102, Pudicitie, Mortis I.19-120, Mortis II, Amoris II, Fame I, Fame II, Fame III, Temporis, Eternitatis + Fame Ia, Mortis Ia

Description

Physical Description: Format

343x238 mm; II + 218 + II fols.

Physical Description: Textblock

parchment; humanistic script; two layouts: Petrarch’s poems set on left in small blocks, with commentary distributed across the page beneath each block, or single lines or small sections of Petrarch’s poems in red ink inserted in the prose text of commentary; seven rectangular-box illuminations, one medallion illumination, seven architectural frames; historiated and decorated initials.

Visual Elements
Title Page

‘INCOMINCIA EL LIBRO DE SONETTI ET CANCIONE DE MISERE FRANCESCO PETRARCHA’

Internal Description

fols. 1r-83r: RVF 1-71 with Francesco Filelfo’s commentary (‘INCOMINCIA EL LIBRO DE SONETTI ET CANCIONE DE MISERE FRANCESCO PETRARCHA POETA FIORENTINO COL COMENTO SOPRA DE MISERE FRANCESCO PHILELFO POETA’; <inc of commentary – after RVF 1> ‘Voi che ascoltate in rima sparse il sono’. QVANTVNQUE EL PRESENTE SONETTO FOSSE DE MISERE FRANCESCHO PETRARCHA IN QVESTA LEGIADRA ET SOAVISSIMA opera in luogho di prefatione collocato non fu pero el primo che lui facesse ma lultimo di tutti; <exp> Il perche dice che gli pia[n]ti glinterrompono gli suoi spiriti accesi per iocondita: et poi pensa pur de suoi affanni);
 
fol. 83r: colophon: FINISSE IL COMENTO DI MISERE FRANCESCO PHILELPHO POETA ILLVSTRE SOPRA LE CANZONI ET SONETTI DI MISERE FRANCESCO PETRARCHA FIORINTINO POETA INAMORATISSIMO;
 
fol. 83v: blank;
 
fol. 84r-87r: Leonardo Bruni’s life of Petrarch (‘INCOMINCIA LA VITA DI MISERE FRANCESCO PETRARCHA POETA FIORINTINO COMPOSTA PER LO FAMOSISSIMO ET ELOQVENTISSIMO ORATORE MISERE LEONARDO DAREÇÇO. INCIPIT FELICITER’; <inc> FRANCESCHO PEtrarcha huomo di grande ingegno: et non di minore uirtu; <exp> maxime perche la uirtu e certa et la corona tal uolta per lieue giudicio: cosi ad chi merita come ad chi non merita dare sipuo);
 
fol. 87r: colophon: FINIS. FINISSE LA VITA DI MISERE FRANCESCHO PETRARCHA POETA FIORINTINO. SEGVITA EL COMENTO SOPRA GLI TRIOMPHI;
 
fols. 87v-88r: blank;
 
fols. 88v: a short summary of the Triumphi in Latin: ‘AMOR VINCIT MVNDVM PVDICITIA VINCIT AMOREM . . . AETERNITAS O-M-NIA VINC-I-T’;
 
fol. 89r: introductory paragraph to [Pseudo-Filelfo’s] commentary (<inc> Incomincia el libro chiamato triumpho damore facto et composto dallo excellentissimo et summo poeta Misere francescho Petrarcha fiorentino; <exp> ciaschuno sottomettendosi al giogho damore et transformandosi in quella cosa la quale piu amo mentre uisse);
 
fol. 89r-89v: [Pseudo-Filelfo’s] prologue to his commentary (<inc> Lo primo triompho o uero felicita fu in hauere possessione o uero contentamento in amore de sua donna I-N-A-M-ORATA; <exp> sara poi ad uederla nel cielo glorificata: quasi uoglia dire lingua humana non e sofficiente a dirlo);
 
fols. 89v-218v: Triumphus Amoris I, Amoris III.1-109 + IV.10-102, Pudicitie, Mortis I.19-120, Mortis II, Fame Ia, Amoris II, Fame I, Fame II, Fame III, Temporis, Mortis Ia, Eternitatis with [Pseudo-Filelfo’s] commentary (<inc> ‘Nel tempo che rinoua i mei sosPIRI’ CIRCA el principio de questo primo capitolo e da notare che lauctore secundo che lui scriue in uno de suoi sonetti il quale comincia; <exp> la quale beatitudine no[n] solamente fa de belli bellissimi ma etiamdio gli brutti faria auançare di bellege tutte le belleçe mondane);
 
fol. 218v: Petrarch’s note on Laura (‘Verba d[omi]ni francisci Petrarce’; <inc> LAVREA [sic] proprijs uirtutib[us] illustris et meis lo[n]gu[m] celebrata carminib[us]; <exp> inexpectatos exitus acriter ac uiriliter cogitanti) followed by a brief note on the birth of Giulio Cesare Caracciolo in 1569 penned by another hand.

Material Copy

Location

Kupferstichkabinett library
Berlin
Germany

Shelfmark
78 D 11
Copy seen by
Lorenzo
Sacchini
Notes

Next to the prose text of the commentary are some occasional annotations in red ink, by the same hand who transcribed the main text, copying the names of authors quoted by Filelfo or those of the mythological and historical figures mentioned in Petrarch’s text.

Fol. 1r has a rich architectural frame with cupids, small medallion portraits in the left, top, and right border, and a coat of arms of the Aragonese family at the bottom of the fol.; below the title is a historiated initial representing a woman (likely Laura) pierced by an arrow giving her hand to a small white animal (likely a dog). Triumphus Amoris I (fol. 89r), Triumphus Pudicitie (fol. 110r), Triumphus Mortis I (fol. 116r), Triumphus Fame I (fol. 132r), Triumphus Temporis (fol. 204r), and Triumphus Eternitatis (fol. 211v) have a rich architectural frame with cupids, small medallion portraits, animals (small devils for Triumphus Eternitatis), and a rectangular-box illumination. Triumphus Amoris II at fol. 170r has a rectangular-box illumination representing Scipio Africanus and Sophonisba and a medallion illumination representing a man lying down and dressed in blue. Fols. 181v, 129r, 197v, 210v have historiated initials. Several initials in gold throughout the ms. The decorative apparatus is due to the Neapolitan illuminator Cola Rubicano (Wescher 1931, 84).

Bibliography

Sottili, II, 675-677
 
***
 
Bessi 1987; Marcelli 2015; Wescher 1931, 84-86