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Il Petrarcha con l’espositione di m[esser] Giovanni Andrea Gesvaldo

Overview

Place of Publication

Venice
Italy

Date of Publication
1553
Related to Petrarch's

RVF, Triumphi

Description

Physical Description: Format

4°; two parts: *8, **8, ***4, ****6, A-Z8, AA-MM8, NN2; OO-VV8, XX4; [52], 667 [i.e. 683] pp.

Physical Description: Textblock

paper; Petrarch’s poems in italic type and commentary in roman type; printed numbering; Petrarch’s poems printed with one verse per line on left, followed by commentary printed next to them in the same line and then distributed across the page beneath them, and prose texts; one portrait, one map, title page within architectural frame, and six rectangular-box woodcuts.

Title Page

IL PETRARCHA | CON L’ESPOSITIONE | DI M[ESSER] GIOVANNI ANDREA GESVALDO, | NVOVAMENTE RISTAMPATO, E CON SOM- | MA DILIGENZA CORRETTO, | CON NVOVA TAVOLA DI TVTTE LE COSE | DEGNE DI MEMORIA, CHE IN ESSA ESPO- | sitione si contengono, & ornato di Figure| [printer’s mark] | IN VINEGIA AP- | PRESSO GABRIEL | GIOLITO DE FER | RARI E FRATEL- | LI. M D LIII.

Internal Description

First part:
 
*1r: title page;
 
*1v: blank;
 
*2r-*4r: Giovanni Andrea Gesualdo’s dedicatory letter to Maria de Cardona (‘Il Giesualdo alla illvstriss[ima] signora la signora marchesana de la Palvde’);
 
*4v: portrait of Petrarch and Laura facing each other, followed by sonnet by anonymous author (‘Sonetto sopra le sacri ceneri del Petrarcha e di m[adonna] Lavra’; <inc> Laura, ch’un sol fu tra le donne in terra’);
 
*5r-**8r: Gesualdo’s life of Petrarch (‘La vita del Petrarcha’);
 
*8r-*8v: Gesualdo’s life of Laura (‘La vita di m[adonna] Laura’);
 
***1r: map of Valcluse (‘Descrittione del sito di Valclvsa’);
 
***1v-***2r: note on the order and partition of RVF (‘L’ordine e la divisione de l’opra’);
 
***2r-***2v: note on the quality of verses (‘La qualita de versi’);
 
***2v: note on the moral benefit provided by Petrarch’s work (‘L’vtilitate’);
 
***3r-***4v: passages from Petrarch’s work on which the biography is based (‘I lvoghi del Petrarca, onde lo spositore ha raccolto quanto ha qvi scritto di lvi’);
 
****1r-****2v: alphabetical index of the first lines of RVF poems (under each letter of the alphabet, poems are listed in order of appearance) (‘La tavola de sonetti e de le canzoni’);
 
****3r: poems addressed to Petrarch by Muzio Stramazzo da Perugia (‘La santa fiamma de laqual son priue’), Geri Gianfigliazzi (‘Messer Francesco chi d’Amor sospira’), Giovanni de Dondi dell’Orologio (‘Io non so ben s’io uedo quel, ch’io ueggio’), Sennuccio del Bene (‘Oltra l’usato modo si raggira’), and Giacomo Colonna (‘Se le parti del corpo mio destrutte’); each poem is followed by the first line of Petrarch’s reply;
 
****3v: introductory paragraph to the following table (<inc> Qveste sono le cose, lequali hauendo io con non picciolo studio raccolte; <exp> ma Clemente à Benedetto, & à lui Innocentio succedesse);
 
****4r-****6v: index of most notable matters (‘Tavola delle cose piv notabili; che in qvesto commento del Gesvaldo si contengono’);
 
A1r-EE8r: RVF 1-266 with Gesualdo’s commentary (‘Alla illvstriss[ima] s[ignora] donna Maria di Cardona la s[ignora] marchesana de la Palvde. I sonetti e le canzoni del Petrarca colla spositione del Giesvaldo’);
 
EE8v-NN2v: RVF 267-366 with Gesualdo’s commentary (‘I sonetti e le canzoni di messer Francesco Petrarcha in morte di Madonna Lavra colla espositione del Gesvaldo. Alla illvstrissima signora marchesana de la Palvde la signora donna Maria di Cardona. Giovanni Andrea Gesvaldo’);
 
Second part:
 
O1r: title page: I TRIONFI DEL PETRARCA | COLLA SPOSITIONE DI | MESSER GIOVANNI ANDREA | GESVALDO DA TRAETTO. | ALLA ILLVSTRISS[IMA] SIGNORA DONNA | SVSANNA DI GONZAGA LA SIGNORA | CONTESSA DI COLISANO. | [printer’s mark] | IN VINEGIA APPRESSO GABRIEL | GIOLITO DE FERRARI E | FRATELLI. M DLIII;
 
OO1v: blank;
 
OO2r: Gesualdo’s dedication to Susanna Gonzaga (‘Alla illvstriss[ima] signora contessa di Colisano. Il Gesvaldo’);
 
OO2v: preface to Gesualdo’s commentary (‘Di m[esser] Giovanni Andrea Gesvualdo da Traetto ne la spositione de Trionfi del Petrarca proemio’);
 
OO3r-OO3v: overview of Triumphi’s content (‘Il soggetto de Trionfi del poeta’);
 
OO4r-XX4r: Triumphi with Gesualdo’s commentary; each triumph is preceded by a rectangular-box woodcut: Amoris (OO4r), Pudicitie (RR1r), Mortis (RR7r), Fame (SS7v), Temporis (VV5r), Eternitatis (VV8v);
 
XX4r: register and colophon: In Vinegia appresso Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari e fratelli M D L III.;
 
XX4v: printer’s mark.

Copy Seen

Location

Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana
Milan
Italy

Shelfmark
V.ST.A.XIV.20 (Sala Custodi)
Copy seen by
Francesco Venturi,
Lorenzo Sacchini
Location

Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana
Milan
Italy

Shelfmark
S.Q#.L.XI.5 (Sala della Rosa - Ballatoio)
Copy seen by
Francesco Venturi,
Lorenzo Sacchini
Notes

The copy housed at the Ambrosiana library with shelfmark S.Q#.L.XI.5 (Sala della Rosa - Ballatoio) has a note of possession in the title page and very occasional handwritten variant readings next to the lines of the poems. In the two flyleaves after XX4, there are a few handwritten notes on Petrarch’s poems (mostly on RVF 105). RVF 114, 136-138 have been erased but are still legible.
 
In the copy housed at the Ambrosiana library with shelfmark V.ST.A.XIV.20 (Sala Custodi), four fols. are missing after VV8.

Bibliography

Petrella 2006, 137-38
 
***
 
Belloni 1992, 189-225; Busjan 2013; D’Alessandro 2002, 750-51, 755; D’Alessandro 2005; Ferroni-Quondam 1973, 42-47; Girotto 2005, 61 (n. 3); Kennedy 1994, 2-4, 9, 12, 21, 47, 52-53, 55-64, 67, 79-80, 101, 123-26, 141, 153, 172, 174, 176, 179, 180-81, 183, 187, 194, 205, 208, 213, 225-27, 249-50, 258, 269, 271-72, 274-75, 282; Nuovo-Coppens 2005, 141-43; Sapegno 2004, 53, 54 (n. 83), 122, 146 (n. 27), 147-51, 155 (n. 45), 160, 164, 172 (n. 77), 179.