Overview
Brescia
Italy
RVF 222
Description
8o; A4-K4; [40] fols.
paper; Petrarch’s poem in italic type and lecture in roman type; no printed numbering; single lines or small sections of Petrarch’s poems set in central blocks, with prose text of lecture distributed across the page beneath each of them.
LETTVRA | DI BARTOLOMEO | ARNIGIO | LETTA PVBLICAMENTE | | SOPRA ’L SONETTO | Liete, Pensose, Accompagnate, e Sole. | OVE SI FÀ BREVE DISCORSO | intorno alla Invidia, all’Ira, & alla Gelosia. | [printer’s mark] | IN BRESCIA. M. D. LXV.
A1r: title page;
A1v: blank;
A2r-A3r: Bartolomeo Arnigio’s dedicatory letter to Claudia Martinengo (‘Alla molto ill[ustre] sig[nora] la sig[nora] Claudia Martinenga’);
A3v: sonnet by anonymous author (‘Qvando l’Anima uostra altera e bella’);
A4r-A4v: preface to Arnigio’s lecture on RVF 222 (<inc> Se gia mai in vita mia ho desiderato ricchezza di lingua & d’ingegno, clariss[imi] signori, valorose & ill[ustrissime] donne, & voi altri honoratiss[imi] ascoltatori, hoggi la desidero sommamente; <exp> Or piacciaui di darmi benigna udienza);
A4v: RVF 222;
B1r-K3v: Arnigio’s lecture on RVF 222 (<inc> Non veggendo il Petrarcha, gentilissimo amante, la bellissima donna sua in compagnia d’vna schiera d’alcun’altre; <exp> come mortali, & di fellonia, & ignobiltà d’animo chiarissimi, & euidentissimi segni);
K4r-K4v: blank.
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Biblioteca Universitaria
Pavia
Italy
The lecture offers a word-by-word exposition of the sonnet and provides a detailed explanation of every image in the poem with many references to other compositions from RVF. Other Petrarchan texts quoted include: RVF 94 (B1v); RVF 262 (B2r-B2v); Triumphus Mortis II.15-16 (B4v); RVF 162 (B4v); RVF 168 (C1r); and RVF 310 (C1r).
Sapegno 2004, 148, 180