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Il Petrarcha con l’espositione d’Alessandro Vellutello

Overview

Place of Publication

Venice
Italy

Date of Publication
1550
Related to Petrarch's

RVF, Triumphi + Fame Ia

Description

Physical Description: Format

4°; *8, A-Z8, AA-DD8; [8], 216 fols.

Physical Description: Textblock

paper; Petrarch’s poems in italic type and commentary in roman type; printed numbering; most of Petrarch’s poems set on left in small block, with commentary distributed on three sides; some other of Petrarch’s poems set on left in a sequence of blocks, with commentary distributed in single column on right; one full-page woodcut (map), one small woodcut (portrait), six rectangular-box woodcuts, and title within architectural frame.

Title Page

IL PETRARCHA || CON L’ESPOSITIONE | D’ALESSANDRO VELLVTELLO | DI NOVO RISTAMPATO CON LE FIGV- | RE A I TRIOMPHI, ET CON PIV COSE | VTILI IN VARII LVOGHI AGGIVUNTE. || [printer’s mark] || IN VINEGIA AP | PRESSO GABRIEL | GIOLITO DE FER | RARI E FRATEL | LI. M D L.

Internal Description

*1r: title page;
 
*1v: blank;
 
*2r: Lodovico Domenichi’s address to readers;
 
*2v: small woodcut with an urn with half-length portraits of Laura and Petrarch facing each other;
 
*2v: sonnet on Petrarch’s and Laura’s ashes (‘Sonetto sopra le sacre ceneri del Petrarcha e di M[adonna] Laura’, <inc> Laura, ch’un Sol fu tra le Donne in terra);
 
*3r-*5r: Vellutello’s life of Petrarch (‘Vita e costumi del poeta’);
 
*5v: full-page topographical map of Provence;
 
*6r-*8v: Vellutello’s life of Laura with a description of Vaucluse (‘Origine di Madonna Laura con la descrittione de Valclusa, e del luogo ove il poeta a principio di lei s’innamoro’);
 
*8v: Vellutello’s discussion of how RVF is divided into three parts (‘Divisione de son[etti] e de le canz[oni] del Petrarcha in tre parti’): those poems written during Laura’s life (‘tutti quelli, che veramente in vita di M[adonna] L[aura] si conoscono per la loro sententia da lui essere stati scritti, et che de suoi felici et infelici amorosi effetti et accidenti trattano, o che in quelli del suo amoroso errore mostra dolersi, o da esso errore desiderare di potersi rimovere, o d’essersi rimosso’), those composed after Laura’s death and on this theme (‘tutti quelli, che dopo la morte di lei, di tal morte propriamente, o per circoscrittione, o in altra forma parlano’), and all those devoted to any other person or theme than Laura;
 
A1r-N1v: first part of RVF with Vellutello’s commentary (‘Sonetti, e canzoni del divino poeta M[esser] Francesco Petrarca, colla espositione di M[esser] Alessandro Vellutello’);
 
N2r-R8r: second part of RVF (beginning with RVF 267) with Vellutello’s commentary (‘Sonetti, e canzoni del divino poeta Messer Francesco Petrarcha in morte di madonna Laura colla espositione del Vellutello’);
 
R8v-V8v: third part of RVF (beginning with RVF 128) with Vellutello’s commentary (‘Incomincia la terza parte de i sonetti et delle canzoni di M[esser] Francesco Petrarcha, colla espositione di Messer Alessandro Vellutello’);
 
X1r: poems addressed to Petrarch by Muzio Stramazzo da Perugia (‘La santa fiamma, de laqual son priue’), Giacomo Colonna (‘Se le parti del corpo mio destrutte’), Geri Gianfigliazzi (‘Messer Francesco, chi d’amor sospira’), and Giovanni Dondi dall’Orologio (‘Io non so ben s’io uedo quel, ch’io ueggio’), each poem followed by the first line of Petrarch’s reply accompanied by the page number where the poem is printed;
 
X1r: Vellutello’s prologue to his commentary on the Triumphi (‘Alessandro Vellutello sopra i Triomphi del Petrarca’);
 
X1v: Vellutello’s overview of the content of the Triumphi (‘Soggetto de’ Triomphi del poeta’);
 
X2r-CC8r: Triumphi with Vellutello’s commentary (‘Triomphi di messer Francesco Petrarca, colla espositione di messer Alessandro Vellutello’); each triumph is preceded by a rectangular-box woodcut: Triumphus Amoris (X2r), Pudicitie (Z4v), Mortis (AA1r), Fame (AA7r), Temporis (CC3v), Eternitatis (CC6r);
 
CC8v-DD4r: Petra Triumphus Fame Ia (‘Nel cor pien d’amarissima dolcezza’), followed by Petrarch’s disperse (canzone ‘Quel, c’ha nostra natura in se piu degno’, canzone [actually ballad] ‘Noua bellezza in habito gentile’, sonnet ‘Anima doue sei? ch’adhora adhora’);
 
DD4r-DD4v: poems addressed to Petrarch by Jacopo de’ Caratori da Imola (‘O nouella Tarpea, in cui s’asconde’) and Ser Diotesalvi di Pietro da Siena (‘Il bello occhio d’Apollo, del cui sguardo’), each poem followed by Petrarch’s reply (‘Ingegno usato a le question profonde’ and ‘Se Phebo al primo amor non è bugiardo’, respectively);
 
DD5r-DD5v: Petrarch’s disperse (sonnets ‘Quella ghirlanda, che la bella fronte’, ‘Stato fuss’io, quando la uidi prima’, ‘In ira a i cieli, al mondo, & a la gente’, ‘Se sotto legge Amor uiuesse quella’, ‘Lasso com’io fui mal approueduto’, and ‘Quella, che ’l giouenil mio cor auinse’);
 
DD6r-DD8r: alphabetical index of the first lines of both RVF poems and the capitoli of the Triumphi (under each letter of the alphabet, sonnets and canzoni (including capitoli) are listed separately in order of appearance) (‘Tavola de son[etti] et de le canz[oni] del Petrarcha’);
 
DD8r: register;
 
DD8r: printer’s mark;
 
DD8r: colophon: In Vinegia appresso Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari e fratelli MDL;
 
DD8v: blank.

 
Notes: this edition seems to be an almost exact reprint of the 1547 Giolito edition.

Copy Seen

Location

Bibliothèque nationale de France
Paris
France

Shelfmark
RES-p-yd-113
Copy seen by
Giacomo
Comiati
Notes

In the Bibliothèque nationale de France copy, there are many marginal handwritten annotations in French and a few in Italian (written by the same hand) on the first 15 fols. After this point, they significantly decrease (see Gallica digitalized copy of this edition). There are also many interlinear annotations that either paraphrase in Italian the words of some poems (e.g., close to RVF 1.13: ‘dire, o fare cose vane’), or translate into French some passages of some poems (e.g., above ‘ove sia’ (RVF 1.7): ‘ou que soit’).