Overview
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Florence
Italy
RVF, Triumphi + Mortis Ia, Fame Ia
Description
243x165 mm; III + 184 + III fols. with two quires (I and II) of respectively 1 and 2 fols. detached from the main codicological unit.
parchment (except quires I and II and paper flyleaves); cursive humanistic script; Petrarch’s poems with one verse per line; three architectural frames; two portraits; historiated initials.
‘TAVOLA’ (fol. 2r)
fols. 1r: title page by an eighteenth-century hand: I SONETTI, | CANZONI, | E TRIONFI | DI MESSER | FRANCESCO PETRARCA. | [coat of arms of Menabuoni family] | Antonio Sinibaldi lo copiò diligentemente da | un MS. del tempo dell’Autore | l’anno 1406;
fol. 1v: blank;
fols. 2r-7v: alphabetical index of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance) (‘TAVOLA’);
fol. 7v: colophon: FINISCE LA TAVOLA DE SONETTI CANZONI E TRIONFI DI MESSER FRANCESCO PETRARCA; followed by a note by a eighteenth-century hand on the restoration work carried out on the ms. (‘G.G.M. Menabuoni Fiorentino comprò questo Ms. in Francia, e lo fece restaurare l’anno 1746’);
fols. 8r-104r: RVF 1-263;
fol. 104r: colophon: FINIS VITE VETERIS;
fol. 104v: blank;
fols. 105r-146r: RVF 264-366;
fol. 146r: colophon: FINITA LANOTTE DELLAVITA;
fol. 146v: blank;
fols. 147r-184r: Triumphi (order: Mortis II, Fame Ia, Amoris II, Amoris I, Amoris III.1-186, Amoris IV, Pudicitie, Mortis Ia, Mortis I, Fame I, Fame II, Fame III, Temporis, Eternitatis);
fol. 184r: colophon: FINITI ITRIVNFI DIMESSER FRANCESCHO PETRARCA POETA FIORENTINO;
Quire I:
fol. 1r: RVF 1, 2 penned by a late cursive hand;
fol. 1v-2r: blank;
fol. 2v: incomplete alphabetical index (V to Z) of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance) penned by a late cursive hand;
Quire II:
fol. 1r: printed portrait of Laura by engraver Etienne Desrochers taken from a printed edition;
fol. 1v: blank;
Other contents:
fol. 184r-184v: Latin poem on a religious topic attributed to Reginaldus from Oxford and penned by a presumably sixteenth-century hand (‘Ex libro proficiaru[m] R[everendissi]mi D[omini] Reginaldi q[ui] obijt Costa[n]tiae 1423’; <inc> Demon regnauit et scismata disseminauit).
Material Copy
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Florence
Italy
RVF 136 and 138 have been crossed out by pen but are still legible.
In the alphabetical index, the poems after RVF 264 are preceded by a manicula and followed by the indication ‘Vita noua’.
In the eighteenth century, the ms. underwent a major renovation, which in some cases makes it difficult to distinguish what elements belong to the original ms. According to the renovator, this ms. was copied by Antonio Sinibaldi in 1406; in the ms. there are no elements to validate this attribution and this date of composition.
Fol. 1r has a title page and an architectural frame penned by the renovator mimicking a humanist white vine-stem decoration. Fol. 8r has a white vine-stem architectural frame with animals and cupids and a coat of arms of the Menabuoni family that covers the original one. In the right border is a small coloured portrait of a female figure (presumably Laura). Fol. 147r has a three-border architectural frame that replicates the same decorative pattern of fol. 8r. Historiated initials for RVF 1 (fol. 8r) and Triumphus Mortis II (fol. 147r), showing a laurel crowned Petrarch and a skeleton respectively; some maniculae.
According to Garzelli (1985, I, 56), the author of the original decoration is Ricciardo Nanni.
Datati, XII, 89
***
Borroni Salvadori 1985, p.: 944 (n. 16), 981 (n. 204), 993; Garzelli 1985, I, 56; Guerrini Ferri 2006, 182; Pasquini 1975, 224 (n. 1); Trapp 1992-1993, 39 (n. 126)