Overview
Bodleian Library
Oxford
United Kingdom
RVF, Triumphi + Mortis Ia and Fame Ia
Description
233x135 mm; I + VIII1 + 189 + I fols.
paper; humanistic script; Petrarch’s poems with one verse per line, with annotations irregularly distributed on the sides, and prose texts; one architectural frame and decorated initials.
<inc> Apie di colli oue
fol. I1r: shelfmark by a later hand;
fol. I1v: blank;
fols. II1r-VIII1r: alphabetical index of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance);
fol. VIII1v: blank;
fols. 1r-140r: RVF with annotations;
fol. 140r-140v: Petrarch’s note on Laura (<inc> Laura propriis uirtutibus illustris & meis longum celebrata carminibus; <exp> in spectatos exitus acriter ac uiriliter cogitanti);
fol. 140v: RVF 364 (already copied in the previous fols.), followed by an unnumbered fol. (in parchment);
fols. 141r-179r: Triumphi with annotations (order: Amoris I, Amoris III, Amoris IV, Amoris II, Pudicitie, Mortis Ia.1-21+3 lines (‘Ma quantunque al ualor Gloria conuenne | Valsero poco ala terrest[r]e gonna | Che suo natiua stella non sostenne’)+Mortis I, Mortis II, Fame Ia, Fama I, Fame II, Fame III, Temporis, Eternitatis);
fols. 179v-187v: [Sicco’s] Latin life of Petrarch (<inc> Franciscus petrarca Florentinus fuit: exul nanque patria natus est. cuius pater petrus petrarcon: mater Leta appelati [sic] sunt; <exp> Id tamen est suo ingenio ac diligentia assecutus: quod istis in studiis & sui & superioris temporis omnes ad multos annos quouis dicendi ingenere superauit);
fol. 187v: a free translation of a few sentences from Caesar’s De bello gallico I.1 (by the same hand, but in red ink) (<inc> La galia e diuisa in tre Parte: luna e da asquade a sequana & vocasi belgica: laltra da sequana a garona & chiamnasi celetica [sic] laltra da garona al Pireneo & chiamasi equitana; <exp> Da banda di tramontana ha ghebenna Monte Dala banda di leuante hae il Rodano: Da banda Meridiana hae locceano);
fols. 187v-188r: extract from Petrarch’s Latin letter to Giacomo Colonna (Fam. II.9) (‘Fragm[en]tum cui[us]dam ep[isto]le f[rancisci] p[etrarce] ad Jacobum de Colu[n]nensem ep[iscopu]m lomboriensem’, <inc> Quid ergo ais finxisse me mihi speriosam Laure; <exp> tibi pallor tibi labor meus notus est);
fol. 188r-189v: some numbers, scattered words, and two unrelated sentences by two later different hands.
Material Copy
Bodleian Library
Oxford
United Kingdom
Marginal annotations by at least three different hands include: addition of some missing lines; variant readings; paraphrases of some words; short summary of the content of some poems; content-based explanations and information related to geographical and historical names mentioned by Petrarch (mainly for Triumphus Amoris, Pudicitie, and Fame).
Within RVF, there is not an explicit division between poems ‘in vita’ and ‘in morte’, but, unlike the other poems, RVF 264 has a decorated initial in gold and this might contribute to signal the beginning of the second part of the RVF. Other evidence that signals the beginning of the poems ‘in morte’ (from RVF 268) is provided by the fact that every initial for RVF 268-365 is decorated with a little branch with dead leaves (along with other symbols and drawings), while initials for RVF 1-265 (and RVF 266, which is copied after RVF 129) are always decorated with a little branch with some green leaves (along with other illustrations); the initial for RVF 267 is, instead, the only one that is decorated with two leaves: one green and one dead. The author of this decoration is Antonio Grifo.
Decorated initials in gold for RVF 1 (fol. 1r), RVF 264 (fol. 97v), RVF 366 (fol. 137v), RVF 364 (fol. 140v), for the beginning of each Triumphus and each subsequent capitolo, and [Sicco’s] life of Petrarch (fol. 179v); decorated initials for all other RVF poems; at fol. 1r is an architectural frame with the coat of arms of a family linked to the Sforza family at the bottom of the fol.
Mann 1975, 402-05; Mortara 1864, 91; Pächt and Alexander, II, 57