Petrarca - Remediis Utriusque Fortunae - 1649

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IL PETRARCA (BUDDHISTA) CHE NON TI ASPETTI : DISTACCO NELLA BUONA E NELLA CATTIVA SORTE
Elegant seventeenth-century edition of De remediis utriusque fortunae, one of the most important and fortunate Latin works by Francesco Petrarca, published in Rotterdam in 1649 in Arnold Leers’ workshop. Far from the solely lyrical image of the author of the Canzoniere, the volume reveals Petrarch the moralist and philosopher: through a vast series of dialogues he teaches how to maintain inner balance in the face of prosperity as well as in adversity. Reason dialogues with Joy, Hope, Pain, and Fear, opposing the mutability of Fortune with moral discipline, self-control, and awareness of the precariousness of earthly goods. The title page also declares the presence of De contemptu mundi, reinforcing the moral and contemplative character of the collection. An interesting northern European edition of the seventeenth century, with a figurative mark on the title page and preserved in the full contemporary parchment with handwritten title on the spine.

REASONS FOR COLLECTING
Petrarca Alternative – One of the fundamental works for understanding the philosophical and humanist aspect of the great poet.
Fortuna and Passions – An extraordinary meditation on the relationship between man and success, pain, desire, fear, and the instability of life.
Rotterdam 1649 – An interesting testimony to Petrarch’s international fortune in cultured Europe of the Seventeenth century.
Pergamena Coeva – A copy preserved in full original parchment with handwritten spine titles.

MARKET VALUE
A commercially interesting edition because it presents Petrarch as a very different and less common figure compared to the Canzoniere and the Trionfi: the philosopher, moralist Petrarch and a forerunner of European Humanism. De remediis enjoyed vast diffusion from the Middle Ages to the modern era and retains strong interest among collectors of Petrarch, moral philosophy, neo-Stoicism, the history of the passions, and humanistic literature. The Rotterdam edition increases the international appeal of the specimen, while the contemporary parchment preserves its Seventeenth-century character. The theme of the work is particularly effective commercially: how to maintain inner balance both when fortune favors us and when it strikes us.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Typography page with a figurative mark. Full contemporary parchment, smooth spine with handwritten titles. Small-format copy, typical of editions intended for personal reading and meditation. Frontispiece present, the copperplate frontispiece is missing; any stains, annotations, restorations, missing or peculiar collation details must be checked directly on the copy.
[36], 824, [28] pages
In old books with a long history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description.

FULL TITLE
Francisci Petrarchae poetae oratorisque clarissimi, De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae libri duo. Ejusdem De contemptu mundi colloquiorum liber, quem Secretum suum inscripsit. Editio nova ac melior. Cum indicibus duobus, altero Dialogorum, altero rerum.
Roterodami, ex Officina Arnoldi Leers, 1649.

AUTHOR
Francesco Petrarca (Arezzo, 1304 – Arquà, 1374).

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
De remediis utriusque fortunae belongs to Petrarch’s mature Latin output and is one of the most representative texts of his moral reflection. The work arises in an Europe still profoundly marked by political precarity, epidemics, wars, and the mutability of social conditions. Petrarch revives the ancient philosophical tradition, especially Stoic and Cicero’s, filtered through Christian spirituality. Fortune thus becomes the testing ground of inner freedom: not only misfortune threatens man, but success, wealth, beauty, and fame can destabilize his soul. True wisdom lies in keeping Reason in government of the passions.

LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE
De remediis is built as a great dialogic machine. In the first book Reason contrasts Joy and Hope before the goods of prosperous fortune; in the second it contends with Pain and Fear in the face of adversity. This structure allows Petrarch to address an impressive variety of human experiences: wealth and poverty, health and sickness, beauty, fame, power, love, friendship, death, loss, and fear. The work had enormous influence on European culture because it transformed moral philosophy into a practical tool for facing daily life. The presence in the same volume of De contemptu mundi, identifiable with the Petrarchan Secretum, further reinforces the introspective character of the collection and directly stages the conflict between earthly desire and spiritual discipline.

PRINTING HISTORY AND RARITY
De remediis utriusque fortunae enjoyed extraordinary editorial fortune already in the incunabula era and continued to be reprinted in numerous European cities throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. The present edition, printed in Rotterdam in 1649 by Arnold Leers, belongs to the phase of full Europeanization of Petrarch’s editing, when the Latin works of the author circulated far beyond Italy as texts of moral philosophy and humanist culture. The title page qualifies the print as “Editio nova ac melior” and announces two indexes, one of the dialogues and one of notable things, a feature that emphasizes the practical and consultative aim of the book. The full contemporary parchment constitutes another antique interest element and preserves the original appearance of the seventeenth-century edition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ICCU – Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle biblioteche italiane e per le informazioni bibliografiche; SBN, catalogo delle edizioni antiche di Francesco Petrarca e delle numerose edizioni europee del De remediis utriusque fortunae conservate nelle biblioteche italiane.
USTC – Universal Short Title Catalogue, University of St Andrews, for the European printed tradition of Petrarch’s Latin works and for the census of seventeenth-century editions.
CERL – Consortium of European Research Libraries, Heritage of the Printed Book Database, for the international localization of copies of De remediis and of the Arnold Leers workshop editions.
CERL Thesaurus – Francesco Petrarca; Arnold Leers / Arnoldus Leers, for authority forms, onomastic variants, and Rotterdam publishing activity.
WorldCat – OCLC, international collective catalog, for census of copies of the 1649 edition in European and North American libraries.
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, catalogs of Dutch ancient collections, for Rotterdam’s book production and the printers’ activity in the Netherlands in the 17th century.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Catalogue général, for ancient editions of De remediis utriusque fortunae and of the Secretum.
British Library, General Catalogue, for the European publishing tradition of Petrarch’s Latin works.
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, catalog for historic and digital collections, for the numerous renaissance and seventeenth-century editions of De remediis.
Brunet, Jacques-Charles, Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur de livres, entry Petrarca/Pétrarque, fundamental historical reference for Petrarch’s editorial and collecting fortune.
Graesse, Johann Georg Theodor, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, entry Petrarca, for the historical bibliography of Petrarchan editions.