Il petrarcha con l'espositione di M. Giovanni Andrea Gesualdo

Third edition of Giovanni Andrea Gesualdo’s commentary on Petrarch’s Canzoniere and Trionfi, following the editions of 1533 and 1541 issued by the Nicolini da Sabbio, printed in Venice in 1553 by Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari and his brothers.

The Canzoniere, printed in italic type and divided into two parts, is set within an expansive page layout dominated by Gesualdo’s commentary. The Trionfi form a separate second part, with their own title page and distinct dedication. Each part bears Giolito’s phoenix device with the motto Semper eadem and the initials G.G.F.; the general title page is further decorated with portraits of Laura and Petrarch flanking an architectural portico. Numerous historiated initials. A woodcut map of Vaucluse, closely associated with Petrarch’s periods of retreat and with his poetic imagination, appears among the preliminary matter. Each of the six Trionfi is preceded by an engraved vignette.

19th-century Italian binding, circa 1840, in half cherry-red morocco-grained shagreen over red cloth boards. Spine with four flat false bands, decorated with three tools and blind compartments, rolls over the bands and broad blind fillets; gilt initials “CG” in one compartment. Some rubbing and staining to the boards. Engraved title cropped close, with small losses at the corners and outer margin. Pale yellow dampstaining to the margins of the first five preliminary leaves and to two leaves of the Life of Petrarch. Gathering 553 detached. From leaves 647 to 657, the outer margin is nibbled away by approximately 1 cm, progressively diminishing. Scattered light foxing; overall relatively fresh, particularly through the text of the Canzoniere, with somewhat heavier though still pale foxing towards the end.

An early manuscript ownership inscription, partly cancelled, appears at the foot of the general title page: “Ex Libris V.I.D. [...] Iacobi Praeconij (olim)”. This early provenance has not yet been securely identified.

The preliminary matter includes a stylistic analysis together with lives of Petrarch and Laura. Gesualdo’s commentary belongs to an exegetical tradition already strongly shaped by Alessandro Vellutello, whose own commentary first appeared in 1525. Eight years later, Gesualdo offered a broad and learned reading of Petrarch’s text, informed by classical learning and ranging widely across questions of language, style, history, and interpretation.

The 1553 edition is particularly notable for placing its two principal parts under two distinct forms of female patronage. The Canzoniere is dedicated to Maria di Cardona, Marchioness of Padula and Countess of Avellino, an important figure in Neapolitan aristocratic and literary circles. The Trionfi, meanwhile, are dedicated to Susanna Gonzaga, Countess of Collesano. This second dedication appears to go beyond conventional homage: the preliminary texts suggest that Susanna Gonzaga may have played a direct role in commissioning or encouraging the commentary on the Trionfi.

The very structure of the volume therefore reflects two networks of female patronage involved in the reception of Petrarch in 16th-century Italy. Far from serving merely as prestigious names at the head of the book, Maria di Cardona and Susanna Gonzaga each place one part of Gesualdo’s commentary within an aristocratic culture in which poetry, scholarship, and patronage were closely intertwined.

With its rich critical and visual apparatus, and above all its double dedication dividing the Canzoniere and Trionfi between two prominent women of the Italian nobility, this Giolito edition offers a particularly revealing witness to the ways in which Petrarch was read, interpreted, and reshaped within the learned and aristocratic networks of the Renaissance.