A Miscellany Written in Prison (MS Can. Ital. 50)
Commentary
A Miscellany Written in Prison (MS Can. Ital. 50)
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Can. Ital. 50
Italy, Urbino; 1464; Antonio de’ Petrucci from Siena
Italy, Urbino; 1464; Antonio de’ Petrucci from Siena
Paper; ff. IV+236+III'; mm 219x143; verses copied in a single column, prose copied in full page; cursive script by Antonio de’ Petrucci. Pen-flourished initials for some of the poems. Some rubrics in red. Some brackets and maniculae by the scribe.
Binding in cardboard and leather.
Italy, Urbino; Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805; Giuseppe Canonici -1807; at the Bodleian Library since 1817.
The volume contains miscellaneous texts: Augustine’s Latin letters; moral sayings attributed to Seneca, Dante, Valerius Maximus, Petrarch; a quite substantial anthology of vernacular poems (by Petrarch, Dante, Malatesta da Pesaro, Simone Serdini, Antonio da Ferrara, Alberto Orlando da Fabriano, Leonardo Bruni, Tommaso da Rieti, Sennuccio del Bene, Giusto de' Conti, Giudantonio da Urbino, Angelo Galli da Urbino, and anonymous); and some of Andrea de’ Petrucci’s own letters and other short texts. Andrea signs the book three times: «Ex arce urbini die xxvi° augusti 1464 manu propria» (fol. 7r); «Qui liber scriptus est et finitus fuir a me Antonio de petrucciis de Sena, milite, ac paterni comite, in arce urbini et in eadem carcerato sub annis d(omi)ni 1464 die xxv inuij» (fol. 231r); «Ex Arce urbini die x° nouembris 1464» (fol. 236v).
Andrea de’ Petrucci (Siena, 1400–Forlì, 1471) belonged to one of the richest and most powerful families in Siena; he was a leading politician whose influence went beyond his motherland. He is the only Sienese leader mentioned by contemporary historians and chroniclers: cited for instance by Pope Pius II Piccolomini and Niccolò Machiavelli. He was imprisoned by Federico di Montefeltro in October 1461 and remained in Urbino until October 1465. While incarcerated at Urbino, he compiled this miscellany with texts he found in the Montefeltro library. Dante’s lyric poems here are divided into two sections: a large, cohesive series that encompasses some poems from the Vita nuova and sixteen canzoni, introduced in the rubric as “moral poems” (fol. 10r); and two spurious sonnets, entitled “devotissimi di Dante” (fol. 73v, “most pious by Dante”).