Overview
Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana
Milan
Italy
RVF 1-103
Description
273x180 mm; III + II1 + 170 + II fols.
parchment (except modern flyleaves fols. I-III in paper); humanistic script; Petrarch’s poems set on left in small blocks in red ink, with commentary in black ink distributed across the page beneath each block; within the commentary, quotations from Petrarch’s poems are in red ink and in capital letters; one architectural frame; decorated initials.
‘COMINCIA IL PRIMO LIBRO DE SONETTI & CANZON MORALI DEL EXIMIO POETA MESSER FRANCESCO PETRARCA’
fol. I1v: title of the ms. (‘Sonetti, et canzoni di Francesco Petrarcha con li commen[ti] del Philelfo’) and note by librarian Antonio Olgiati dated 1603;
fol. II1r: title of the ms. (‘Commentarij di Francesco Philelpho sopra sonetti del Petrarcha’) and note by librarian Antonio Olgiati dated 1603;
fol. II1v: blank;
fols. 1r-170r: RVF 1-103 with Francesco Filelfo’s commentary (‘COMINCIA IL PRIMO LIBRO DE SONETTI & CANZON MORALI DEL EXIMIO POETA MESSER FRANCESCO PETRARCA COLLA EXPOSITIONE DEL PRESTANTISSIMO & FACONDISSIMO POETA LAVREATO ET CLARISSIMO ORATORE ET PHILOSOPHO & CAVALIERO MESSER FRANCESCO PHILELFO HVOMO NELLA LINGVA GRECA & NELLA LATINA SOPRA OGNALTRO DELLA SVA ETA POETISSIMO’; <inc of commentary – after RVF 1> ‘VOI CHASCOLTATE’. Quantunque il presente sonetto fusse da messer francesco Petrarca in q[ue]sta Leggiadra & suauissima opra [sic] in luogho di prefatione collocato: non fu pero il primo chegli facesse ma lultimo di tutti; <exp> Accio donq[u]e ch[e] simil i[n]fortunio no[n] auenga al p[re]librato signore; il co[n]forta ch[e] no[n] lasci reg[n]are gli orsini: ma ch[e] seguiti la uictoria. accioch[e] no[n] si rifacciano et acq[ui]stino maggior forza co[n]tra di lui. la q[u]\a\lecosa face[n]do dice ch[e] et[ian]dio dipo [sic] lamorte i[n] migliaia dan[ni] hara di tal op[er]atione grandissimo honor et fama);
fol. 170v: blank.
Material Copy
Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana
Milan
Italy
The sequence of RVF poems is 1, 3, 2, 4-79, 81, 82, 80, 83-103. In the margins, names of authors and historical figures are listed in red ink by the same hand that transcribed the text. There are very occasional marginal annotations by the same hand (e.g. quotation from Aristotle at fol. 16v; comment on a mistake by Ovid at fol. 31r).
Fol. 1r has a rich architectural frame with floral decorations, cupids, and mottos; at the top, within the frame, there is a medallion portrait of Petrarch, and at the bottom there is a scratched out coat of arms. Initial in gold for RVF 1.
P.MI 1904, 300
***
Cipriani 1968, 250; FP Ambr. 2004, 80-81; Verrelli 2014, 107; Wilkins 1951, 232.