The 1514 Appendix Aldina

184 leaves; 8vo (15cm)

In this reprint of Petrarch’s Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (his lyric collection widely known as the Canzoniere) and Triumphs, an appendix of various materials has been added to his vernacular poetry by the Venetian printer Aldo Manuzio. The appendix includes three of the poems quoted by Petrarch in his canzone 70 “Lasso me” (“Ah me”): Guido Cavalcanti’s “Donna me prega” (“A lady asks me”); Cino da Pistoia’s “La dolce vista” (“The sweet sight”); and Dante’s “Così nel mio parlar vogli’ esser aspro” (“I want to be so harsh in my speech”). Added during a second stage of the printing process (the Bodleian holds one of the copies with a shorter appendix, Toynbee 196), it is an example of how printers enticed new customers by adding extras when reprinting an edition. Petrarch was already a best-seller, and so the addition allowed Dante’s canzone to reach a wider public.