Overview
Bodleian Library
Oxford
United Kingdom
RVF, Triumphi + Mortis Ia and Fame Ia
Description
245x180 mm; II + 200 + III fols.
parchment; humanistic script; Petrarch’s poems with one verse per line and prose texts; one architectural frame, historiated and decorated initials.
<inc> Francisci Petrarcae poetae clarissimi carmen rithimonos [sic] elegicum in Lauram feliciter incipit
fols. 1r-101r: RVF 1-263 (‘Francisci Petrarcae poetae clarissimi carmen rithimonos [sic] elegicum in Lauram feliciter incipit’);
fols. 101v-142v: RVF 264-366 (‘Que sequuntur post mortem domine Lauree scripta sunt. Ita enim proprio codice domini francisci annotatum est et charte quatuor pretermisse uacuae’);
fol. 142v: colophon: Deo gratias;
fol. 143r: Petrarch’s note on Laura (‘Scriptum manu propria domini F[rancisci] P[etrarcae] in quodam eius Virgilio uisum est’, <inc> Laura propriis uirtutibus illustris et meis longum celebrata carminibus; <exp> in spectatos exitus acriter ac uiriliter cogitanti);
fol. 143v: blank;
fols. 144r-181v: Triumphi (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);
fols. 182r-188r: [Sicco’s] Latin life of Petrarch (‘D[omini] F[rancisci] P[etrarcae] Poetae clarissimi uita feliciter incipit’, <inc> Franciscus Petrarcha flore[n]tinus fuit exulnanque patria natus est cuius Pater Petrus petrarcon. Mater Leta appellati sunt; <exp> id tamen est suo ingenio ac deligentia assecutus quod istis in studijs et sui et superioris temporis omnes ad multo [sic] annos quo uis dicendi ingenere superauit);
fol. 188r: colophon: finis. Sit laus christo omnipotenti deo;
fols. 188v-190r: RVF 1 with [Pseudo-Antonio da Tempo’s] commentary (<inc of commentary> Questo sonecto de tutti glialtri seguenti e prohemio como apertamente si uede nel quale lautore uolendo la continentia el titulo del suo libro explicare como nel principio dogniopera far si suole insieme gli agiunge la excusatione sua; <exp of commentary> cosi queste mondane uoluptate che sono false et uane i[n] aparentia per contemplatione de quelle celeste che cu[m] lo intelecto dello animo se contemplano);
fol. 190v: a list of the names of the Muses, Nymphs, six ages of man, Fates, and Furies;
fol. 191r: [Pseudo-Petrarch’s Versus de Musis] nine-line Latin poem (‘D[omini] F[rancisci] P[etrarcae] Nomina Musarum’, <inc> Primum scire cupit fame dulcedine Clio; <exp> Caliope Regina sonat concepta sonore);
fol. 191r: Dante’s sonnet [Rime 79] (‘Dantis quid sit Amor’, <inc> Molti uolendo dir chi fusse Amore);
fols. 191v-192v: poem of twenty quatrains concerning illustrious Romans (‘Sola facit uirtus hominem generosa beatum’, <inc> Octauiano sonto [sic] chi[m]petraua interra; <exp> Magnanimo fui cortese et valente);
fols. 193r-199v: alphabetical index of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance);
fols. 199v-200r: an excerpt from Petrarch’s Africa [VI.885-918] (‘Oratio hac in Africa d[omini] F[rancisci] P[etrarcae] et fuit Magonis fratris Hannibalis qui tempore belli punici secundi, dum in liguribus bellum geretet fuit apud genuam vulneratus et in Africa rediens dum esset apud Sardiniam uicinis morti sic loquus [sic] est. In fine VI. Libiae Africae’);
fol. 200r: colophon: finis;
fol. 200v: blank.
Material Copy
Bodleian Library
Oxford
United Kingdom
Historiated initial for RVF 1 (fol. 1r); decorated initials for RVF 264 (fol. 101v), every first capitolo of each Triumphus (fols. 144r, 156v, 160r, 169v, 176v, 179r), and Sicco’s life of Petrarch (fol. 182r); at fol. 1r is an architectural frame (with geometrical decorations and two medallions [one with the portrait of Laura, on the right side; and one with a book sealed with a chain, at the bottom]).
The anonymous copyist of this ms. transcribed also two other Petrarchan mss.: London, British Library, Harley 3442 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canonici Ital. 76 (see Mann 1975, 409).
Mann 1975, 395-99; Mortara 1864, 88-90; Pächt and Alexander, II, 41; Italian Illuminated Manuscripts, 13