Marston MS 99     Italy, s. XV 1/4
Petrarch, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, etc.

View digital images from the Beinecke Library’s Digital Images Online database

1. f. 1r [Title page, in later hand:] Le Rime di M. Francesco Petrarca; ff.
1v-131v  Voi che Ascoltate In rime sparse el suono/...Ch'accolga 'l mio
spirto vltimo in pace.  Francisci petrarche Laureati poete rerum vulgarium
fragmenta Expliciunt. Deo Gratias Amen.

Francesco Petrarca, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta; nos. 1, 3, 2, 4-23, 25,
26, 24 (vv. 1-13), 27-61, 66, 67, 62-65, 68-71, 72 (vv. 1-37, [vv. 16-72 of
no. 73 interpolated], vv. 38-78), 73 (vv. 1-15, [vv. 16-72 in no. 72], 
vv. 73-93), 74-79, 81, 82, 80, 83-210, 212-336, 350, 355, 337-349, 356-359,
360 (vv. 1-47), 352 (vv. 9-14), 354, 353, 366.  G. Contini, ed., Il
Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca (Turin, 1964).  Order of verses in nos.
22 and 30 (each a sestina) garbled.

2. f. 132r-v [Heading:] Magistri Antonij de monte alCino et cetera.  [text:] O 
fiero mio destino o crude stelle/ O sorte mia damor turbata in celo/...O che 
mai pace impetre piu dal cielo. finis.

Unidentified Italian sestina, here attributed to Antonius de Monte
Alcino.

3. f. 132v Sja maledecto mille volte Amore/ Crudele acerbo despiatato:  e 
rio/...poi che me lassi: in si crudel[e erased] tormento.  ff. 133r-134r 
ruled, but blank

Unidentified Italian sonnet.

4. f. 134v [L]a nocte che segui l'orribel caso/...Ance che giorno gia uicin
n'agiunga.

Francesco Petrarca, Triumphi, Triumphus mortis II, vv. 1-27; F. Neri,
ed., Rime, Trionfi, e poesie latine (Milan and Naples, 1951) pp. 523-24.

5. f. 135r Deuoto mio la tua ingratitudine/ Tor non porria giu la tua
cancone/...non parolette non mencogne o versi. finis.

Unidentified poem [last stanza of a canzone?].

6. ff. 135r-v [Heading:] Romanus. [text:]  [S]e'l canpo bianco quale el corpo 
mio/ Piu uolte lasso di pensier se scese/...Ch'io ueggio l'altre assai per 
essa inuito; [heading:] uituperium mulieris.  [text:] Femineo sesso d'ogne mal 
radice/ Lupina stirpe animal senca freno/...Senca pudore di uituperio amica; 
[heading:] Romanus missum[?] [text:] Tva fama a me assai piu che altra e 
nota/ Spirata in te da quelle Antiche muse/...Dentro alla calla sorto y tuoy 
capellj/ Di poetichi vcellj/ Mispandi el canto e la dolce armonia/ In etica
morale o poesia. ff. 136v-142v ruled, but blank

Unidentified Italian couplet.

Paper (unidentified watermarks in gutter), ff. iv (paper) + i (parchment; 
early wrapper?) + 142 (early pagination 1-11, replaced by early pagination 
1-128 [leaves 129-131 missing], 132-134; modern foliation in lower right corner,
1-142) + i (parchment: early wrapper?) + iv (paper), 212 x 144 (written space 
varies considerably, ca. 155-150 x 95-90) mm.  Ca 27-30 lines of verse.  
Double vertical bounding lines; ruled in lead or crayon.  Remains of prickings 
in upper, lower, and outer margins.
Precise collation impossible due to tight binding.  Perhaps:  I 12,
II-III 16, IV-X 12, XI 6, XII 8.  Horizontal catchwords with simple
penwork flourishes on all sides, center of lower margin, verso.
Written by multiple scribes in various scripts ranging from
cancelleresca to gothic bookhand.
One historiated initial, rubbed and of poor quality, f. 1v, 6-line,
green and red with foliage serifs.  The body of initials is formed from a
dragon and filled with a portrait of Petrarch seated at a writing table,
against parchment ground.  Spaces left blank for initials remain unfilled;
guide letters for decorator.  Opening initial for each verse set apart
between vertical bounding lines.
Binding:  England, s. xx.  Dark brown goatskin with a gold-tooled title
"Petrarca Francesco Le Rime.  Italy Circa 1400."  Bound by Sangorski and
Sutcliffe of London.

Written in Italy in the first quarter of the 15th century; according to E. Pasquini,
the language of the manuscript is generically Tuscan; provenance unknown. "No 77 [?]"
in ink on f. 1r.  Purchased from C. A. Stonehill in 1956 by Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  [P]er fare

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 76, no. 99.
Ullman, no. 47.
Dutschke, pp. 178-79, no. 71.

Barbara A. Shailor