A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Montagu d. 32

Summary Catalogue no.: 25401

Contents

1. (fol. 7)
Leonardo Bruni, Life of Petrarch
Rubric: Francisci Petrarchae... Vita... a Leonardo Arretino composita
Incipit: Francesco Petrarcha huomo di grande ingegno
Language(s): Italian
(fol. 12)
Petrarch, Nota di Laura
Incipit: Laura propriis uirtutibus
Language(s): Latin
(fol. 12v)
Petrarch, Familiarum rerum II.9 (extract: to Jacobus de Columna, bp. of Lombez, also about Laura)
Incipit: Quid ergo ais
Language(s): Latin
2. (fol. 14)
Petrarch, Il Canzoniere
Rubric: ... Carminum liber...

Those which occur after fol. 137 were written after Laura's death. Four poems are deleted at foll. 70, 88.

Final rubric: (fol. 184v) Rerum uulgarium Fr. Petrarchæ fragmenta finiunt. Sumpta ex quodam exemplari descripto manu Leonardi Iustiniani ueneti..., quod ex eo libro descripserat: quem poëta ipse propria manu conscripsit

For full details see Mann, 1975, p. 460.

Language(s): Italian
(fol. 185)
Petrarch, Rime Disperse CCXIII
Rubric: Hanc Oden, quam frottolam uernacula lingua appellant in quodam peruetusto exemplari repperi post caeteras odas positam
Incipit: Diridere ho gran uoglia
Language(s): Italian
3. (fol. 190)
Petrarch, Trionfi
Rubric: ... Triumphorum liber...
Incipit: Quanti gia nella eta

The Trionfo della Morte has some additional lines at the beginning (beg. 'Quanti gia nella eta'): and the poem beginning 'Nel cor' occurs as the first part of the Trionfo della Fama.

For full details see Mann, 1975, p. 460-1.

Language(s): Italian
(fol. 235v)
Petrarch, Epistolae metricae variae 7
Incipit: Valle locus clausa
Language(s): Latin
(fol. 235v)

A list of Petrarch's works.

Language(s): Latin
(fol. 235v)

A later index of first words to the Sonetti and Canzoni .

Language(s): Italian

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 240 leaves
Dimensions (binding): 10.75 × 7 in.

Hand(s)

Humanistic script attributable to Bartolomeo Fonzio.

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander ii. 315, pl. XXIX

fol. 5v

  • Inserted Indian miniature with a young man in long tunic and headdress, holding a gold staff, with his hand over the shoulders of a young woman in long dress, cloak and veil.

fol. 7r

  • Type initial F(rancesco)
  • Subject Gold 4-line initial with vine-stem decoration on a multicoloured ground.

Fine historiated border.

  • Type border, upper, left and lower margin
  • Subject The border is formed by double gold bars and vine-stem decoration on a multicoloured ground, with an owl, peacock (?) and gold disks. At the bottom of the page two winged putti support a laurel wreath with the coat of arms of Francesco Sassetti.

3- to 4-line gold initials and borders in left and upper margins, formed by sprays of flowers, leaves, fruit and gold disks, on fols. 14r, 138r, 190r. Border on fol. 14r includes an elaborate urn.

Binding

Brown morocco with stamped gold ornament, doublé (early 19th cent. English work), with double-headed eagle displayed surrounded with the motto 'Perseverando' (see Provenance).

History

Origin: c. 1470–1480 ; Italian, Florence

Provenance and Acquisition

The volume was written for 'Franciscus Saxetti' (Francesco Sassetti), of the Sassetti of Florence, and bears his arms on fol. 7. (A. C. de la Mare, ‘The Library of Francesco Sassetti’, in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance: Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by Cecil H. Clough (Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 160–201 (no. 71, p. 187))

His great-grandsons: 'Est nunc Francisci & Filippi Joannis baptistae ... Francisci de Saxettis cuius possessio primum fuit' (16th cent. ?)

'E ora di proprietà di Me Marchese Giovanni Gerini' (18th cent.).

A Persian miniature of a man and woman is at fol. 5, inserted; made for Elijah Impey in 1775 (Mann, 1975, p. 462).

Philip Augustus Hanrott (1776-1856): binding with his stamp (British Armorial bindings, stamp 1), a double-headed eagle displayed surrounded with the motto Perseverando.

Captain Montagu Montagu, Royal Navy (1787–1863), on whom see Summary catalogue, vol. 5, p. 112. Capt. Montagu acquired the book on or before March 17, 1827, the date of a note by him on fol. 3.

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Montagu; received in 1864.

Record Sources

Description adapted (April 2025) from the following sources, with additional description of illumination (Elizabeth Solopova, c. 2000), and additional reference to published literature as cited.
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, II (1970), no. 315
Summary Catalogue (1897)

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    N. Mann, ‘Petrarch Manuscripts in the British Isles’, Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 18 (1975), pp. 139–527, no. 228 (pp. 459-62)

Last Substantive Revision

2025-04: Description revised to incorporate all information from printed catalogues with reference to published literature as cited.