Trionfi manuscripts before 1500
Posted: 04 Jan 2015, 07:23
Was there a sudden surge of interest in Petrarch's Trionfi around 1440, so that people of means were commissioning manuscripts of it on a significantly larger scale than before? And at the same time, was there an upsurge on cassone being commissioned on the same theme? It looks like that, from our cursory examination of manuscripts and cassone, but lack of evidence to the contrary is not very persuasive if we do not do a thorough examination in the obvious places before drawing conclusions. One obvious place is the series of books that have been published with detailed descriptions of all known Petrarch manuscripts in a given country. There is a list of them on p. 2 of J. B. Trapp's Studies of Petrarch and his Influence, 2004, which I reproduce below:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2577vHFvBIc/U ... Trapp2.jpg
I have looked in the books for Great Britain and the United States. I had thought that the rest were inaccessible to me, or I would have tried to get them. It seems I was using the wrong keywords on WorldCat; the author plus "Petrarca" gets me there. Several are at libraries not far from me. I will see what I can get from Interlibrary Loan, and when they won't lend them, try to fit the libraries into my travel plans. If anyone else has access to particular books and wants to do a report on what they find, let me know and I won't do it. In this post I will give a summary of what I've reported so far, scattered in posts in various threads, with links to the original posts for details.
THE UNITED STATES, ULLMAN
I posted my list from Ullman's Petrarch Manuscripts in the United States, 1964, at viewtopic.php?&f=11&t=858&p=13722#p137221964, including everything up through the 16th century. Here is a summary, giving the place, too, for ones before 1450:
One, #62, is definitely the 1430s or earlier: Venice, then Ferrara.
Another, #33, has what Ullman thinks might be the date of CCCCII, i.e. 1402 (which seems improbable to me): no specific city in Italy
One, #14, is from 1440: Florence
One, #72, is from 1447: Florence
Two, #4 and #22, are from 1450. No specific city in Italy.
Two, #12 and #51, are from the 1460s.
Three, #5, #32, #66. and #93, are from c. 1470.
Seven, #1, #6, #11, #16, #20, #23, and #91 are from the 1480s.
Five, #29, #70, #87, #88, and #96, are from "late" or "end" of the century:
In other literature, early on there was Hatch Wilkins, in at least two places, One is "Manuscripts of the Canzione and the Triumphs in American Libraries,” Modern Philology 45:1 (1947)): his item 27 (p. 24) is a fuller description of Ullman's #62:
There is also Dutschke, Petrarch Manuscripts in the United States, 1986. I looked at it and found nothing pertaining to the Trionfi not in Ullman.
THE BRITISH ISLES: WEBB
My list of 1440 and earlier, for the British Isles, based on Petrarch Manuscripts in the British Isles, by Nicholas Webb, 1975, is at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=868&p=13562#p13562. There are seven before 1440. Their years are, as Ross summarized in a post following, are, with my addition of the places:
Late 14th: Italy, no specific city identified
1400 Venice
1424 Prato
1426 Siena
1427 Florence
1431 Crimea/Genoa
1431 Venice
Then after that date, we have, by my count:
c. 1450: 5 (3 Florentine style, 1 Florentine or Roman, 1 central italy, 1 unclear)
1451-1460: 5 (3 Florence, 1 Naples, 1 Venice)
1461-1470: 9
3rd quarter of century, not in preceding: 19
4th quarter: 14
2nd half, not in preceding: 7
So far, the "spike" seems to occur around 1450.
But all of this is very tentative. Just as the book on the British Isles has vastly more manuscripts than those for the U.S., I expect that the one for France will exceed that for Britain. There are also ones for Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, West Germany, and Leningrad. Italy does not seem to have a single book with one inventory; there is one for Trieste, two for the Vatican (one in French, the other in Italian from 1908), and two for Florence. I will see what I can get.
Some illustrations of Petrarchan Triumphs are in manuscripts of the Canzione. There is one, 1414 Padua, that has what appears to be a Triumph of Death or Fame, I discuss it at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=858&p=13428&hilit=Wilkins#p13428. In the same post I discuss a copy of Sonnetti, Triunfi that Avril says is from Padua or Venice of the 1st quarter of the 15th century, assigned to Crostoforo Cortese, active from 1409 to 1440. This seems to be included in Pelegrin's inventory of Petrarch manuscripts in France.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2577vHFvBIc/U ... Trapp2.jpg
I have looked in the books for Great Britain and the United States. I had thought that the rest were inaccessible to me, or I would have tried to get them. It seems I was using the wrong keywords on WorldCat; the author plus "Petrarca" gets me there. Several are at libraries not far from me. I will see what I can get from Interlibrary Loan, and when they won't lend them, try to fit the libraries into my travel plans. If anyone else has access to particular books and wants to do a report on what they find, let me know and I won't do it. In this post I will give a summary of what I've reported so far, scattered in posts in various threads, with links to the original posts for details.
THE UNITED STATES, ULLMAN
I posted my list from Ullman's Petrarch Manuscripts in the United States, 1964, at viewtopic.php?&f=11&t=858&p=13722#p137221964, including everything up through the 16th century. Here is a summary, giving the place, too, for ones before 1450:
One, #62, is definitely the 1430s or earlier: Venice, then Ferrara.
Another, #33, has what Ullman thinks might be the date of CCCCII, i.e. 1402 (which seems improbable to me): no specific city in Italy
One, #14, is from 1440: Florence
One, #72, is from 1447: Florence
Two, #4 and #22, are from 1450. No specific city in Italy.
Two, #12 and #51, are from the 1460s.
Three, #5, #32, #66. and #93, are from c. 1470.
Seven, #1, #6, #11, #16, #20, #23, and #91 are from the 1480s.
Five, #29, #70, #87, #88, and #96, are from "late" or "end" of the century:
In other literature, early on there was Hatch Wilkins, in at least two places, One is "Manuscripts of the Canzione and the Triumphs in American Libraries,” Modern Philology 45:1 (1947)): his item 27 (p. 24) is a fuller description of Ullman's #62:
He also did a small a book with Michael Jasenas, Petrarch in America; a survey of Petrarchan manuscripts, 1974. I looked at it once, I don't think it had anything relevant not in his article, later incorporated into Ullman.Howard L. Goodhart, New York City. 1432-1434: Ferrara and Venice. (Footnote: This MS was finished at Ferrara on October 14, 1432. It is bound with other MSS, most of which were written by the same scribe.)
There is also Dutschke, Petrarch Manuscripts in the United States, 1986. I looked at it and found nothing pertaining to the Trionfi not in Ullman.
THE BRITISH ISLES: WEBB
My list of 1440 and earlier, for the British Isles, based on Petrarch Manuscripts in the British Isles, by Nicholas Webb, 1975, is at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=868&p=13562#p13562. There are seven before 1440. Their years are, as Ross summarized in a post following, are, with my addition of the places:
Late 14th: Italy, no specific city identified
1400 Venice
1424 Prato
1426 Siena
1427 Florence
1431 Crimea/Genoa
1431 Venice
Then after that date, we have, by my count:
c. 1450: 5 (3 Florentine style, 1 Florentine or Roman, 1 central italy, 1 unclear)
1451-1460: 5 (3 Florence, 1 Naples, 1 Venice)
1461-1470: 9
3rd quarter of century, not in preceding: 19
4th quarter: 14
2nd half, not in preceding: 7
So far, the "spike" seems to occur around 1450.
But all of this is very tentative. Just as the book on the British Isles has vastly more manuscripts than those for the U.S., I expect that the one for France will exceed that for Britain. There are also ones for Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, West Germany, and Leningrad. Italy does not seem to have a single book with one inventory; there is one for Trieste, two for the Vatican (one in French, the other in Italian from 1908), and two for Florence. I will see what I can get.
Some illustrations of Petrarchan Triumphs are in manuscripts of the Canzione. There is one, 1414 Padua, that has what appears to be a Triumph of Death or Fame, I discuss it at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=858&p=13428&hilit=Wilkins#p13428. In the same post I discuss a copy of Sonnetti, Triunfi that Avril says is from Padua or Venice of the 1st quarter of the 15th century, assigned to Crostoforo Cortese, active from 1409 to 1440. This seems to be included in Pelegrin's inventory of Petrarch manuscripts in France.