Dante Treasures : Il Canzoniere di Petrarca e Le Rime di Dante

Dante Treasures

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript, created in the late fourteenth century, brings together two major poetic works of Italian vernacular literature: <i>Il Canzoniere</i> by Petrarch (<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(13);return false;'>3r-148r</a>) and <i>Le Rime</i> by Dante (<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(309);return false;'>149r-174r</a>). Preceding these is Bernardo della Casa’s sonnet addressing the reader (<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(10);return false;'>2v</a>). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The Latin colophon at the end of Dantes's Rime (<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(359);return false;'>174r</a>) states that the poetic works were copied by the scribe Paolo, under the commission of Lorenzo, son of Carlo Strozzi. Carlo, a prominent figure in the Strozzi family’s mercantile-banking enterprise, was also an influential political and military leader serving the Florentine Republic. His death in 1383 provides a <i>terminus ante quem</i> for the manuscript’s completion, as his name appears without the <i>quondam</i> (the late) or <i>Beatae Memoriae</i> (of blessed memory) (Mann, 1975).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>While the illuminated decoration may have been added at a slightly later date, the manuscript itself is confidently dated to the late fourteenth century. Until recently, scholars attributed the manuscript’s miniatures to an anonymous Florentine artist working before 1383. However, based on distinctive stylistic elements, Labriola (2012) now attributes these illuminations to Don Simone Camaldolese. This reassessment suggests a date for the miniatures around 1390–1395, aligning them closely with those found in Giovanni Boccaccio’s <i>Genealogie deorum gentilium</i>.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Overall, scholars agree that the manuscript’s main body was likely completed shortly before Carlo’s death in 1383, possibly around Petrarch’s passing in 1374. By this time, Lorenzo, likely an adult, may have begun assembling a collection of fine manuscripts. This pursuit not only reflected the Strozzi family’s elite status within Florence but also mirrored broader Renaissance trends in literary patronage and the preservation of vernacular literary culture.</p>