Overview
Biblioteca pubblica Passerini-Landi
Piacenza
Italy
RVF, Triumphi + Mortis Ia, Fame Ia
Description
287x203 mm; I + 169 + II fols.
paper; humanistic script; Petrarch’s poems with one verse per line with annotations distributed in single (or more rarely double) column on right and prose text.
<inc> Didi un di uo cangiando il uiso el pelo
fols. 1r-4v: incomplete alphabetical index (letters D to Q) of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance);
fols. 5r-97v: RVF 1-263;
fols. 98r-169v: RVF 264-366;
fol. 169v: colophon: FINIS. Exlicit [sic] uulgareto carmen d[o]m[ini] francisci petrarche d[e] morte p[re]dilecte sue d[o]m[ine] Laure quam an[n]os decem post eius obitum deplorauit;
fol. 140r: Petrarch’s note on Laura (‘Dominus francischui petrarcae p[re]dilecte sue epilogon siue argumentu[m] co[m]posuit ut infra uidelicetu[r]’; <inc> Laura proprijs uirtutibus illustri[s] et meis longu[m] celebrata carminibu[s]; <exp> inexpectatos exitus acriter ac uiriliter cogitanti);
fol. 140r-140v: excerpt from Petrarch’s Epystole III.24 (‘Idem d[omini] f[rancisci] p[etrarce] cum primum uidit Italia[m] exauinione recedens hanc salutationem ip[s]i Italie fecit in carminibus. ui[delicet]’; <inc> Salue cara deo tellus sanctissima salue; <exp> Salue sancta parens, terrarum, Gloria salue);
fol. 140v: three-line Latin epitaph for Petrarch (‘Epitaphium d[omini] francisci petrarce’; <inc> Frigida francisci lapis hic tegit ossa petrarce);
fol. 140v: single stanza of a canzone by anonymous author in praise of Filippo Maria Visconti (‘Moueti ormai o desiato sposo’);
fols. 141r-167v: Triumphi with Latin annotations (order: Amoris I, Amoris III, Amoris IV, Pudicitie, Mortis I, Mortis Ia, Mortis II, Fame Ia, Amoris II, Fame I, Fame II.1-135, Fame III.43-121, Temporis, Eternitatis 1-132);
fol. Ir: description of the codex and its content penned by a librarian.
Material Copy
Biblioteca pubblica Passerini-Landi
Piacenza
Italy
In addition to references to historical and mythological names, the annotations include: 1) brief forewords to capitoli in the Triumphi, mostly indicating their content; 2) explanations of obscure passages (often introduced by the formula ‘hic loquitur de’); 3) biographical sketches of historical and mythological figures quoted; 4) references to relevant authorities on the events and figures quoted by Petrarch (e.g. for Triumphus Amoris III.82-84, the annotator recalls Dante’s Commedia: ‘francisca et paulus de quibus dantes’, fol. 147r). When the anonymous annotator uses the two-column layout, concise annotations are placed in the left-hand column. A few occasional marginal annotations are also found next to the lines of some RVF poems. These annotations copy historical and mythological names, and, in a few cases, provide basic information on the poem (e.g. for RVF 136, the annotator writes ‘hic loqu[e]rat de curia romana’).
The distinction between the first and second part of RVF is indicated by a larger initial for RVF 264.
At fol. 1r, the first five lines of the index are written by another cursive hand and start with ‘Di te[m]po in te[m]po mi si fa men dura’. Two fols. are missing: the former between fols. 164 and 165, presumably with Triumphus Fame II.136-163, Fame III.1-42, and the latter after fol. 169, with the ending of Triumphus Eternitatis; few maniculae. Between the cover and the initial flyleaf is an extract of a print with the title ‘Lettera di Annibal Caro, scritta al signor Bernardo Spina’; the date of the print in the colophon is 1764. Between fol. 169 and the first final flyleaf is a flying leaf with a copy of the anonymous canzone ‘Moueti ormai o desiato sposo’ penned by a later hand.
Balsamo 1910, 21-22