Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Berlin
Germany
The selection from RVF includes the following poems, listed in order of appearance: RVF 1-5, 10-45, 73-78, 80, 82-87, 92-93, 96-99, (28), 105, 107-128, 130-138, 140-142, 146-165, 168-176, 178-181, 183-185, 48-53, 55, 57-59, 186-213, 215-216, 218-226, 229-236, 238, 240-253, 255, 257-265, 271, 280-282, 285, 60-72, 287, 293, 315, 320-321, 325, 328-330. At fol. 6v and at fol. 12r, a few lines are left blank and are followed by another annotation on RVF 28 and by poems RVF 48-53 respectively. At fol. 16v a few lines are left blank after RVF 264 to mark the beginning of the second part of RVF. At fol. 11r, RVF 165 is followed by first line ‘Giochi [sic] di chio cantai’ which may be variant reading of RVF 292 ‘Gli occhi di ch’io parlai sì caldamente’).
The commentary on RVF poems follows a regular pattern: sections of RVF first lines are followed by a brief explanatory text in prose, which ranges from one to around ten lines for select poems. The anonymous commentator presents the content of each poem, focusing on the love story between Laura and Petrarch and on obscure ‘comparationi’, that is, similes and metaphors. Often these notes are introduced by a verb in the third person singular, like ‘parla m[esser] f[rancesco’; ‘dice m[esser] f[rancesco’, ‘fa m[esser] f[rancesco], and so on. Poems that are defined as ‘testuale’ normally receive shorter explanations.