Petrarch : Le cose volgari di Messer Francesco Petrarcha..

Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374.

Petrarch

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The Rerum vulgarium fragmenta and Triumphi edited by Pietro Bembo. Printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice with a colophon dated July 1501. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Following the success of the octavo edition of the works of Virgil in 1501, the Aldine Press published a collection of Petrarch’s vernacular works in the same format, also printed in italic. Le cose volgari di messer Francesco Petrarcha was printed in Venice in July 1501, having been edited by the humanist scholar, Pietro Bembo. A letter from Lorenzo da Pavia dated 26 July 1501 informs us that fifteen copies were printed on parchment and would cost no less than 5 ducats. The John Rylands Library possesses three copies of this edition, two on parchment and the third on paper. Both parchment copies are from the Spencer Collection, one bearing the arms of the influential Barbarigo family (15442), the other with Bembo’s arms (20957). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Bembo’s copy is of particular interest, not only because it contains some of Bembo’s original marginal annotations, but also because of its colourful history. After Bembo’s death in 1547, his copy of Petrarch was probably passed onto his illegitimate son, Torquato. According to Cecil Clough, writing in the 1970s, the copy was likely stolen from Bembo’s library in Padua around 1585 by Troiano Boccalini. It then passed on to Achille Cromer later that year, and was subsequently donated by him to Charles Clusius. When Clusius died, the book was passed to Franciscus Raphelengius, publisher and Professor of Hebrew at the University of Leiden. In October 1652, Bembo’s Petrarch was in possession of Professor Adolf Vorstius, who lent it to Graf Gustaf Adam Banér. It was returned to Vorstius and subsequently left in his will to noted philologist and geographer, Jean Läet of Antwerp. By the 1800s, the copy was in possession of the Duke of Cassano Serra of Naples, having previously been owned by Dr. Niccolò Francesco Lupi da Gravina of Rome. It was purchased by Spencer in 1819, along with the rest of the Cassano’s library. </p>