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MS. Canon. Ital. 73

Summary Catalogue no.: 20125

Contents

(fols. ii recto - viii recto)

Alphabetical table of first lines

Language(s): Italian
(fols. i recto - cxl recto)
Petrarch, Il Canzoniere

For full details see Mann (1975), p. 403. The poems written before and after Laura's death are distinguished by living or dead laurel branches in the margins.

Language(s): Italian
(fol. cxl recto-verso)
Petrarch, Nota de Laura
Incipit: Laura propriis uirtutibus illustris
Language(s): Latin
(fols. clxi recto - clxxviiii recto)
Petrarch, Trionfi

Glossed, in parts extensively; for full details see Mann, pp. 403-4.

Language(s): Italian
(fols. clxxviiii verso - 187v)
Sicco Polentone, Life of Petrarch
Language(s): Latin
(fols. 187v-188r)
Petrarch, Ep. famil. rer. II. 9, extract
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper (but fols. 1 and 10 are parchment)
Extent: 1 + 8 + 190 + 1 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 230 × 125 mm.
Foliation: i-clxxx (original), supplemented in modern pencil

Collation

Mostly quires of 10: see Mann, p. 402.

Layout

1 col., 28 lines; ruled with hard point; written above top line; ruled space c. 160 × c. 75 (including the outer column of c. 5 mm. for initials) mm.

Hand(s)

Humanistic script attributable to Antonio Grifo (see Provenance)

Decoration

Border (fol. 1r) and initials at the beginning of items by a professional artist (Mariani Canova compared the style of Girolamo da Cremona (p. 190)) and extensive other marginal decoration attributable to Antonio Grifo (see Provenance).

Fine borders.

Fine initials. (Pächt and Alexander ii. 580, pl. LV)

Numerous small marginal paintings of birds, books, helmets etc.

Binding

15th century, end, Italian (as MS.): wood boards with steep inside bevel; rich brown polished leather, blind-tooled all over with lines and strapwork; spine diapered with blind triple lines and a punch, re-laid over new leather; remnants of four clasps with lost brown-leather straps; gilt gauffered edges; 18th-century label of Jacopo Soranzo on spine. Rebacked 20th century, Bodleian. 239–240 × 128–9 × c. 40 mm. (book closed).

History

Origin: 15th century, second half (watermarks attested c. 1465-76, see Mann) ; Italian, Venice (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Pächt and Alexander (II, 580) noted the similarity of the added decoration in the present manuscript to (1) Venice, Marciana, MS. It. Z. 64, (2) a printed Petrarach (Brescia, Inc. Queriniano G V 15), (3) a printed Dante at Rome (Casa di Dante). The Venice manuscript had been attributed to Antonio Grifo of Venice (approximately 1430 - approximately 1510: see Dizionario Biografico) by A. Medin in 1904, an identification confirmed in 1980-1 by V. Alfieri (Dizionario Biografico). Mariani Canova showed in 1990 that Grifo was responsible for the added decoration in all four items, and was the scribe of the present manuscript (esp. pp. 152-3). The arms on fol. 1r (azure two lion or griffin paws crossed or with a label of Anjou) should probably be interpreted as those of Grifo (Mariani Canova, p. 190).

Emblems on fol. 1r: three interlinked rings, with letter A and motto 'multo (?) sdegno'; burning torch with motto 'ogni altro estinse'; a flaming branch (?); apparently referring to the Sanseverino family (Mariani Canova, p. 190) with whom Grifo was closely associated (Dizionario Biografico).

Erased ex libris inscriptions on fols. cxl verso, clxxviiii recto, read by Mann (p. 405) as 'Ex libris Francisci Boergni (?) sacerdos Clodiensis (?) ...', 'Ex libris Francisci Borg... sacerdotis ... anno ... 1569'. (or 1509)

Jacopo Soranzo

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Record Sources

Adapted by Matthew Holford (May 2025) from the following sources, with additional reference to published literature as cited, and limited additinal physical description:
B. C. Barker-Benfield, Bookbindings of Canonici manuscripts : a survey of early and non-standard bindings, mostly Italian, in the Canonici collection of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (Oxford, privately printed, 2020)
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, II (1970), no. 580
A. Mortara, Catalogo dei manoscritti italiani che sotto la denominazione di Codici Canoniciani Italici si conservano nella Biblioteca Bodleiana a Oxford, Quarto Catalogues XI, 1864
Quarto Catalogue, col. 91
Summary Catalogue, vol. 4, p. 413

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Frasso, Giuseppe, Giordana Mariani Canova, Ennio Sandal, Illustrazione libraria, filologia e esegesi petrarchesca tra quattrocento e cinquecento : Antonio Grifo e l’incunabolo queriniano G V 15 (Padova: Antenore, 1990)
    N. Mann, ‘Petrarch Manuscripts in the British Isles’, Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 18 (1975), pp. 139–527, no. 187 (pp. 402-405)
    Tammaro de Marinis, La legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI, 3 vols., Florence 1960, III no. 3025 (under Florence).

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2020-07-21: Binding description added.