Petrarca - con Annotazioni non più Stampate - 1564

THE SECRET LABORATORY OF LANGUAGE: PETRARCH, BEMBO AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN ITALIAN
Rare and fascinating Venetian edition of 1564 of the works of Francesco Petrarch, published by Niccolò Bevilacqua in the height of Petrarchism. More than a simple reprint of the Canzoniere, the volume constitutes an authentic instrument of literary education intended for poets and scholars of the Renaissance. The statements and annotations drawn from the famous Prose della volgar lingua by Pietro Bembo transform the text into a practical guide for learning the stylistic perfection of the Italian language. Of particular interest is the presence of the rare “conserva” of rhymes arranged according to the five vowels, a refined lexical and phonetic repertoire designed to facilitate the art of poetic composition. The elegant woodcuts and the richness of the editorial apparatus testify to Petrarch’s extraordinary fortune in the sixteenth century, when the Aretine poet was considered not only the greatest author in the vernacular but the very foundation of the Italian literary language.
MARKET VALUE
Sixteenth-century editions of Petrarch are consistently among the most sought-after classics in the European antique market. Complete and well-preserved copies of the Venetian editions from the sixteenth century typically fetch values between 800 and 3,000 euros, with higher results for particularly fresh specimens or for contemporaneous, high-quality bindings. The present copy has some missing pages and a second part that is incomplete, elements that affect the economic valuation but do not erase its historical and bibliographic interest. The rarity of the edition, catalogued in a limited number of institutional libraries, allows for a indicative value estimated between 400 and 1,200 euros.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Two works bound in a single volume, in full parchment. Illustrated with six woodcut illustrations in the text. Title page reinforced on the verso with old paper, vertical annotation in Greek (?). Restoration at page 10. Sporadic ancient handwritten annotations present. Pages 43-56 and 65-68 of the first part are missing; the second part ends at page 254 instead of 259. Collation preserved: 472 pages of 490 in the first work and 254 pages of 259 in the second. Light signs of use to the binding and modest traces of time. Overall good condition for a fifteenth-century edition frequently consulted.
In old books, with a centuries-long history, there may be some imperfections, not always noted in the description.
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Il Petrarca con dichiarationi non piu stampate. Insieme con alcune belle annotationi, tratte dalle dottissime prose di monsignor Bembo, cose sommamente utili, a chi di rimare leggiadramente, & senza volere i segni del Petrarca passare, si prende cura. E piu una conserva di tutte le sue rime ridotte sotto le cinque lettere vocali.
Venice, near Niccolò Bevilacqua, 1564.
Francesco Petrarca.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
This volume documents one of the most important cultural phenomena in the entire history of Italian literary culture: the transformation of Petrarch into the absolute model of the poetic language. During the sixteenth century the work of the Arezzo-born poet was elevated to normative canon thanks to the authority of Pietro Bembo, who identified in his rhymes the pinnacle of stylistic perfection in the vernacular. From that moment, entire generations of poets sought to imitate the lexicon, imagery, rhythm, and linguistic constructions of the Canzoniere.
The Bevilacqua edition of 1564 fits perfectly into this context. The annotations drawn from the Prose della volgar lingua allowed the reader not only to read Petrarch but to understand the compositional mechanisms and apply them to their own writing. The volume thus assumes the character of a true Renaissance poetry school.
Particularly interesting is the so-called “conserva” of the rhymes, a lexical repertoire organized according to the five vowels. This is an extremely refined tool, conceived to help poets in the search for assonances, consonances, and elegant metrical constructions. This feature makes the work not only a literary text but also a fundamental document of sixteenth-century poetic practice.
The six woodcuts further contribute to the edition’s editorial prestige, placing it within the tradition of great Venetian prints intended for a cultivated and refined readership. The volume marks the moment when Petrarch ceased to be merely a medieval author and became the legislator of the modern Italian language.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Francesco Petrarca was born in Arezzo in 1304 and died in Arquà in 1374. Poet, humanist, diplomat, and scholar of the classics, he is universally regarded as one of the fathers of European modern culture. His Canzoniere revolutionized vernacular poetry and gave rise to a tradition that would dominate Western literature for over three centuries. His Latin works contributed to the birth of Humanism, while his philological research on ancient texts opened the path to Renaissance culture. In the sixteenth century he was elevated by Pietro Bembo to the absolute model of Italian poetry.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Petrarch’s works were among the most printed books in Italian editorial history. From the early editions of the Quattrocento, the Canzoniere enjoyed extraordinary diffusion, which further increased in the sixteenth century. The assertion of Pietro Bembo’s linguistic theories transformed Petrarch into the obligatory reference for anyone who aspired to write in an elegant vernacular.
The edition published by Niccolò Bevilacqua in 1564 belongs to this phase of the greatest cultural prestige. Bevilacqua was one of the most active Venetian publishers of the latter half of the sixteenth century and contributed to the diffusion of the main Italian classics. The presence of Bembo’s annotations and the conserva of the rhymes makes this print particularly significant for the study of petrarchism. The USTC lists only 31 copies preserved in public libraries, confirming the edition’s relative rarity on the antique market.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
USTC, Universal Short Title Catalogue, Venice edition, Niccolò Bevilacqua, 1564, census of 31 institutional copies.
EDIT16, CNCE 36425.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, records of copies preserved in Italian libraries.
WorldCat, international catalogs of the edition.
Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, P-904.
Brunet, Manuel du Libraire et de l'Amateur de Livres, IV, coll. 507-515.
Gamba, Serie dei Testi di Lingua, pp. 248-251.
Mortimer, Italian Sixteenth Century Books, Harvard College Library.
DBI – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, entry "Petrarca, Francesco".
Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana, entry "Francesco Petrarca".
Wilkins, Life of Petrarch.
Santagata, Petrarca e la tradizione lirica europea.
Storey, Petrarch and the Italian Renaissance.
Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua, modern critical editions.
Studi sul petrarchismo cinquecentesco e sulla ricezione bembiana della lirica volgare.