Re: Petrarca Trionfi poem motifs in early Trionfi decks

131
MikeH wrote ... (in #126)
Il codice con un sol verso per rigo venne esemplato a Milano verso il 1447; così, infatti, si legge a car. 128 r: 1447 die 27 aprilis, hora secunda noctis, adveniente die veneris 28, obijt d. Aloisius de sancto Severino in Mediolano dum hec scriberem.
This passage is probably the basis for the quote that Huck noted in what I put by him at the start of this post: "1447 die 27 ap[r]ilis hora se[con]da noctis aduenie[n]te die uene[r]is 28 obijt d[ominus] aloisius de s[anc]to Seuerino i[n] m[edio]l[an]o du[m] hec sc[ri]berem."

Looking on the Vatican website, I find it precisely on the page indicated by Vattasso and Huck's source, 128r:
Image
Barb.lat.3954_128r.png
The writing seems fairly contemporary with the text itself. The only issue I see is its odd placement, there as opposed to at the end of the document.

If the book itself was finished in 1447, that is good evidence that at least the unhistoriated (i.e. without the incipits) text was finished by then. If so, the incipits would not be much after, if not even before then (since the incipits stop considerably before the text does).
I wonder, if writing with modern Arabian ciphers (1447 instead MCCCCXXXXVII) was already far spread in 1447 Italy. The original text has a 1447. Perhaps that's an indication, that the text is later, or the specified text is an added passage possibly of a much later time.

Why is this condottiero mentioned? I added in #90 in this thread:
Huck wrote: 02 Aug 2023, 12:26 I just added something ... I personally think, that the correct dating is very important. Is 1447 correct?

Added again ...

I found a Luigi Sanseverino and who died indeed in April 1447 ... it was a condottiero.
https://condottieridiventura.it/luigi-da-san-severino/
1447
Gen. Lombardia Assale un piccolo castello al di là dell’Adda. E’ catturato con alcuni cavalli da soldati usciti per una sortita da Cassano d’Adda.
Apr. Lombardia Muore a Milano dopo una lunga malattia causata da una vecchia ferita.
It seems clear, that this Aloisius in the text is the Luigi da Sanseverino.
April: "Muore a Milano dopo una lunga malattia causata da una vecchia ferita."

In the same year 1447 Filippo Maria Visconti died (13th of August, 4 months later).
For his late years it's said, that he initiated, that Pietro Lapini and Filelfo worked about the Trionfi of Petrarca:
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/pi ... iografico)
https://www-treccani-it.translate.goog/ ... r_pto=wapp ..... automatic translation
PIETRO da Montalcino (Pietro Lapini da Montalcino). – Born to Bernardo di Montalcino in the last thirty years of the fourteenth century, in 1401 he practiced the medical profession in Montalcino and, in February 1406, taught at the Studium of Perugia.

Professor at the University of Siena between 1407 and 1409, in 1413 he went as a doctor to France at the court of King Louis of Anjou. In a document dated 25 August 1414 Pietro Lapini is attested as the doctor of the antipope John XXIII, who subsequently followed him to Constance for the work of the Council and, after his deposition, returned to his homeland. In 1415 he was among the compilers of the Statutes of the Municipality of Montalcino. He then obtained consent from the Municipality of Siena to move to the court of the King of Sweden and Norway, Henry of Pomerania, but there is no evidence of his stay in the North.

In 1418 little Bernardo was born to Pietro da Montalcino and Giovanna dei Marruzzi. That same year coincided with the call on behalf of the Duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti to the Studium Pavese, where he taught medicine and astrology until 1428, also obtaining the election as prior in the College of Doctors, a completely extraordinary provision, as in Previously, access to this position had been denied to foreigners
Pietro da Montalcino is probably to be identified with the court astrologer mentioned in chapter LXVIII of the Life of Filippo Maria Visconti by Pier Candido Decembrio. The Pavia doctor Antonio Guainerio, in the dedication to Filippo Maria of the treatise De peste published in Venice in 1478, remembered among the duke's personal doctors a certain Pietro da Monte Arano, identified by the Pavia historian Giuseppe Robolini with our character.

During the Pavia years Pietro often returned to Siena, where he received diplomatic positions and taught astrology at the Studium until 1430, interspersing his teaching with embassies on behalf of Filippo Maria Visconti and Pope Martin V. On 22 April 1433, from the second marriage with Nicolò Saracini's widow Petra, his son Bernardo was born, the same name as his half-brother who died before him. In 1435 he was mayor of Lucignano in Val di Chiana and, in 1446, he was still in Milan.

Peter pronounced several astrological judicia , and a De institutione virtutum et de regimene sanitatis has also been attributed to him , dedicated to Filippo Maria Visconti ( Vita Philippi Mariae , pp. 421 s.). As a humanist he participated in the cult of Francesco Petrarca promoted by the Visconti court in first half of the fifteenth century. In fact, he composed an allegorical commentary on the Petrarchian Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (Zaggia, 2010, p. 59). Two independent sources make up for his loss. Guiniforte Barzizza mentioned it in the dedication to his commentary on the Rimeprepared for the same Duke of Milan before 1447. Between 1468 and 1469 his son Bernardo Ilicino, a doctor and humanist like his father, prepared for Borso d'Este a commentary on the Petrarchian Triumphs, printed for the first time in Bologna in 1475 , in to whom he provided useful information for understanding his parent's exegetical work, dating back approximately twenty years earlier and dedicated to the Duke of Milan, his esteemed protector.

The last document to mention Pietro da Montalcino dates back to 1448, and 1449 was indicated as the year of death (Dionisotti, 1974, p. 77; Marcozzi, 2004, p. 168).
I had worked earlier about Pietro Lapini. And his son Bernardino, who became very active in matters of the Trionfi of Petrarca.

Well, we have 3 old men, who die in the years 1447-49, a rather unknown condottiero of minor importance, a duke and an astrologer-author. Why is this strange condottiero mentioned in this book?
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Petrarca Trionfi poem motifs in early Trionfi decks

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mikeh wrote: 22 Sep 2023, 00:58 Cohen says that both Pesaro mss. were made for Borso. The one I am referring to is the one now in Vienna. I still do not know why she says that the 1459 was made for Borso.
You're right, she does say that; I overlooked the Borso part in her description of the ÖNB ms. I'm not sure why she wrote that; certainly the two mss are very similar, made by the same people in the same place within a space of two years, but that is not nearly enough reason to think they were made for the same person, especially if that person was not the lord of the place in question. Perhaps she was misled by the lines in Essling/Müntz that introduce their discussion of these mss (p. 163): "deux manuscrits jumeaux, tous deux sortis de la même main, à savoir celle de Jacopo de Vérone. Le premier a été écrit en 1459 ; le second, en 1460, à Pesaro, évidemment pour Borso d'Este, duc de Ferrare, dont il porte les armoiries."
About the 1460 Pesaro triumphs now in Dresden, I have to admit that I cannot find them on the internet. Nor does searching "Dresden" on this forum provide a link. I am not very good at locating contents of libraries other than the BnF, the BM, the British Library, and now the Vatican. Perhaps you have a link.
Yes, indeed I do have a link for it, which I already provided in an earlier post in this discussion (which your search did not find because I didn't use the word "Dresden" in it): viewtopic.php?p=26080#p26080
That post might be worth rereading in full, because much of it pertains to your current line of thought.
The SLUB in Dresden (despite its uninspiring acronym) has been even more helpful than the ÖNB, by providing us with the entire manuscript online. So you are able to see there that the image corresponding to the ÖNB image that you not surprisingly assumed to be Eternity (given its resemblance to the Robertet Eternity) is, in fact, presented there as the illustration for the "Triumphus Virtutis" (a section of Fame verses that are actually Petrarch's incomplete first draft of the Fame poem, and which were sometimes included in Trionfi manuscripts, usually at the start of the Fame section, but never as a separate triumph as they are here). From the details provided by Essling/Müntz (p. 163) and (rather more reliably and usefully) by G. Buchholz in "Die Trionfi des Petrarca zu Dresden und Wien," Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 22 (1887) (128-130), we can be certain that the ÖNB manuscript presents the "Eternity" image in exactly the same way, as a "Triumphus Virtutis", and that both manuscripts present the Eternity verses simply as the second chapter of Time.

I see what you mean now about the figure being raised by the two putti on that page in the ÖNB ms, and I think you are right that this is yet another detail that calls to mind Eternity, even though the images are presented very clearly here as the "Triumph of Virtue," which is effectively a kind of supplement to the Triumph of Fame. Make no mistake about this: the two Pesaro manuscripts make it very clear that the suppression of Eternity as a separate Triumph and its replacment by this highly anomalous and unique "Triumph of Virtue" was completely intentional. Even though I fully agree with you when you say that "every other indication is that it refers to Eternity", nevertheless it is indisputable that it was very deliberately used here to illustrate a sort of quasi-Fame. Further, I think that both the sword in the figure's hand and the men standing on the ground were modifications made by the artist to make the image more appropriate to the verses that follow it: I don't think that either of those features would ever have appeared in an image that was intended to represent Eternity. Both the sword and the men are extremely typical of illustrations of the Triumph of Fame, and they are lacking in the Robertet-style Eternity images. The sword is also lacking in the other Eternity-turned-Fame images of this kind (in other manuscripts) although the men standing below the floating figure make an appearance in a couple of them. As you will see, the sword is also not present in the corresponding Dresden image, although the flame there resembles even more strongly the flame of Charity (because it is held in a vessel, as on the VdM Charity card). To sum up, it looks very much as though someone made a very conscious decision to take an Eternity image and use it in the Fame section instead, and they modified it in these ways to make it more appropriate for that purpose, with the ÖNB image being modified slightly more than the Dresden image, by the addition of the sword as well as the men.

So the figure being raised by the putti on the ÖNB page was probably the patron of that particular ms, and we are meant to interpret this as him being raised up toward the figure in the sky on account of his illustrious virtue (or something like that). But nevertheless, I think you are right to assume that the imagery here was based directly on something like that image of Laura being raised up in Barb.Lat. 3954, on a page which must have had similar images to this but which presented them as illustrations of Eternity (as they were no doubt originally designed to be).

By now, you can probably see what I meant about this being a complex and confusing situation. And hopefully you can follow my logic in my attempt to reconstruct what happened here, as outlined in my posts above.

Re: Petrarca Trionfi poem motifs in early Trionfi decks

133
Huck wrote:
It seems clear, that this Aloisius in the text is the Luigi da Sanseverino.
April: "Muore a Milano dopo una lunga malattia causata da una vecchia ferita."
It doesn't seem clear to me. If he was dying from an old wound, would he have the strength to write in neat, well-aligned script a long manuscript? There is also the other Aloisius to consider.

Nathaniel wrote
Make no mistake about this: the two Pesaro manuscripts make it very clear that the suppression of Eternity as a separate Triumph and its replacment by this highly anomalous and unique "Triumph of Virtue" was completely intentional.
Reviewing the Dresden ms, I seem to see the word "virtutio" or "virtute" after "TRIUMPHUS", on the page just before the illustration that precedes the later draft of the Triumph of Fame, the first of two "TRIUMPHUS"'s on that page (https://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkans ... f/12986/69 and below). Buchholz (for the Vienna, and he indicates nothing different for the Dresden) says "vertutis." The second TRIUMPHUS on the page introduces the TIUMPHUS a GLORIA (Fama, says Buchholz of the Vienna) illustration and text.
Image

But I am not sure that "virtutis" etc. is correctly translated as "virtue" in our sense of "moral virtue." The word "virtute" in Latin generally meant "valor," as in the saying "virtute et armis," valor and arms. This fits the "Fama first draft" that follows. While I have not been able to find a transcription online, what Wilkins says about it suggests that all it contains are historical or biblical personages noted for valor: no mythological figures such as Hercules or philosophers or other writers, which is what we see in the illustration. After quoting the opening 6 lines and saying that next the procession is introduced, Wilkins says:
In the rest of this Triumph (131 lines: the capitolo contains 153 lines in all) Petrarch reports seeing about 125 individuals, named or characterized without being named. First come about seventy Romans, nearly all of them warriors; then about fifteen figures of early Roman legend; and then about forty Greeks and other non-Romans, including Hannibal, Masinissa, three Amazons, David, Judas Maccabaeus, Joshua, King Arthur, and Charlemagne.
("On Petrarch's Rewriting the Triumph of Fame," Ernest H. Wilkins, Speculum, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Jul., 1964), pp. 440-443, in JStor, on p. 441.)
So the "virtute" illustration would seem to better precede the second section, after the second "fama" illustration, which does include philosophers; the later one fits the "first draft" ("Nel cuor") precisely. Even then, the "virtuti" illustration does not correspond to the text: the illustration really is a "triumph of virtue," unlike what is in either text. The illustration corresponds more to Petrarch's presentation of virtue and glory in other works, such as Africa The Secretum, described in Gianni Guastella, Word of Mouth, pp. 227-241.

Nathaniel wrote,
Further, I think that both the sword in the figure's hand and the men standing on the ground were modifications made by the artist to make the image more appropriate to the verses that follow it: I don't think that either of those features would ever have appeared in an image that was intended to represent Eternity.
It is true that Triumphs of Eternity do not have swords in the hands of their upper allegorical figures. But "last judgment" images did - Archangel Michael wielding his sword against the devil, or spearing the damned with a large spear, e.g. http://sadostateczny.mng.gda.pl/en, etc. Certain types of images of Fama owed much to their sacred counterparts (Guastella, pp. 267-274, the section entitled "A Triumph and a Judgment").

In the Dresden image, the sword counterbalances Charity in the other hand. The contrast was also utilized by secular rulers, for example Charles V in a Flemish/Burgundian engraving of the mid-16th century.
Image
It is also an attribute of Fame, as you say. The illustration is of "eternal glory through virtuous acts." - so mixing eternity with fama. The triumph of virtue is in heaven/eternity as well as, in the writings of historians and poets, on earth after death. It is in that sense, I think, that the Modrone World card is a triumph of Fame, that is to say, good Fame, virtuous Fame, which also leads to the person having a place in heaven, thanks to God's charity.

I'd like to read that first draft of "The Triumph of Fame", the one beginning "Nel cuor pien." All Wilkins provides is the first six lines:
Nel cor [sic] pien d'amarissima dolcezza
risonavano ancor gli ultimi accenti
del ragionar ch'e' sol brama et apprezza,
e volea dir - O di miei tristi e lenti!-
e piu cose altre, quand'io vidi allegra
girsene lei fra belle alme luce.
That's not much.

Re: Petrarca Trionfi poem motifs in early Trionfi decks

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mikeh wrote: 23 Sep 2023, 09:29 Yes, that's what I was quoting from; I had given his summary of the "Nel cor" passage earlier. I wish there were more.
Ah, right. Following with one eye, sorry - bathroom renovations with the other.

The whole poem is here -
https://books.google.fr/books?id=mbJaAA ... 22&f=false

From editor anonymous, Le rime di Francesco Petrarca, tomo secondo; Orléans, stamperia di C. A. I. Jacob, 1786, pp. 160-165 (apologies for the quality of the joins):
Image

Re: Petrarca Trionfi poem motifs in early Trionfi decks

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Yes, that's what I was asking for. Thanks, Ross.

So 163 lines, which I machine-transcribe, correct, machine-translate, and correct again, as best I can without spending a lot of time on it. You get what you pay for, including from me. I was mostly interested in people's names and how they were praised. Here it is, in batches. Corrections welcome.
CAPITOLO
Di MESSER Francesco Petrarca,
Che in alcune Edizioni va innanzi, al
Trionfo della Fama.

CHAPTER
By MESSER Francesco Petrarca,
Which in some editions goes before the
Triumph of Fame.

Nel cor pien d’amarissima dolcezza
Risonavano ancor gli ultimi accenti
Del ragionar ch'ei sol brama, ed apprezza:
E volea dir, O di miei tristi, e lenti!
E più cose altre; quand’ io vidi allegra,
Girsene lei fra belle alme lucenti.
Avea già il Sol la benda umida, e negra
Tolta dal duro volto della terra
Riposo della gente mortal’ egra;
Il sonno , e quella ch’ ancor’ apre, e serra
Il mio cor lasso, appena eran partiti,
Ch’ io vidi incominciar un’ altra guerra,
O Polimnia, or prego che m’aiti:
E tu, memoria, il mio stile, accompagni,
Che prende a ricercar diversi liti;
Uomini, e fatti gloriosi, e magni
Per le parti di mezzo, e per I’ estreme;
Ove sera e mattina il Sol si bagni.
Io vidi molta nobil gente insieme
Sotto la, ‘nsegna d’una gran Reina;
Che ciascun’ ama, riverisce, e teme.
Ella a veder parea cosa divina:
E da man destra avea quel gran Romano
Che fè in Germania, e ’n Francia tal ruina,
Augusto, e Druso seco a mano a mano ;
E i duo folgori veri di battaglia,
il maggior’ e ‘l minor Scipio Affricano,
E Papirio Cursor, che tutto smaglia:
Curio, Fabrizio, e I’un’, e l’altro Cato:
E ’l gran Pompeo, che mal vide Tessaglia:
E valerio Corvino , e quel Torquato
Che per troppa pietate uccise il figlio;
E’l primo Brutto gli sedea da laro.
Po’ il buon villan che fè ’l fiume vermiglio
Del fero sangue: e ’l vecchio ch’ Anniballe
Frenò con tarditate, e con consiglio:
Claudio Neron, che ’l capo d’ Asdruballe
Presentò al fratello aspro, e feroce,
Sì, che di duol li fè voltar le spalle:
Muzio, che la sua destra errante coce:
Orazio sol contra Toscana tutta:
Chè nè foco, nè ferro a virtù noce:
E chi con sospizione indegna lutta,
Valerio di piacer al popol vago,
Sì, che s' inchina; e sua casa è distrutta:
E quel ch' e Latin vince sopra 'l lago
Regillo, e quel che prima Affrica assalta:
E i duo primi che ’n mar vipser Cartago;
Dico Appio audace; e Catulo, che smalta.
Il pelago di sangue, e quel Duillo
Che d’ aver vinto allor sempre s’esalta.
Vidi ’l vittorioso, e gran Cammillo
Sgombrar I’oro; e menar la spada a cerco,
E riportarne il perduto vessillo,
Mentre con gli occhi quinci, e quindi cerco,
Vidivi Cosso con le spoglie ostili,
E’l Dittator’ Emilio Mamerco;
E parecchi altri di natura umilis
Rutilio con Volumnio , ec Gracco, e Filo,
Fatti per virtù d’ arme alti, e gentili,
Costor vid’ io fra ’l nobil sangue d’Ilo
Misto col Roman sangue chiaro, e bello;
Cui non basta nè mio, nè altro stilo,
Vidi duo Paoli; e ’l buon Marco Marcello,
Che ’n su riva di Pò, presso a casteggio
Uccise con sua mano il gran ribello.
E volgendomi indietro ancora
I primi quattro buon ch’ ebbero in Roma
Primo, secondo, terzo, e quarto seggio,
E Cincinnato con la inculta chioma,
E ’l gran Rutilian col chiaro sdegno,
E Metello orbo con sua nobil soma.
Regolo Attilio si di laude degno,
E vincendo, e morendo; ed Appio cieco,
Che Pirro fè di veder Roma indegno:
Ed un” altro Appio spron del popol seco:
Duo Fulvii, e Manlio Volsco; e quel Flaminio;
Che vinse, e liberò ’I paese Greco.
Ivi fra gli altri tinto era Virginio
Del sangue di sua figlia; onde a que’ dieci
Tiranni tolto fu. I’ empio dominio.
E larghi di lor sangue eran tre Deci;
E i duo gran Scipion , che Spagna oppresse;
E Marzio , che sostenne ambo lor veci:
E, come a’ suoi ciascun par che s’appresse,
L’Asiatico era ivi, e quel perfetto
Ch’ ottimo solo il buon Senato elesse.
E Lelio a suoi Corneli era ristretto;

In the heart full of bitter sweetness
The last accents still resonated
Of the reasoning that it only craves and appreciates:
And it wanted to say, O my sad and slow ones!
And more other things; when I saw her happy,
She lies among beautiful shining souls.
Sol already had a wet, black bandage
Removed from the hard face of the earth
Repose of illustrious [egra] mortal people;
Sleep, and that which still opens and closes
My exhausted heart, as soon as they left,
I saw another war begin,
O Polymnia, now I pray that you help me:
And you, memory, my style, accompany me,
Which begins to search for various disputes;
Men, and glorious, and majestic deeds
For the middle parts, and for the extremes;
Where evening and morning the Sun bathes.
I saw many noble people together
Under the banner of a great Queen;
Whom everyone loves, reveres, and fears.
She seemed divine to see:
And on her right hand she had that great Roman
Who made in Germany and in France such ruin,
Augustus, and Drusus with him little by little;
And the two real thunderbolts of battle,
The greater and lesser Scipio Africanus,
And Papirio Cursor, who shines [at?] everything:
Curius, Fabritius, and one and the other Cato:
And the great Pompey, who lay waste to Thessaly badly:
And Valerius Corvinus, and that Torquato
Who out of too much pity killed his son;
And the first Brutus to sit there.
Then the good peasant who made the river red
With ferocious blood: and the old man who Hannibal
Held back late, and with advice:
Claudius Nero, who the head of Hasdrubal
Presented to his brother harsh and ferocious,
Yes, that made them turn their backs on pain:
Muzio, who cooks his errant right hand:
Horatio alone against all of Tuscany:
For neither fire nor iron is effective:
And whoever mourns with unworthy sighs,
Valerius to please the vague people,
Yes, who bows; and his house is destroyed:
And what is Latin wins over the lake
Regillus, which Africa first attacks:
And the first two who on the sea vipser [?] Carthage;
I say Appius audacious; and Catulus, who paints [smarta]
The ocean with blood, and that Duillus
Who then always exalts himself at having won.
I saw the victorious and great Camillus
Clear away the gold; and bring the sword in search,
And bring back the lost banner,
While with my eyes here, and therefore I search,
I saw Cosso with his hostile spoils,
And the Dictator Emilio Mamerco;
And several others of a humble nature
Rutilius with Volumnius, and Gracchus, and Philus,
Made, by virtue of arms, high and gentle,
I saw this among the noble blood of Ilus
Mixed with Roman blood, clear and beautiful;
For which neither mine nor any other style is sufficient,
I saw the two Paoli, and the good Marco Marcello,
Who on the banks of the Po, near Casteggio
Killed the great rebel with his own hand.
And looking back again
The first four were good in Rome
First, second, third, and fourth position,
And Cincinnatus with his uncultivated hair,
And the great Rutilian with clear disdain,
And one-eyed Metellus with his noble burden.
Regulus Attilius is worthy of praise,
And winning, and dying; and blind Appius,
That Pyrrhus made see Rome unworthy:
And another Appius spurs the people behind him:
The two Fulvii, and Manlius Volscus; and that Flaminc [priest, priestess?],
Who won, and liberated the Greek country.
Virginius was dyed there among others
Of the blood of his daughter; hence those ten
Tyrants were removed from their wicked dominion.
And three Deci largely of their blood;
And the great Scipio duo, who oppress Spain;
And Marzio, who supported both of them:
And, as each one seems to approach his own,
The Asiatic was there, and that perfect one
That best alone the good Senate elected.
And Laelius was restricted to his Cornelis;

Non così quel Metello al qual’ arrise
Tanto Fortuna, che Felice è detto:
Parean vivendo lor menti divise,
Morendo ricongiunte, e seco il padre
Era, e ‘l suo seme , che soterra il mise,
Vespasian poi alle spalle quadre
Il riconobbi, a guisa d’uom che ponta
Con Tito suo dell’ opre alte, e leggiadre.
Domizian non v’ era: ond’ ira, ed onta
Avea; ma la famiglia che per varco
D’ adozione al grande imperio monta,
Trajano, ed Adriano, Antonio, e Marco,
Che facea d’ adottar ancora il meglio;
Al fin Teodosio di ben far non parco:
Questo fu di virtù I’ultimo speglio;
In quell’ ordine dico, e dopo lui
Cominciò il mondo forte a farsi veglio.
Poco in disparte accorto anco mi fui
D’ alquanti in cui regnò virtù non poca;
Ma ricoperta fu dell’ ombra altrui:
Ivi era quel ch’ e fondamenti loca
D’ Alba lunga in quel monte pellegrino :
Ed Ati, e Numitor’, e Silvio, e Proca:
E Capi ’l vecchio, e ’l novo Re Latino ;
Agrippa, e i duo ch’ eterno nome denno
Al Tevero , ed al bel colle Aventino;
Non m’ accorgea , ma fummi fatto un cenno
E quasi in un mirar dubbio notturno
Vidi quei ch’ ebber men forza, e più senno,
Primi Italici Regi; ivi Saturno,
Pico, Fauno, Giano , e poi non lunge
Pensosi vidi andar Cammilla, e Turno.
E perchè gloria in ogni parte aggiunge;
Vidi oltra un rivo il gran Cartaginese,
La cui memoria ancor’ Italia punge.
L’ un’ occhio avea lasciato in mio paese,
Stagnando al freddo tempo il fiume Tosco.
Sicch’ egli era a vederlo strano’ arnese
Sopra un grande elefante un duce losco.
Guardaigli intorno; e vidi ‘I Re Filippo
Similemente dall’ un fato fosco.
Vidi ‘I Lacedemonio, ivi Xantippo,
Ch’ a gente ingrata fece il bel servigio:
E d’ un medesmo nido uscir Gilippo.
Vidi color ch’ andaro al regno Stigio,
Ercole, Enea, Teseo , ed Ulisse,
Per lassar qui di fama tal vestigio,
Ettor col padre, quel che troppo vis

Not so that Metellus to whom smiled
So much Fortune, that Happy he is said:
They seemed living their divided minds,
Dying reunited, and with their father
It was, and his seed, which buried the misery,
Vespasian then behind balances
The recognized, like a man who bridges,
With his Titus produced tall and graceful works.
Domitian was not there: hence anger and shame
He had; but the family that passes through
By adoption to the great empire mounts,
Trajan, and Hadrian, Antony, and Marcus,
Who made [? facea] to adopt yet the best;
In the end, Theodosius does not spare any effort:
This was the last glimpse of virtue;
In that order I say, and after him
The strong world began to wake up.
Little by little I also noticed
Some in whom no small virtue reigned;
But it was covered by the shadow of others:
There was what was located there
From Alba long in that pilgrim mountain:
And Ati, and Numitor', and Silvius, and Proca:
And Capi the old, and the new Latin King;
Agrippa, and the duo whose eternal name owed
To the Tiber, and to the beautiful Aventine hill,
Didn't notice me, but I was given a nod
And almost in a doubtful nocturnal gaze
I saw those who had less strength and more sense,
First Italian Kings; there Saturnus,
Picus, Faunus, Janus, and then not far away
Thoughtful, I saw Cammilla and Turnus go.
And because glory in every part adds;
Across a stream I saw the great Carthaginian,
Whose memory still stings Italy.
The one eye he had left in my country,
The Tosco river stagnating in the cold weather.
So he was a strange thing to see
On a large elephant a dubious leader.
I looked around him and saw King Philip
Similarly of dubious aspect.
I saw the Lacedaemonian Xanthippus there,
Who did a great service to ungrateful people:
And Gylippo [Filippo?] will emerge from the same nest.
I saw those who went to the Stygian kingdom,
Hercules, Aeneas, Theseus, and Ulysses,
To leave such vestige of fame here,
Hector with his father, the one who saw too much,

Dardano, e Tros, ed Eroi altri vidi
Chiari per sè , ma più per chi ne scrisse,
Diomede, Achille e i grandi Atridis
Duo Ajaci ; e Tideo, e Polinice,
Nemici prima, amici poi sì fidi:
E la brigata ardita, ed infelice
Che cadde a Tebe: e quell’ altra ch'a Troja
Fece assai , credo ; ma di più si dice,
Pentesilea, ch’ a’ Greci fè gran noja:
Ippolita, ed Oritia, che regnaro
Là presso al mar dov’ entra la Dannoja, -
E vidi Ciro più di sangue avaro
Che Crasso d'oro; e l’un’ e l’altro n’ebbe
Tanto, ch’ al fine à ciascun parve amaro,
Filopomene, a cui nulla sarrebbe
Nova arte in guerra : e chi di fede abbonda,
Re Massinissa, in cui sempre ella crebbe,
Leonida, e 'l Tebano Epaminonda
Milciade , e Temistocle, ch’ e Persi
Cacciar di Grecia vinti in terra, e ‘n onda,
Vidi David cantar celesti versi,
E Giuda Macabeo, e Giosuè;
A cui ’l Sole, e la Luna immobil fersi,
Alessandro, ch’ al mondo briga diè;
Or I’Occeano tentava, e potea farlo;
Morte vi s' interpose, onde nol fè.
Poi alla fin Artù Re vidi, e Carlo.

Dardanus, and Tros, and other Heroes I saw
Clear in themselves, but more so for those who wrote about them,
Diomedes, Achilles and the great Atridis
Two Ajaxes; and Tydeus, and Polynices,
Enemies first, then trusted friends:
And the bold and unhappy brigade
Which fell at Thebes: and the other one at Troy
Did enough, I believe; but more is said.
Penthesilea, who caused great annoyance to the Greeks:
Hippolyta, and Oritia, who reigned
There near the sea where the Danube enters, -
And I saw Cyrus more avaricious in blood
Than Crassus in gold; and he had both
So much, that in the end each seemed bitter,
Philopomenes, to whom nothing would be
A new art in war: and those who abound in faith,
King Masinissa, in whom she [Rome?] always developed,
Leonidas, and the Theban Epaminondas
Milciades, and Themistocles, who the Persians,
Driving from Greece, vanquished on land and on the waves.
I saw David singing celestial verses,
And Judah Macabeus, and Joshua;
To whom the Sun and the Moon stopped motionless,
Alexander, who schemes about the world;
Now tried the Ocean [i.e. an enormous amount], and could do it;
Death intervened, so he didn't do it.
Then at the end I saw Arthur the King, and Charles.
Or something like that. In the event, Hercules did show up. But not the philosophers who appear in the illustration that introduces these lines. What unites all these figures is their valor, not their virtue in the modern sense, or the medieval Christian sense of deeds that merit acceptance into heaven.

Re: Petrarca Trionfi poem motifs in early Trionfi decks

138
Except for the emphasis on Trionfi mss. in this thread, I would have put this post in a different one, that called "Petrarch manuscripts before 1500" (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1052). However, the present thread is active now, and it has not had much to say about the non-illuminated mss. in the period before 1440, which is as important as the illuminated mss. we have been looking at. I have had a hard time finding information about mss. before 1440; but some of it has been sitting on my computer all along.

Some time back, Franco Pratesi recommended Gemma Guerrini's work on Trionfi manuscripts of the 15th century. He quoted at length from one of her essays in a 2016 note, which I translated at viewtopic.php?p=17714#p17714. I could not get that particular essay (or perhaps didn't try, I don't remember), but I did get her very long "I Trionfi del Petrarca" (Scrittura e civiltà 10 (1986) 121-197). In it can be found a long list of 434 Trionfi mss., with their catalog numbers in the various libraries holding them. Here they are (I don't know why the first screenshot is there twice): Unfortunately, the list does not include when she thought these mss. were done, other than 15th century or earlier. Otherwise, her essay seems mainly devoted to developing a method of classifying mss. by various criteria, mostly physical: binding, lettering, stroke characteristics, size, etc., using the Trionfi mss. as exemplars.

However, there is more of interest to us than I thought, in particular, the first paragraph of her section II.3 and all of II.4, both of which has material not covered in Franco's note. The first paragraph of II.3 points us to a table at the back of her essay with various numbers inserted. I know that each of five periods of time are indicated: first, before the beginning of the 15th century, and then for each quarter of a century thereafter, up to 1500. Beyond that, I haven't a clue. In any case, the conclusions she draws are of interest: there is a marked difference in the artwork, statistically speaking, between pre-midcentury and post-midcentury. The second paragraph of II.3 goes into physical details about the mss. that do not seem relevant to us (and I am not sure I understand all of it). I include it only for the sake of completeness. After that, section II.4 goes into other details which tell us who the mss. were for and for what purposes - quite different in the two halves of the century. That section is pretty interesting.

Below I have transcribed and then translated section II.3, followed eventually by II.4. Since Table 1 is referred to in section ii.3, I have provided a link to that (to me mysterious) table, immediately after my translation of that section. I have also uploaded the actual pages of both sections. viewable by clicking on the links at the end of this post.

So now II.3, first in the original and then my machine-assisted translation. I am quoting from pp. 129-130 of Guerrini. I have put in bold type what is mainly of interest to us. By "Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta" is meant the early edition of what was later called the Canzoniere:
11.3. La produzione dei manoscritti dei Trionfi

I manoscritti dei Trionfi mostrano, nell'evolversi della loro produzione, uno sviluppo molto diverso da quello presentato dai coevi manoscritti latini di origine francese12.

Caratteristica, nel confronto, risulta essere la contenuta diminuzio, ne della produzione dei manoscritti petrarcheschi fra il terzo e l'ultimo quarto del secolo, a cui corrisponde, nello stesso periodo, un forte calo nella produzione dei manoscritti latini13. Preferibilmente sempre in materiale membranaceo14, i manoscritti dei Trionfi si trovano nei formati B e C in ogni quarto del XV secolo". Numerosi sono i manoscritti che mostrano l'aspetto di «codices quadrati»16 e non manca il formato tipico dei «bastardelli»17. Nel primo cinquantennio la decorazione sembra essere limitata alla colorazione delle iniziali nei capitoli dei Trionfi e talvolta anche delle iniziali delle terzine di questi, mentre le vignette minia-te e le ricche decorazioni sembrano appartenere soprattutto al secondo cinquantennio18. La scrittura umanistica è quella maggiormente utilizzata in tutto l'arco del XV secolo, mentre per quanto riguarda il contenuto testuale, i Trionfi sono accompagnati soprattutto dai Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta o da questi insieme ad altre opere di autori diversi, mentre nel secondo cinquantennio numerosi sono anche i manoscritti [start p. 130]
che contengono soltanto i Trionfi”19.

In media per il testo petrarchesco vengono occupate 45 carte ed esso è contenuto in manoscritti il cui numero delle carte varia da un minimo di 31 (ms. XLIII.b.3. della Biblioteca del Seminario di Padova) ad un massimo di 392 (ms. Rossi 18 della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, contenente una miscellanea di testi)20. Anche per i manoscritti dei Trionfi, inoltre, può essere rilevata la diminuzione dimensioni delle carte nel periodo 1450-1500 21, già individuato nella produzione italiana da Carla Bozzolo ed Ezio Ornato22. Il tipo di fascicolazione più numeroso sembra essere quello con 10 fogli per fascicolo23, risultato che si differenzia da quello ricavato dai manoscritti francesi coevi per i quali erano utilizzati soprattutto senioni24. Lo spazio interlineare è di preferenza, in tutto il XV secolo, compreso tra i 5 ed i 6 mm.25, il numero di linee costantemente preferito è quello compreso tra 25 e 30 26 e la superficie scritta occupa nella maggioranza dei casi fra il 32% ed il 43% della superficie scrittoria. Infine, la quasi totalità dei manoscritti sembra conservare i Trionfi completi e sono pochi i casi in cui vengono registrati danni al testo.
_____________
12. Cfr. BOZZOLO-ORNATO [C. BOZZOLO - E. ORNATO, Pour une Histoire du Livre Manuscrit au Moyen Age, Paris] 1980] 1980, pp. 60-61.
13. Vd. tav. 1.
14. 15. Vd. tab. 1; da sottolineare, nel 2° cinquantennio, la forte presenza del formato A.
16. S RIZZO, Il lessico filologico degli umanisti, Roma, 1973, p. 75.
17. Vd. tab. 1.
18. Vd. tab. 1.
19. Vd. tab. 1.
20. Cfr. tav. 5.
21. Vd. tab. 1.
22. B0ZOLLO-ORNATO 1980, pp. 272 e 276.
23. Vd. tabb 15 e 16.
24. BOZZOLO-0RNATO 1980, p. 132.
25. 26. 27. Vd. tab. 1.


11.3. The production of the manuscripts of the Trionfi.

The manuscripts of the Trionfi show, in the evolution of their production, a very different development from that presented by the contemporary Latin manuscripts of French origin12.

Characteristic, in the comparison, appears to be the limited decrease in the production of the Petrarchian manuscripts between the third and the last quarter of the century, which corresponds, in the same period, to a strong decline in the production of Latin manuscripts13. Preferably always in parchment material14, the manuscripts of the Triumphs are found in formats B and C in every quarter of the 15th century15. There are numerous manuscripts that show the appearance of «square codices»16 and the typical format of «bastardelli»17 is not lacking. In the first fifty years the decoration seems to be limited to the coloring of the initials in the chapters of the Trionfi and sometimes also of the initials of the triplets of these, while the illuminated vignettes and the rich decorations seem to belong above all to the second fifty years18. Humanistic writing is the one most used throughout the 15th century, while as regards the textual content, the Triumphs are accompanied above all by the Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta or by these together with other works by different authors, while in the second fifty years there were also numerous manuscripts [start p. 131] that contained only the Trionfi19.

On average, 45 leaves are occupied for the Petrarchan text and it is contained in manuscripts whose number of leaves varies from a minimum of 31 (ms. XLIII.b.3. of the Library of the Seminary of Padua) to a maximum of 392 (ms. Rossi 18 of the Vatican Apostolic Library, containing a miscellany of texts)20. Furthermore, also for the manuscripts of the Triumphs, the decrease in size of the pages in the period 1450-1500 can be noted21, already identified in the Italian production by Carla Bozzolo and Ezio Ornato22. The most numerous type of collation seems to be that with 10 sheets per fascicle23, a result which differs from that obtained from contemporary French manuscripts for which mainly senions were used24. The interlinear space is preferably, throughout the 15th century, between 5 and 6 mm.25, the number of lines constantly preferred is between 25 and 30 26 and the written surface occupies in most cases between 32% and 43% of the desk surface. Finally, almost all the manuscripts seem to preserve the complete Trionfi and there are few cases in which damage to the text is recorded.

__________
12. See BOZZOLO-ORNATO [C. BOZZOLO - E. ORNATO, Pour une Histoire du Livre Manuscrit au Moyen Age, Paris] 1980], pp. 60-61.
13. See table 1.
14. 15. See tab. 1; to underline, in the second fifty years, the strong presence of the A format.
16. S. RIZZO, Il lexicon philologico degli humanisti, Rome, 1973, p. 75. 17. See tab. 1.
18. See tab. 1.
19. See tab. 1.
20. See tab. 5.
21. See tab. 1.
22. B0ZOLLO-ORNATO 1980, pp. 272 e 276.
23. Vd. tabb 15 e 16.
24. BOZZOLO-0RNATO 1980, p. 132.
25. 26. 27. Vd. tab. 1.
Types A, B and C refer to the size, in terms of the dimensions of the pages: A small, B middle, C large. If by footnoting table 1 for these types, she means to indicate indications about them in it, I do not know what they might be. Here is table 1:
More useful for our purposes - at least as far as I understand it - would seem to be an unnumbered graph on p. 185, at the beginning of her graphs and tables at the end of the essay. I have truncated it slightly to give the screenshot the best resolution under the circumstances (a 400 kb limit for attachments). The full graph is the second link below it.
Image
The dotted line seems to be that of French Latin manuscripts (all of them?) and the solid line that of the Italian Trionfi manuscripts. There are only five points on each graph, which represent the 14th century, far left, and then the four quarters of the 15th century. It would be of interest to know how many manuscripts with decorations characteristic of the second 50 years appeared in the first 50 years, and where they are located. This information may be somewhere in her essay, but if so I can't find it.

Then she goes on to describe the manuscripts' "typology," which for us is of high interest (pp.130-133).
11.4. La tipologia e la fruizione dei manoscritti dei «Trionfi

Ad uno studio diretto il panorama dei manoscritti dei Trionfi appare molto ampio, tanto da ricoprire tutta la gamma delle tipologie del libro italiano dell'epoca28. Gli studi finora condotti su questa opera petrarchesca, hanno sempre privilegiato i codici di maggior pregio esemplati e decorati da artisti famosi, facendo così supporre ai più che l'opera avesse avuto, come centri promotori di diffusione, gli ambienti delle corti italiane della seconda metà e della fine del XV secolo. Ma dalle caratteristiche codicologiche esaminate, si desume, oltre alla già accennata circolazione dell'opera in ambiente cortese, anche il tipo di fruizione peculiare degli umanisti; un tipo di lettura che accompagnava il testo verso [start p. 131] per verso, intervenendo con lezioni ritenute più corrette, e che annotava nei margini note, appunti, notabilia e riferimenti alla tradizione classica e biblica, spesso in latino, che il dettato petrarchesco poteva suggerire, utilizzando così, come uncini per la memoria29, tecniche grafiche di memorizzazione. Soprattutto nei codici attribuibili al primo cinquantennio del XV secolo, esemplati in semigotica o in umanistica, privi di vignette miniate e di ricche decorazioni30, è documentato questo tipo di fruizione31; è quindi ragionevole pensare che i Trionfi, in omaggio al prestigio dell'autore, circolassero in ambienti umanistici sin dagli ultimi anni del XIV secolo, e che attraverso questi fossero conosciuti nelle corti pre-rinascimentali. L'interdipendenza fra gli ambienti umanistici e quelli cortesi, di tipo economico per i primi, di tipo culturale per i secondi, fece sì che i Trionfi conoscessero una grande diffusione negli ambienti economicamente egemoni, e che al calo della produzione manoscritta corrispondessero, nell'ultimo quarto del XV secolo, ben venticinque edizioni a stampa dei Trionfi insieme ai Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta, e nove edizioni dei soli Trionfi32. Ciò è tanto più significativo quando si considera che fra i supervisori dei nuovi prodotti tipografici, patrocinati dagli ambienti cortesi, si annoveravano alcuni fra gli umanisti più noti.
Il tipo di lettura riservato ai manoscritti cortesi, che in gran parte testimoniano sin nel piccolo formato la loro origine umanistica33, era naturalmente diverso da quello che attuavano gli umanisti; per questi manoscritti, fra vignette miniate e decorazioni in oro e colori, sulle carte vergate da amanuensi famosi, non era prevista l'apposizione di alcun segno di nota, di alcun intervento critico. A questo ambiente può essere attribuito, fra gli altri34, anche il ms. Rossi 12 della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, il quale testimonia, unico esemplare fino ad ora da me co[start p. 132]nosciuto, quel tipo di fruizione dei Trionfi ipotizzata dalla Yates35 e quindi di una circolazione dell'opera in ambiente ermetico36.
Completamente al di fuori degli ambienti umanistici e cortesi, un unico manoscritto documenta invece una frizione di tipo scolastico: si tratta del manoscritto N.II.6 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino, che, pur presentando il testo disposto a piena pagina, contiene un fitto commento su tutti e quattro i lati di ciascuna carta, commento per il quale erano stati predisposti margini assai ampi e ben distribuiti.
Tale tipo di fruizione non è da considerarsi consueto per i Trionfi ed il manoscritto torinese è l'unico da me conosciuto a presentare la disposizione del testo e del commento paragonabile a quella dei manoscritti scolastici. Infatti i Trionfi, se mai furono vincolati ad un commento, se ne liberarono ben presto; i Commenti infatti, formano delle opere a sé, con una tradizione manoscritta forse parallela ma comunque diversa da quella dei codici con il solo testo dell'opera. Negli esemplari da me conosciuti di Commento ai Trionfi, i versi sono sempre scritti a piena pagina, preferibilmente in inchiostro di colore diverso da quello usato per il commento; questo si presenta alternato ai brani ed alle terzine del testo. La tipologia dei codici in generale non è inoltre cosi varia come quella dei codici che presentano il solo testo dell'opera petrarchesca. Interesse puramente letterario rivelano quei manoscritti che contengono le miscellanee poetiche e che accompagnano ai Trionfi le rime di altri autori, da Simone Serdini a Feo Belcari, secondo varie tipologie. I manoscritti più pregiati contengono o soltanto i Trionfi o miscellanee petrarchesche soprattutto, mentre in manoscritti dalla tipologia più di-versa possono trovarsi i Trionfi insieme ai Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta, alle Rime di Dante ed alle vite dei due autori composta da Leonardo Bruni. Numerosi sono anche i manoscritti dalla tipologia più povera, senza decorazioni o con decorazioni rozze, cartacei, quasi sempre in mercantesca, che spesso contengono, insieme ai Trionfi, testi devozionali37.
[start p. 133]
Si può dunque affermare che la lettura dei Trionfi, limitata agli inizi del XV secolo all'ambiente umanistico, naturale depositario dell'eredità petrarchesca, si diffuse rapidamente anche presso gli strati sociali economicamente e culturalmente meno privilegiati, e che alle meditazioni degli studiosi di vari livelli culturali si unirono ben presto sia coloro che, con una lettura frequente e disinvolta del testo, utilizzavano i versi petrarcheschi quali repertorio di sentenze poetiche, sia lo sforzo di chi, non sapendo il latino, studiava i Trionfi come fonte accreditata di cultura classica e umanistica. A tutti costoro si affiancò da un lato un pubblico che riconosceva nel testo petrarchesco un'opera di tipo devozionale-edificante, e, dal lato opposto, soprattutto dal 1450 in poi, un pubblico cortese con esigenze di suggestioni poetiche che soltanto qualche anno più tardi, nel corso del XVI secolo, avrebbe trovato una risposta pienamente esaustiva nei Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta ridotti a Canzoniere38.

_________________
28. Cfr. anche, per la terminologia adottata, PETRUCCI 1969 [A. PETRUCCI Alle origini del libro moderno. Libri da banco, libri da bisaccia, libretti da mano (1969), in AA.VV., Libri, scrittori e pubblico nel Rinascimento, Bari, 1979, pp. 137-156, pp. 137-156.
29 F. PETRARCA, De secretu conflictu curarum mearum, in IDEM, Opere, a c. di G. Ponte. Milano, 1968, p. 522: "imprime sententibus utilibus... certas notas, quibus velut unis memoria volentes abire contineas."
30. Per l'avversione degli umanisti all'illustrazione del libro vd. L. FEBVRE-H. MARTIN, La nascita del libro, Bari, 1977, p. 114.
31. Esempi possono essere considerati il ms. y[gamma].H.6.20 della Bibl. Estense di Modena ed i manoscritti Vat. Lat. 3430 e Vat. Lat. 3216 della Bibl. Apostolica Valicana.
32. Per i soli Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta non vi fu invece alcuna edizione per tutto il sec. XV. Cfr. WILKINs 1951 [E.H. WILKINS, The making of the 'Canzoniere' and other Petrarchan studies, Roma, 1951 (Storia e Letteratura. Raccolta di studi e testi, 38)], pp. 379-401.
33. PETRUCCI 1979 [A. PETRUCCI, Libro e scrittura in Francesco Petrarca, in Libri, scrittori e pubblico nel Rinascimento, Bari, 1979], pp. 5-20. , p. 14.
34. Per i manoscritti cortesi e di lusso, vd. F. PETRARCA, Trionfi, a c. di S. Samek Ludovici, Roma, 1979.
35. YATES 1972 [F. YATES, L'arte della memoria, Torino, 1972], p. 95.
36. Il ms. Rossi 12 appartiene al XV exeunte; è membranaceo, misura mm. 140x100, riccamente decorato ed esemplato in semigotica. Contiene escerti dei Trionfi, della Commedia dantesca, di opere di Lattanzio, Agostino, Origene e altri Padri della Chiesa, del Pimander e dell'Asclepius. Per il legame fra questi autori e la cultura ermetica e sulla circolazione di quest'ultima in ambienti cortesi vd. F. YATES, Giordano Bruno e la tradizione ermetica, Bari, 1969, pp. 19, 25 e ss., e YATES 1972 [F. YATES, L'arte della memoria, Torino, 1972, p. 88.
37. Esempi di tali manoscritti sono: il ms. Strozzi 173 della Bibl. Laurenziana di Firenze, il ms. CI.VII.845 della Bibl. Nazionale di Firenze, il ms. 1133 della Bibl. Riccardiana di Firenze.
38. G. BILLANOVICH, Lo scrittoio del Petrarca, Roma, 1947, pp. 417-418. 39. CARDONA 1981, pp. 31-33., CARDONA 1982, pp. 3-4.

11.4. The typology and use of the manuscripts of the «Trionfi

From a direct study, the panorama of the manuscripts of the Triumphs appears very broad, so much so as to cover the entire range of typologies of the Italian book of the time28. The studies carried out so far on this Petrarchan work have always favored the most valuable examples and decorated by famous artists, thus making most people assume that the work had, as centers promoting its diffusion, the environments of the Italian courts of the second half and the end of the fifteenth century. But from the characteristics of the codicological studies examined, we can deduce, in addition to the already mentioned circulation of the work in a courtly environment, also the type of fruition peculiar to the humanists; a type of reading that accompanied the text verse [start p. 131] by verse, intervening with lessons considered more correct, notes, points, notabilia and references noted in the margins to the classical and biblical tradition, often in Latin, which the Petrarchan dictation could suggest, thus using, as hooks for the memory29, techniques of graphic memorization. Especially in the codices attributable to the first fifty years of the 15th century, exemplified in semi-Gothic or humanistic style, without illuminated vignettes and rich decorations 30, this type of use is documented31; it is therefore reasonable to think that the Trionfi, in homage to the prestige of the author, circulated in humanistic circles from the last years of the 14th century, and through these were known in the pre-Renaissance courts. The interdependence between humanistic and courtly circles, of an economic type for the former, of a cultural nature for the latter, meant that the Trionfi became widely disseminated in economically hegemonic environments, and the decline in manuscript production corresponded, in the last quarter of the 15th century, to as many as twenty-five printed editions of the Trionfi together with the Rerum Vidgaritun Fragmenta, and nine editions of the Trionfi alone32. This is all the more significant when we consider that among the supervisors of the new typographical products, sponsored by the courtly circles, were some of the best-known humanists.

The type of reading reserved for courtly manuscripts, which largely testify to their humanistic origins even in their small format33, was naturally different from that implemented by the humanists; for these manuscripts, between illuminated vignettes and decorations in gold and colors, on pages written by famous scribes, there was no provision for the addition of any note marks or any critical intervention. To this environment can be attributed, among others34, ms. Rossi 12 of the Vatican Apostolic Library, which testifies, the only copy so far by me [start p. 132] known, to that type of enjoyment of the Trionfi hypothesized by Yates35 and therefore of a circulation of the work in a hermetic environment36.

Completely outside the humanistic and courtly circles, a single manuscript instead documents a scholastic type of fruition: manuscript N.I1.6 of the National Library of Turin, which, although presenting the text arranged on a full page, contains a dense commentary on all four sides of each page, commentary for which very wide and well-distributed margins had been prepared.

This type of use is not to be considered usual for the Trionfi , and the Turin manuscript is the only one known to me to present a layout of text and commentary comparable to that of scholastic manuscripts. In fact, the Trionfi, if they were ever tied to a commentary, soon freed themselves from it; in fact, the Commentaries form works in themselves, with a manuscript tradition perhaps parallel but nevertheless different from that of the codices with only the text of the work. In the examples known to me of Commentary on the Trionfi, the verses are always written full page, preferably in ink of a different color from that used for the commentary; this is presented alternating with the passages and triplets of the text. Furthermore, the typology of the codices in general is not as varied as that of codices which present only the text of Petrarch's work.

Purely literary interest is revealed in those manuscripts which contain the poetic miscellanies and which accompany the Trionfi with the verses of other authors, from Simone Serdini to Feo Belcari, according to various typologies. The most valuable manuscripts contain either only the Trionfi or especially Petrarchan miscellanies, while in manuscripts of a more diverse typology the Trionfi can be found together with the Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta, Dante's Rime and the lives of the two authors composed by Leonardo Bruni.

There are also numerous manuscripts of the poorest typology, without decorations or with crude decorations, paper-based, almost always in mercantile form, which often contain, together with the Trionfi, devotional texts37.
[start of p. 132]
It can therefore be stated that the reading of the Trionfi, limited at the beginning of the 15th century to the humanistic environment, the natural custodian of the Petrarchian legacy, quickly spread also among the economically and culturally less privileged social strata, and that the meditations of scholars of various cultural levels were soon joined by both those who, with a frequent and casual reading of the text, used Petrarchan's verses as a repertoire of poetic sentences, and the effort of those who, not knowing Latin, studied the Trionfi as accredited source of classical and humanistic culture. To all of these were joined on one side by a public that recognized in Petrarch's text a work of a devotional-edifying type, and, on the opposite side, especially from 1450 onwards, by a courteous public with a need for poetic suggestions that only what -which a year later, during the 16th century, would find a fully exhaustive answer in the Rerum Yulgarium Fragmenta reduced to Canzoniere38.
_______________

28. See also, for the terminology adopted, PETRUCCI 1969 [A. PETRUCCI Alle origini del libro moderno. Libri da banco, libri da bisaccia, libretti da mano (1969), in AA.VV., Libri, scrittori e pubblico nel Rinascimento, Bari, 1979, pp. 137-156, pp. 137-156.
29. F. PETRARCA, De secretu conflictu curarum mearum, in IDEM, Opere, ed. by G. Ponte. Milano. 1968. p. 522: "imprime sententibus utilibus... certas notas, quibus velut unis memoria volentes abire contineas".
30. For the humanist aversion to book illustrations see L. FEBVRE-H. MARTIN, La nascita del libro, Bari, 1977, p. 114.
31. We can consider as examples ms. y[gamma].H.6.20 of the Bibl. Estense di Modena [Estense Library of Modena) and the manuscripts Vat. Lat. 3430 e Vat. Lat. 3216 of the Bibl. Apostolica Valicana [Vatican Apostolic Library].
32. For the Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta alone is instead seen no edition in all the 15th century. See WILKINS 1951 [E.H. WILKINS, The making of the 'Canzoniere' and other Petrarchan studies, Rome, 1951 (Storia e Letteratura. Raccolta di studi e testi, 38)], pp. 379-401.
33. PETRUCCI 1979 [A. PETRUCCI, Libro e scrittura in Francesco Petrarca, in Libri, scrittori e pubblico nel Rinascimento, Bari, 1979], pp. 5-20.
34. For manuscripts of the courts and of luxury, see F. PETRARCA, Trionfi, ed. by S. Samek Ludovici, Rome, 1979.
35. YATES 1972 [F. YATES, L'arte della memoria, [The Art of Memory] Torino, 1972], p. 95. [It is the same in the English edition, on archive.org.)
36. Ms. Rossi 12 belongs to the end of the 15th; it is of parchment, measuring 140x100 mm., richly decorated and exemplified in Semigothic. It contains excerpts from the Trionfi, Dante's Comedy, works by Lactantius, Augustine, Origen and other Church Fathers, from the Pimander and the Asclepius. For the link between these authors and hermetic culture and on the circulation of the latter in the courtly environments, see F. YATES, Giordano Bruno and the hermetic tradition, Bari, 1969, pp. 19, 25ff. [on archive.org, it is pp. 6-19 in English], and YATES 1972 [F. YATES, L'arte della memoria, [The Art of Memory] Torino, 1972], p. 88 [on archive.org, in English, pp. 136 and 150-155].
37. Examples of such manuscripts are: the ms. Strozzi 173 of the Bibl. Laurenziana [Laurentian Library] of Florence, ms. CI.VII.845 of the Bibl. Nazionale di Firenze [National Library of Florence], ms. 1133 of the Bibl. Riccardiana of Florence.
38. G. BILLANOVICH, Lo scrittoio del Petrarca, Rome, 1947, pp. 417-418.
So we see why the production of Petrarch mss. went down in the 4th quarter of the 15th century: manuscripts were supplanted by printed versions, in relatively large numbers. It is also clear that Petrarch's Trionfi was well known in humanistic circles from the time of the author's death onwards, and was known even by those unschooled in Latin who still wished to know (and quote to others) the works of famous authors. How much that was true before the 1440s, she does not say, at least that I can determine. But it appears that the handsome volumes with full-page illustrations really did start, for the most part, after 1440. It is worth speculating on why just then, if the work was already taught and read from manuscripts? Was it because a new game by the same name, some of its cards reflecting Petrarch's six themes, had recently been invented? That seems to me a reasonable possibility, in fact a better argument than most for a post-1435 invention of the game. However, there are surely other factors to be taken into account, for example the alleged resistance of humanists to manuscript illustrations (I have never heard of that before, and I cannot find her reference online). Also, since illustrations are a phenomenon of the "courtly" mss. (including, I assume, those of the rich merchants), they may only be useful for inferring when the "courtly" cards might have begun - such as that of the gift of a trionfi pack to Malatesta in 1440. Also, the same question could be asked of the game: why just then, since all its components had been around for decades?

Here are screenshots of the pages quoted:

Re: Petrarca Trionfi poem motifs in early Trionfi decks

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Thanks Mike. Guerrini also published another article in 2006 which was in part an update of her 1986 work: "I tempi e' luoghi e l'opere leggiadre": la tradizione manoscritta della prevulgata e la fortuna dei "Trionfi" nel Quattrocento, in I luoghi dello scrivere da Francesco Petrarca agli albori dell'età moderna, ed. Caterina Tristano, Marta Calleri e Leonardo Magionami (Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 2006): 163–219.
The 2006 article contains a revised list of the Trionfi manuscripts.

The last thing I was doing for my project on the Petrarchan Trionfi illustrations—before I put it on hold several months ago in order to go back to my earlier project on Venetian and Ferrarese cards (which I am still very much in the thick of)—was going through Guerrini's list and trying to track down every single manuscript she mentions, in order to look through any that are available in digital form online (I was about halfway through the list when I put things on hold). If I recall correctly, I found that several of the manuscripts she listed, even in her 2006 version of the list, were duplicates (i.e. two entries referring to the same manuscript) or were no longer held in the collection she listed, or were listed with an incorrect shelf mark or catalogue number. In other words, be aware that the information given is not always 100% correct as it appears. Also, I discovered that some manuscripts that are mentioned in other sources do not appear on her list at all, so it is not exhaustive, even in regard to manuscripts already generally known to scholarship.

Re: Petrarca Trionfi poem motifs in early Trionfi decks

140
I, too, have noticed that Guerrini is not complete, at least in 1986, and at least one. I don't know if that is because it has changed libraries, is lost, or what.

For lack of anything better, I compared her listings with those given in Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d'Italia (https://www.olschki.it/catalogo/collana/im/p1), of which the majority are by Albano Sorbelli, 1875-1944. Of the 116 volumes said by Olschki to have been done (I think it was more than that) only around 30 are accessible online, including many volumes for places we are interested in. In those 30, however, I notice a few Trionfi mss. not listed by Guerrini. All but one are considered 16th c.

In vol. 3, p. 133, one in Sandaniele del Friuli. At http://www.guarneriana.it/antica/invent ... noscritti/, searching "trionfi" I find ms. no. 139 as 16th c.

In vol. 6, p. 203, one in Tranni, morte and fama only, 16th c.

In vol. 18, p. 72, one in Cortona, Sorbello's no. 166, called "middle of the 15th cent." I do not see it listed in the catalog that comes up when I search "biblioteca Cortona". But I may not be looking in the right place. It seems to be a catalog combining various places (around Arezzo?), and all I get are post-1470 printed editions.

In any case, Sorbello has interesting things to say about it.
Image
That is to say,
The book begins called triompho d'amore written and composed by the most excellent and supreme poet Messer Francesco Petrarcha of Florence for the love of his beloved Madonna Laura. Which book is divided into XIII chapters, they are mentioned in the sentences, and contain V triomphi etc.

Cod. of 0.231 x 0.155, in f-1 100 copied in the middle of the sec. XV, with red ink in the title and text of the Triumphs. F. 1 has three margins illuminated with arabesques and two little angels holding a laurel wreath intended for a coat of arms. The ancient binding in good condition. The codex purchased in 1879 contains the commentary on the I, III, and IV chapters of the Triumph of Love, the single chapter of Chastity and two of that of Death. At 73 the commentary on XXVI ternaries of a third chapter begins of the Triumph of Death, missing in numerous editions of Petrarch, in some printed as a separate chapter, and in that edited by Muratori (Modena, Soliani, 1711, p. 716, 808; placed among the fragments. The anonymous commentator says five, divided into chapters XIII, the six triumphs distinguished as usual in chapters XII. The tercets of continuation to the main Triumph of Death - In the heart full of bitter sweetness etc. The commentator illustrates the literal and philosophical meaning of the text, adding copious information on the historical or fabulous facts mentioned by the poet.
It would appear that the commentator thought that the first draft of the triumph of fame was really the third chapter of the triumph of death. That seems bizarre but none the less interesting. I suppose with dead heroes it could be hard to tell. I am not sure how the commentator gets five triumphs - perhaps he assimilates Time and Eternity, as we have seen elsewhere.