Overview
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Vatican City
Vatican City
RVF, Triumphi + Mortis Ia, Fame Ia
Description
235x165 mm; I + 143 + I fols.
parchment; two scripts: one humanistic script pens the text and the commentary in the RVF and in the Triumphi; a hand in mercantesca pens a separate series of annotations in the Triumphi; for RVF, Petrarch’s poems set on left in a sequence of blocks, with commentary distributed in single column on right; for Triumphi, Petrarch’s poems set on left in a sequence of blocks, with first commentary distributed in single column on right and annotations distributed more irregularly on two to four sides of the fol.; decorated initials.
FRANCISCI PETRARCAE POETAE CLARISSIMI CARMEN RITHMONOS [sic] ELEGICVM IN LAVRAM FELICITER INCIPIT
fols 1r-105r: RVF with anonymous commentary and numerous gaps due to the loss of fols.; the sequence of poems is the following: 1-27.6, 94-209, 224-287, 292-366 with the addition of dispersa ‘Donna mi uien spesso nella mente’ at fol. 21r;
fol. 105r: colophon: AMEN;
fol. 105r-105v: scattered poems penned by another hand (‘Versi de le vertude ch[e] ha li Agnus dei fati p[er] man de la santitate del papa’): Pope Urban V’s Latin poem ‘Balsamus & munda ce[t]ra com [sic] crismatis onda’, hexameter: ‘Exurgens Kurum [sic] dux zephire flatibus equor’, tercet ‘Figliol mio no[n] taue[n]ga mai’, nine lines from [Fazio degli Uberti’s] Il Dittamondo ‘Questo uso & natura Ano i signori’, strambotto ‘Ognomo salegra & io pur se[m]pre pia[n]go’, sestina ‘Beato chi ben dice co[n] buone op[er]e’, tercet ‘Lomo no[n] de p[i]u dire io ma[n]zo & uiuo’);
fols. 106r-143r: Triumphi with anonymous annotations and commentary (order: Amoris I, Amoris III, Amoris IV, Amoris II, Pudicitie, Mortis I, Mortis Ia, Mortis II, Fame Ia, Fame I, Fame II, Fame III, Temporis; Eternitatis);
fol. 143r: colophon: FINIS;
fol. 143r: sonnet attributed to Petrarch [actually by Francesco di Vannozzo] ‘Sonetum euisdam [sic] contra ferarienses’; <inc> Non e uirtute doue e La fede rara);
fol. 143v: Latin poem (‘Verba francisci de g. Ad. [sic] A puella lepidis’; <inc> Angela bella puella candida).
Material Copy
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Vatican City
Vatican City
The commentary by the same hand that transcribed the text offers a summary of the content of the poems. The texts are introduced by third-person interventions related to Petrarch (e.g. ‘narra, ‘descrive, ‘parla’, ‘excusase’, ‘dice’, ‘mostra’, etc). Some other annotations in mercantesca are placed next to the lines glossed and are often introduced by ‘cioe’. When poems are considered easily accessible, they are followed by the phrase ‘Testuale’. The commentator also occasionally notes some rhetorical devices, such as ‘comperatione’. The annotations, which run from Triumphus Amoris I up to Triumphus Fame Ia, are composed of extensive prose blocks that provide a detailed explanation of the literal sense of the Triumphi, with a specific interest in their plot, in the interactions between characters, and in the references to classical mythology used by Petrarch.
Decorated initials in gold for RVF 1 and Triumphus Amoris I. At fol. 1r: at the bottom of the fol. two angels hold a blank tondo.
The bottom half of fol. 143 has been torn off.
Vattasso 1909, 95-97
***
Contò 1998, 105-15; Guerrini Ferri 1986a, 173; Guerrini Ferri 1986b, 20-21, 25; Guerrini Ferri 2006, 182, 203; Pulsoni 2007, 68, 80.