Beinecke MS 352            Italy, s. XVI^^1
Girolamo Benivieni, Three Poems, in It. (1 leaf)

First poem:  //A questo mio latino/ Tutte contente e liete/ D[is]sero come
volete/...****vi trastullate/ [Di] me che uostra sono vi ricordate. Fine.

     Eleven verses; considerable damage to beginning of 8 verses in upper left
corner.

Second poem:  Del medesimo Lorenzo a le medesime sue done. I. [Non m'
inc]resce di me/  Talhora si malamente/ Che non men dogla sente/...Stato e amor
conseruj/ Voi e me facci un de piu uil suoi seruj.  Fine.

     Eighty-five verses; five others cancelled.

Third poem:  A la antedecta Gostanza sua nipote, Stommi cosi soletto/ A mensa
come suole/ Ch' il mio cor dir non uuole/...A me e tua la rosa/  Sia ch[e]gl'e
giusta cosa//

     Seventy-three verses; considerable damage to end of 15 verses in upper right
corner.

     Paper, 1 f. (foliated 88), 286 x 192 (238 x 160) mm.  3 columns, 30 lines.
Ruled in hard point.  Written in a vigorous notarial script.  Leaf is mutilated
and has been repaired extensively.  Boxed.

The three poems were once thought to be the autograph works of Lorenzo de'
Medici; complete handwritten transcription of text (s. xix-xx) in library files
has heading "Autografo di Lorenso il Magnifico (Poesie Inedite)"; the
attribution to Lorenzo was based on the title of the second poem "Del medesimo
Lorenzo...".  According to M. Martelli (letter on file), however, the poems are
in the hand of Girolamo Benivieni (1453-1542; cf. A. M. Fortuna and C.
Lunghetti, Scriptorium Florentinum v. 1 [Florence, 1977] pls. 89, 90, and
R. Ridolfi, "Girolamo Benivieni e una sconosciuta revisione del suo Canzoniere,"
La Bibliofilia 66 [1964] pp. 213-34, with pls.).  MS 352, f. 88 from a
larger volume, may be Benivieni's working copy, since words and verses have been
added and deleted throughout; all three columns on both recto and verso have
been struck out; poems have not been located in the Opere of Benivieni
(Venice, 1522).  Sold by the bookdealer Niels Hansen Christensen (no. 172 in his
unidentified catalogue) as the work of Lorenzo de' Medici to S. Harrison Thomson
from whom it was acquired in 1967 with the Beinecke Rare Book Endowment Fund.

Barbara A. Shailor