Overview
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Florence
Italy
RVF, Triumphi + Mortis Ia, Fame Ia
Description
200x145 mm; II + 146 + II + I1 fols. with one quire of 2 fols. detached from the main codicological unit.
parchment (except quire I and paper flyleaves); semi-gothic hand; Petrarch’s poems with one verse per line with annotations distributed either on left or right in single and occasionally in double column or in interlinear position; decorated initials.
<inc> A qualunque a[n]i[m]ale
fols. 1r-3v: alphabetical index of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance) distributed in two columns;
fols. 4r-83r: RVF 1-263 with annotations;
fols. 83r-116v: RVF 264-366 with annotations;
fols. 117r-146v: Triumphi with annotations (order: Amoris I, Amoris III.1-186, Amoris IV, Pudicitie, Mortis I, Mortis Ia, Mortis II, Fame Ia, Amoris II, Fame I, Fame II, Fame III.1-120, Temporis, Eternitatis);
fol. 146v: colophon: Amen. Francisci petrarce Laureati poete triu[m]phus. vj. et ultimus explicit;
fols. Ir-IIv: blank;
fol. I1: autograph letter in German by C[arl] Appel, the editor of the Triumphi, dated 29 January 1930;
Quire 1:
fol. 1r-1v: printed description in German of the ms.;
fol. 2r: printed description in German of the ms. provided by Jacques Rosenthal, an antique dealer in Munich;
fol. 2v: blank.
Material Copy
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Florence
Italy
Both RVF and Triumphi are annotated, though the latter much more heavily so. These Latin annotations are by the same hand that transcribed the main text. In the RVF, these annotations either clarify circumlocutions (for RVF 27, fol. 8v: ‘Il soccessor di karlo: Rex francie’), but more often deal with historical content and illustrate the poet’s aim in the poem (for RVF 28, fol. 9r: ‘Extenta carmina inqua d[ominus] f[ranciscus] alliciendo laudat Jmp[er]atorem persuadendo sibi passagium et incipit ab a[n]i[m]a sua uocans ip[s]am beatam’). The historical focus is maintained in the Triumphi where the annotations provide biographical sketches of the historical and mythological figures mentioned. More concise annotations explain obscure passages or provide a Latin translation of some vernacular words (fol. 122r: ‘trasalse: ascendit’). Each capitolo of the Triumphi is introduced by a brief Latin foreword summarizing its content.
Decorated initials in gold for RVF 1 (fol. 4r), RVF 264 (fol. 83r), and Triumphus Amoris I (fol. 117r); smaller decorated initials in pen for each RVF poem and capitolo of the Triumphi; some maniculae. At the bottom of fol. 4r is an erased coat of arm.
Bertelli 2013, 314 (n. 11); Guerrini Ferri 2006, 182; Pasquini 1975, 224 (n. 1)