Petrarca (Petrarch), Francesco. Rime, In Italian Verse, M...

      Italy (perhaps Florence): c1470 [third quarter of the fifteenth century] 282mm. by 210mm. Early foliation (ignored here) xi-xv, xxi, xvi-xvii, xix-xx, misbound, leaves should be in the order fols.1-5, 7-8, one lacking, 9-10 and 6, lacking all leaves after that. 10 leaves. Double column, c.40-44 lines, written-space c.240mm. by 175mm., written in dark brown ink in a flamboyant cursive hand, opening initials of each verse set apart into left-hand margins, some minor wear and stains in corners, generally sound, old marbled paper boards.The manuscript has the bookplate of Joseph Tasker, Middleton Hall, Essex. [Tasker had an extensive collection of English literature according to Hazlett’s ‘Roll Of Honour’. His books were sold at auction 7 March & 13 Nov. 1862 (SLS & JW) with a remainder on 22 Dec. 1868 (SW & H.) In the 1840's he published several translations of works on Spanish Treasury Bonds signing himself as “Joseph Tasker, Chairman of the Holders of Spanish Treasury Bonds.”] On the cover is a paper label identifying it as 'No. 32." The watermark is a cardinal’s hat, type of Briquet 3370 (Florence 1465-67, variants in Venice 1469, etc.). These are the Rime sparsi of Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch (1304-1374), written in honour of Laura, the mysterious and elusive paragon whom he claimed to have first glimpsed in the church of St.Clare in Avignon in 1327. Petrarch recorded that she died in 1348. Even the poet’s own friends questioned whether Laura was a real woman or a fictional symbol of perfection. The love poems were begun in the early 1330s and were mostly completed by the mid-1350s. A final version was begun in 1366 and survives in a manuscript which is at least partly autograph (Vatican, cod. Vat.Lat. 3195). These are lyric poems of intense love, frustration, beauty and tragedy, filled with allegory, wit, self-accusation, remorse and despair. They are among the most important and moving poems of the early Renaissance. The present copy is unusual in being written in a cursive or even notarial hand. It is apparently unrecorded, and is not listed in N. Mann, Petrarch Manuscripts in the British Isles (Censimento dei codici petrarcheschi, VI), 1975. The manuscript opens on fol.1r with Rima 1, “Voi ch’ascoltate in rime sparse ilsono …”, continuing with nos.2, 3 (on the poet’s first meeting with Laura on Good Friday), 4 (on Laura’s birth), 5 (playing with the syllables of her name Lau-re-ta), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (addressed to Stefano Colonna the elder), 11, 12, 13, and so on, to the end of Rima 33 (fol.5v); the text then continues without a break on fol.7r, with Rima 34 (inviting Apollo to come to see the marvel of his lady shading herself from the sun), continuing with nos.35 (in which the cares of love exile him into the forests and mountains), 36, 37 (the heading at the top of fol.7v occurs in mid-sentence and bears no relation to the text of the poem), 38, 39, 40, and so on, to the end of Rima 48 (fol.8v); one leaf of text (166 lines) is lacking; it picks up again on fol.9r in Rima 53, line 53, and continues with nos.54, 55, 56, and so on, to Rima 70, line 13 (fol.10v), breaking off and picking up again without a break on fol.6r with Rima 70, line 14, continuing with nos.71 (on the brevity of life) and 72, to line 18 (fol.6v), all ending, “… del suo lavoro in terra”; it lacks all text after that.Petrarca or Petrarch (1304-1374) Italian scholar and poet, often considered the "first humanist".He was widely traveled and became the first great Alpinist. His famous series of poems to Laura, the Canzoniere, are still considered some of the greatest poems ever written. "Not only did this culture hero gain an ardent welcome or these ideas and practices (antiquarianism, study of elegant Latin, study of Greek, etc.), but he shaped them into a single movement that came to dominate the culture of the age: to have established the vogue and ideology of classical antiquity and humanistic studies was Petrarch's most significant achievement. In this sense he was 'the founder of the Renaissance." Wedeck & Schweitzer, Dictionary of the Renaissance.