Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 3442

Record Id:

040-002049273

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049273

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0003a6

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3442

Title:

Petrarch, Il canzoniere; Trionfi

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains Il canzoniere (Song book) and Trionfi (Triumphs), two poetry collections by the Italian humanist, scholar, and poet Francesca Petrarca (b. 1304, d. 1374), commonly known as Petrarch.

The scribe was responsible for two other Petrarchan manuscripts: Bodleian Library, MSS Canon. Ital. 70 and 76 (see Mann, Petrarch Manuscripts (1975), p. 409).

Contents:

ff. 1r-129v: Petrarch, Il canzoniere;

ff. 130r-167rv Petrarch, Trionfi.

The manuscript includes a later addition:

f. 149r: An effaced verse, 'Spargea per laera il dolce estiuo gielo', added in the late 15th century.

Decoration:

Large initial in colours with acanthus leaves on a gold panel, and paneled border with white vine decoration, heraldry in the lower border. A small band of brown penwork along the side and around the paneled letter, and along the border (f. 1r). Large white vine initial in colours and gold with acanthus leaves and besants extending into the margin (f. 130r). 6 gold initials on coloured grounds (ff. 95v, 142v, 146r, 155v, 162v, 165r). Display script (ff. 1r, 130r, 142v, 146r, 155v, 162v, 165r). Coloured initials in alternating red and blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049273", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3442: Petrarch, Il canzoniere; Trionfi" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049273

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3442 : Petrarch, Il canzoniere; Trionfi

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3443]/040-002049273

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Italian

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 240 x 155 mm (written space: 160 x 70 mm).

Foliation: ff. 167 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and end).

Collation: Mostly in quires of 10.

Catchwords written vertically. Guide letters.

Script: Humanistic.

Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin: Northeastern Italy (Ferrara).

Provenance:

According to unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, this manuscript was made in the 3rd quarter of the 15th century in Ferrara.

An effaced verse, 'Spargea per laera il dolce estiuo gielo', added in the late 15th century (f. 149r).

The Priuli family, Venice, early 16th century: their arms painted over an earlier effaced shield (f. 1r).

Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie; sold to Edward Harley on 20 January 1721/2 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 253-54; Diary (1966), I, p. 138 n. 8).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘20 die Januarij, 1721/22’ (f. 1r). Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3442.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 128 and p. 138, n. 8.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 253, 254, 279.

Mann, Nicholas, Petrarch Manuscripts in the British Isles (Padua: Antenore, 1975), p. 409.

Cyril Ernest Wright, 'Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition', in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 475).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Noel, Nathaniel, bookseller, fl 1681, d c 1753
Petrarca, Francesco, poet, 1304-1374

Places:

Ferrara, Italy