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Essercitii academici d’Ansaldo Ceba

Overview

Place of Publication

Genoa
Italy

Printer
Date of Publication
1621
Creator
Mode of exegesis
Related to Petrarch's

RVF 35 and 335

Academy

Accademia degli Addormentati, Genoa
Italy

Description

Physical Description: Format

4°; [*]2, A-P4, Q2; [4], 124 pp.

Physical Description: Textblock

paper; texts in roman type; printed numbering; first part of the lecture printed continuously across the page, followed by single lines or words of Petrarch’s text (in italic type) set on left, with exposition (in roman type) printed next to it in the same line and then distributed across the page beneath it.

Title Page

ESSERCITII | ACADEMICI | D’ANSALDO CEBA. | A | GIAN BATTISTA SPINOLA | DI GIORGIO | [Printer’s mark] | IN GENOVA, | APPRESSO GIVSEPPE PAVONI. | Con licenza de’ Superiori

Internal Description

[*]1r: title page;
 
[*]1v: authorization to print the volume;
 
[*]2r: Cebà’s dedicatory letter to Gian Battista Spinola di Giorgio (‘Ansaldo Ceba a Gian Battista Spinola di Giorgio’);
 
[*]2v: table of contents (‘Essercitii academici contenuti in questo libro’);
 
A1r-C2v: Cebà’s lecture on RVF 35 (‘Lettione sopra il Sonetto del Petrarca. Solo e pensoso i piu deserti campi’, <inc> L’argomento del presente sonetto è cosi fatto; <exp> mentre, non volendo, per obliqua via pure vi caggioni, si può dir, ch’amore con esso loro fauelli); C3r-D2r: rhetorical accusation of Tito Manlio Romano (‘Accusa d’Andrea Imperiale contro a Tito Manlio Romano, per la battaglia, ch’accettò con Geminio Metio Toscolano’);
 
D2r-G2r: Cebà’s rhetorical defence of Titus Manlius (‘Difesa d’Ansaldo Ceba per Tito Manlio’);
 
G2r-I1v: Cebà’s oration in praise of Solingo as the new chief of the Accademia degli Addormentati (‘Oratione per l’entrata del Solingo al Principato dell’Academia de gli Addormentati’);
 
I2r-L2v: Cebà’s lecture on RVF 335 (‘Lettione sopra il Sonetto del Petrarca. Vidi fra mille donne vna già tale’, <inc> Per vbidir a gli ordini dell’Academia, & al comandamento del Principe, ho preso ad interpretar il sonetto del Petrarca, che comincia. Vidi fra mille donne; <exp> li quali io priego con tutto l’animo, che con la loro benignità scusino i miei difetti, e col suo buon giudicio gli ammendino);
 
L2v-O1r: Cebà’s exposition on Roman history (‘Spositione delle parole che disse Thrasea nel Senato romano contro l’arroganza de’ Prouinciali’);
 
O1v-Q2v: Cebà’s discourse on politics (‘Ragionamento intorno al regolar l’ambition de’ Cittadini nel dimandar de’ magistrati’);
 
Q2v: colophon: In Genova, Appresso Giuseppe Pauoni. Con licenza de’ Superiori. M D C X X I.

Copy Seen

Location

Cornell University Library
Ithaca, NY
United States

Shelfmark
Petrarch PQ4617 .C75 A6
Copy seen by
Giacomo
Comiati
Notes

In his lecture on RVF 35, Cebà first provides a paraphrase of the sonnet and some explanations of its general and philosophical meaning, with a focus on the causes of shame and love’s sufferings. He then analyses the poem line-by-line, by clarifying the grammatical expressions, rhetorical and poetical figures, and literary topoi employed by Petrarch. Reference is made (among others) to Aristotle, Boccaccio, Cicero, Dante, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Plato, Sophocles, Tibullus, and Virgil.
 
Cebà’s lecture on RVF 335 paraphrases the sonnet, discusses its conten, and offers rhetorical explanations. At the same time, Cebàreads the poem through a philosophical lens, primarily a Platonizing one.
 
In a few passages, Ceba discusses Castelvetro’s reading of the sonnet, which is not rejected, but aligned with those that he proposes. himself Reference is made (among others) to Aristotle, Ammonius, Castelvetro, Cicero, Dante, Horace, Livy, Plato, Pliny, St. John Damascene, and Virgil.
 
The Cornell copy of Cebà’s Essercitii academici is bound between two other editions of Ceba’s works: ‘Lettere d’Ansaldo Ceba scritte a Sarra Copia e dedicate a Marc’Antonio Doria’ (Genoa: Giuseppe Pavoni, 1623) and ‘I Caratteri morali di Theofrasto interpretati per Ansaldo Ceba al Cardinale Federigo Borromeo’ (Genoa: Giuseppe Pavoni, 1620).

Bibliography

Petr.Cornell 1916, 255; Pet.Cornell 1974, 352