Overview
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Florence
Italy
RVF, Triumphi + Fame Ia, Mortis Ia
Description
267x181 mm; II + 191 + I fols.
parchment; humanistic script (except fols. 186r-191v: semi-gothic hand); Petrarch’s poems with one verse per line and prose texts; one full-page illumination; three rectangular-box illuminations; three architectural frames; decorated initials.
<inc> Uoi chascoltate inrime sparse ilsono
fol. Ir: title page (‘n. 227 m[esser] francesco Petrarca, Sonetti e Rime con figure’) followed by note of possession (‘Del Sen[ato]re Carlo di Tommaso Strozzi 1670’) both by a later cursive hand;
fol. Iv: full-page illumination;
fols. 1r-102r: RVF 1-263 (RVF 120 is the last poem in order of appearance);
fol. 102v: blank;
fols. 103r-142r: RVF 264-365;
fol. 142v: blank;
fols. 143r-145v: RVF 366;
fol. 145v: colophon: Qui finiscono Sonetti & Cançone di Messer francesco petrarcha laureato poeta fiorentino;
fol. 146r-146v: blank;
fols. 147r-184v: Triumphi (order: Amoris I, Amoris III, Amoris IV, Mortis II, Fame Ia, Amoris II, Pudicitie, Mortis I, Fame I, Mortis Ia, Fame II, Fame III, Temporis, Eternitatis);
fol. 184v: colophon: qui finiscono itriumphi di Messer francescho Petrarcha laureato poeta fiorentino;
fol. 184v: [Lorenzo Segni’s] sonnet (‘Laureo segno tanto triumphale’);
fol. 185r: Petrarch’s note on Laura (<inc> LAurea propriis uirtutibus illustris & meis longum celebrata carminibus; <exp> inexpectatos exitus acriter ac uiriliter cogitantj);
fol. 185v: anonymous and presumably unfinished prose text on Petrarch’s note on Laura (<inc> QVesta lettera soprascritta fece Messer francescho petrarcha nella quale dimostra il tempo e & lora nel quale esso Messer franc[esc]o si namorasse dessa madonna Laura; <exp> & cosi dice Messer francescho esser di manno laura sua. et co[n]chiude che conside[⎯]ato lecose uani [sic] diq[ue]sto mondo);
fols. 186r-191v: alphabetical index of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance);
fol. 191v: index of the first lines of the capitoli of the Triumphi in order of appearance.
Material Copy
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Florence
Italy
Next to the Triumphi, occasional marginal annotations by a cursive humanistic script record some variant readings (e.g. at fol. 177v, next to Triumphus Fame III.16, the annotator writes ‘Da man sinistra’ and erases ‘A mano aman’ of the main text).
Fol. Iv has a full-page illumination showing Petrarch writing at his desk and simultaneously keeping the mark on a book on a bookstand with his left hand.
Fols. 1r, 103r, and 143r have three architectural frames, each with three floral decorated borders and a rectangular-box illumination at the top of the fol. The first illumination shows Laura before other women in an open landscape offering Petrarch a bay leaf. The second illumination shows Petrarch in front of Laura’s buried skeleton. The last illumination shows Petrarch praying in front of the Virgin Mary. The decorative scheme of the ms. has been attributed to Bartolomeo Varnucci and reproduces with some variations the decoration of ms. Palatino 184 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence (Nicolini 2010). Decorated initials in gold for RVF 1 (fol. 1r), 264 (fol. 103r), 366 (fol. 143r), and Triumphus Amoris I (fol. 147r).
BML Mostra, 69; CLP-Fi 115; CPR, 28-29
***
Battaglia Ricci 2005, 50-51; Del Puppo 1999, 423; Duperray 1995, 30-31; Ferrari 2006, 437 (n. 21); Gibbon 2002, 373; Guerrini Ferri 1986a, 166, 176; Guerrini Ferri 2006, 184; Ilardi 2007, 62 (n. 41); Jacob 2000, 403 (n. 11); Labriola 2012, 69 (n. 13), 72; Lazzi 2001, 15 (n. 19); Nicolini 2010; Rico 2004, 43; Salvatore 2014, 64-66; Savino-Ceccanti 1990-1991, 77 (n. 20); Trapp 1992-1993, 21 (n. 44, 45), 22 (n. 51), 32 (n. 91), 39 (n. 125); Trapp 2001, 79 (n. 80), 152 (n. 341); Yocum 2013, 113