Petrarca, Francesco

8vo (151 x 88mm.), PRINTED ON VELLUM (goatskin), title enclosed within a purple ink banner, pen-and-ink illustration of a funerary urn with portraits of Petrarch and Laura at head of a leaf containing a sonnet (by Lodovico Domenichi) on the ashes of Petrarch and Laura (both taken from the 1543 Giolito edition by Vellutello), followed by 6 manuscript facsimile leaves, contemporary Italian illumination on n7 (start of Sonetti et canzoni in morte di Madonna Laura) with motifs of death (slightly rubbed), and on t1 (start of Triomphi, very worn), several 3-line gold initials on coloured grounds in the Triomphi, with blank leaf z8, eighteenth-century calf with double gilt fillet border, spine gilt in compartments, red edges, lacking 17 leaves (a2-7, of which a3-7 supplied in early manuscript facsimile, s7-8, a blank and the section title for Trionfi, and A8-B8, the extra poems and the errata), a few words on h8v slightly rubbed, m2-3 transposed, binding slightly rubbed

Hopetoun, armorial bookplate, sale, Sotheby's, London, 25 February 1889
Henry J.B. Clements (1869-1940), Killadoon, Ireland, armorial bookplate (not included in his sale of July 1966)

Aldo Manuzio Tipografo 127; Censimento 16 CNCE 55881; Renouard 68/6 (listing eight vellum copies); Speck, Petrarca 193; Texas 113; UCLA 125; Van Praet, Vélins de bibliothèques, IV, 180 (listing the Masterman Sykes, d'Elci/Magliabecchi and Marsand copies)

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Aldus first published Petrarch's text, as edited by Pietro Bembo, in July 1501; this reissue additionally contained, following Aldus's letter to the reader defending the presentation of the text, an extra canzone and seven sonetti, one of which, "Nel cor pien d'amarissima dolcezza", was traditionally the first capitolo of the Triumph of Fame, but had been removed by Bembo. This is probably the only one of Aldus's vernacular publications to be issued twice during his lifetime, despite the poor sales of the 1501 edition. Aldus reordered the poems for this edition so that the poems on the death of Laura would begin with "Oimé il bel viso" (n7r).

However, Renouard noted that there were two states to the 1514 edition, which Brian Richardson has fully examined ("Two versions of the Appendix Aldina of 1514", The Library, sixth series, 13 (1991), 115-125). Richardson's state A has quire y containing the "missing" capitolo "Nel cor pien" and quire B⁸ ("Da poi che morte" and "Pien d'infinita", the extra canzone and four sonnets, errata and printer's device), and state B has quire y starting with "Da poi che morte" (followed by a blank leaf) and contains quires B-C⁸ (Aldus's letter, "Nel cor pien", the extra canzone and fourteen sonnets, errata and printer's device). Richardson concludes that state A is the earlier one, particularly as state B was followed for the next Aldine reprint of 1521. Of the sixteen copies he examined, state A occurred in just two and both were printed on vellum, leading to the probability that the vellum copies were printed first. Additionally, Richardson notes that some copies do not contain the printed dedication starting on a1v; in this copy, a1v is similarly blank.

Randall McLeod has studied the blind printing in Aldine octavos printed on vellum; some of the blind printing here is taken from Caesar, dated in the colophon to April 1513 (on u5v is part of the preface from Julius II about Aldus's italic types, on B3r), and from Sannazaro's Arcadia, dated to September 1514. He concludes that the second state of this edition was printed later, perhaps in 1515, but without a reset colophon, as it contains blind printing from the January 1515 Lucretius (Alba Page, "The Sewers of Paris", Chicago Review, 59:01, Fall 2014).