Overview
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Florence
Italy
RVF, Triumphi + Fame Ia
Description
240x150 mm; I + 191 + I fols.
parchment; humanistic script (except fol. 2r: cursive humanistic script); Petrarch’s poems with one verse per line and prose text; seven architectural frames; historiated and decorated letters.
‘Ex Virgilio petrarce Manu propria scripto qui e[st] i[n]castro papiensi’ (fol. 2r)
fol. 1r: blank;
fol. 1v: scattered pencil notes by a librarian;
fol. 2r: Petrarch’s note on Laura (‘Ex Virgilio petrarce Manu propria scripto qui e[st] i[n]castro papiensi’; <inc> Laurea proprijs uirtutibus & meis longum celebrata carminibus; <exp> & expectatos exitus acriter ac uiriliter cogitantj);
followed by a date: ‘Ex cast[r]o papie die . v . augustj McccLviJ’;
fol. 2v: blank;
fols. 3r-10r: alphabetical index of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance) (‘FRANCISCI PETRARCE POETAE CLARISSIMI CANTILENARVM QVE THABULA . PER . APLHABETHVM CONPOSITHA INCIPIT: FELICITER’);
fols. 10v-150v: RVF (‘FRANCISCI. PETRARCE. POETA [sic] CLARISSIMI. SONITIORVM. CANTILENARVMQVE. LIBER. FELICITER: INCIPIT’);
fol. 151r-151v: blank;
fols. 152r-190v: Triumphi (‘FRANCISCI: PETRARCE. POETAE. CLARISSIMI. TRIVMPHORVM. LIBER. ET. PRIMO: PARS. PRIMA. DE AMORE. FELICITER: INCIPIT OMNIA: VINCIT AMOR’; order: Amoris I, Amoris III, Amoris IV, Amoris II, Pudicitie, Mortis I, Mortis II, Fame Ia, Fame I, Fame II, Fame III, Temporis, Eternitatis);
fol. 191r-191v: blank.
Material Copy
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Florence
Italy
The iconographical apparatus of the ms. is particularly rich. At fol. 10v is a laurel-wreath tondo coloured in blue containing the title of the RVF written in gold ink. At fol. 11r is a rich architectural frame with vine-stem decoration, animals, and a female figure (presumably Laura) in the right border; at the bottom of the fol. is a coat of arms of the Albizzi family. At fol. 11r is also a historiated initial for RVF 1, representing Petrarch crowned with a laurel-wreath dressed in a pink habit holding a closed book. Similarly, the beginning of each Triumphus is decorated with an architectural frame and a historiated letter (fols. 152r, 164v, 168r, 177v, 185r, 187v) representing the subject of the Triumphus (for instance, the historiated initial for Triumphus Amoris shows a cupid shooting an arrow). Decorated initials in gold for each RVF poem and capitolo of the Triumphi. According to Labriola (2012, 87-88), the illumination of the ms. is due to Mariano del Buono and dates 1460-1465.
De la Mare (1985, I, 487) identifies Antonio Sinisbaldi as the copyist of the ms.
BML Mostra, 70; Cat.Ashb., n° 845; Codici Ashb., 23; CLP-Fi, 113-15, 117, 122
***
Booton 1993-1996, 63 (n. 9); De la Mare 1985, I, 487; Duperray 1995, 32, 48; Galizzi 2004; Guerrini Ferri 1986a, 165; Guerrini Ferri 2006, 183; Labriola 2012, 87-88 (n. 45); Pasquini 1975, 224 (n. 1), 228 (n. 1); Savino-Ceccanti 1990-1991, 77 (n. 21); Trapp 1992-1993, 16 (n. 20), 50 (n. 168)