Sonectorum et cantilenarum liber. Triumphorum liber ... [etc.].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374.

Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund. PU

Julia G.Haney Fund. PU

Friends of the Library Endowment Fund. PU

Dante and Tasso Library Fund. PU

Contributor:

Foresi, Bastiano, 1424-1488, scribe.

Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Julia G.Haney Fund.

Friends of the Library Endowment Fund.

Dante and Tasso Library Fund.

Language:

Italian

Latin

Subjects (All):

Italian poetry.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

Poetry.

Sonnets.

Manuscripts, Italian -- 15th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly held in a private French collection (Christie's).

Sold at auction at Christie's (London), 13 December 2023, lot 28.

Physical Description:

193 leaves : parchment ; 170 x 105 (120 x 55) mm bound to 185 x 120 mm.

Other Title:

Rime

Trionfi

Place of Publication:

[Florence, Italy], [between 1470 and 1479]

Language Note:

Italian, with Latin headings, and Petrarch's letter about Laura both in Latin (f. 14r-15r) and Italian (f. 15r-15v).

Summary:

15th-century manuscript of Petrarch's Rime (titled in the manuscript as Sonectorum et cantilenarum liber; also known as Canzoniere) and Trionfi, preceded by an index to the Rime by first line, Leonardo Bruni's Life of Petrarch, and Petrarch's short work about Laura, illuminated in the workshop of Francesco di Antonio del Chierico, in Florence.

Contents:

1. f.1r-7v: [Alphabetical index of first lines in the Rime]

2. f.8r-14r: [Vita di Petrarca / Leonardo Bruni]

3. f.14r-15v: Epistola [on Laura, in Latin and Italian]

4. f.16r-155v: Sonectorum et cantilenarum liber

5. f.156r-192v: Triumphorum liber.

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger based on caption titles of predominant works (f. 16r, 156r).

Collation: Parchment, i + 193 + i; 1⁸⁻¹(-8) 2⁸ 3-19¹⁰ 20⁸; [1-193], modern foliation in pencil, lower center recto. Vertical catchwords in ink, lower right last verso (except for gatherings 1 (f. 7v), 2 (f. 15v), and 16 (f. 155v), where a text division ends on the last verso). Link to collation model at end of record.

Layout: Written in 30 long lines; frame-ruled in dry point with double vertical and horizontal bounding lines, with the first and last lines of text written between the double horizontal bounding lines.

Script: Written in cursive humanist or italic script, by the scribe of the former Yates Thomson Petrarch (now Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Gulbenkian 129, proposed as Bastiano Foresi by Albinia C. de la Mare, "New research on humanistic scribes in Florence," in Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento, 1450-1520: Un primo censimento, 1985; scribe of Ms. Codex 2196 identified by Francesco Marco Aresu, University of Pennsylvania).

Decoration: 1 miniature of Apollo and Daphne with a gold frame, full inhabited floral border with portraits of Petrarch and Laura, animals, putti, and a coat of arms (probably a placeholder), gold title, and a 3-line historiated gold initial on blue ground with portrait of Petrarch (f. 16r); 6 3-line historiated gold initials on blue grounds, partial floral borders, and gold titles at the beginning of each of the Trionfi (f. 156r, 168r, 171v (skeleton), 177v, 187v (hourglass), 190r (Jesus)); 2 illuminated initials with floral marginal extensions (3-line, f. 8r; 2-line, f. 114r); sonnet numbers and a few rubrics in faded red ink; 2-line initials in blue ink throughout.

Binding: 19th-century painted vellum; painted spine (abraded portrait, possibly of Laura); flyleaves and pastedowns are fragments of a Spanish manuscript concerning the Monresin family, probably a carta executoria of the 16th or early 17th century

Origin: Written in Florence, probably in the 1470s (Christie's).

Mid-19th-century fitted wooden box with hinged lid and lock, in the form of a book with leather cover, gilt-stamped and tooled, with gilt author and title Petrarca, Vita e Rime, as though on a spine, housed separately and shelved with the manuscript.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Cited as:

Francesco Petrarca, Sonectorum et cantilenarum liber (Ms. Codex 2196). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Contains:

Bruni, Leonardo, 1369-1444. Vita di Petrarca

Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374. Rime.

Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374. Trionfi.

OCLC:

1446222610

Online:

Collation model