Overview
Biblioteca Casanatense
Rome
Italy
Triumphi + Mortis Ia, Fame Ia
Description
249x163 mm, 44 fols.
parchment; two scripts: humanistic script for main text, sixteenth-century hand for the other contents; Petrarch’s poems with one verse per line; decorated initials.
‘Trionfi del Petrarca’
fol. 1r: Triumphus Amoris I.1-21(‘Trionfi del Petrarca’);
fols. 1v-3v: [Alberto Orlandi’s] canzone on Triumphi (‘BEato ilprego tuo cortese e almo’);
fols. 4r-44r: Triumphi (order: Amoris I, Amoris III, Amoris IV, Amoris II, Pudicitie, Mortis I, Mortis II, Fame Ia, Fame I, Fame II, Fame III, Temporis, Eternitatis, Mortis Ia);
Other contents:
fol. 44r: series of anonymous annotations on events occurred in Rome between 1521 and 1532 (<inc> Ricordo come d[e]l mese di maio 1521 comi[nc]jo lapeste inRoma; <exp> Ricordo come adj 22 d[i] decembre 1532 unaltra riuolta [†††] ch[e] Roma dal teuer fu inu[n]data).
Material Copy
Biblioteca Casanatense
Rome
Italy
Orlandi’s canzone summarizes the content of the Triumphi. In the second stanza Orlandi states that he will illustrate the five subjects of Petrarch’s work (‘ti cantero lisuo [sic] cinq[ue] subiecti’). Precise references are made to Petrarch’s work, with a particular focus on the mythological figures (such as Jupiter, Mars, Proserpine) mentioned in the Triumphi.
Fol. 4r has a decorated border at the bottom with floral decorations, peacocks, and two angels, which hold a coat of arms and a cardinal’s cap. The coat of arms, representing two crossed swords on a blue background, belonged to cardinal Astorgio Agnesi. Since Agnesi died in 1451 and the decoration is an original part of the ms., we can date this ms. to the first half of the fifteenth century. Initials in gold for Orlandi’s canzone (fol. 1v) and Triumphus Amoris I (fol. 4r); each subsequent capitolo and Triumphus has a decorated initial in red and purple ink.
CPR, 167-68