MS Queriniano D II 21 and the pre-definitive edition of the Rvf

The Queriniano D II 21 is one of the most important witnesses to the evolution of the Rvf. For this reason we chose to include this particular document of the Petrarchan tradition in the OPOB as part of our project meant to register and study the evolution of Petrarch’s masterpiece from manuscript to digital culture.

It is a parchment manuscript, discovered and first described by Arnaldo Foresti  (Per il testo della seconda edizione 440-445). Other scholars studied and described it, including Renato Gaffuri, Valentina Grohovaz, Michele Feo and Carlo Pulsoni. It dates back to the end of fourteenth century. It is appreciated by scholars for being one of the closest to the last version of the Rvf transcribed by Petrarch in the Vat. lat. 3195. It is one of the four witnesses used by Savoca to prepare his recent critical edition. Savoca holds that punctuation in this manuscript – even though not always present– can be illuminating to read the Vat. lat. 3195; and that the use of majuscules is another area particularly precise  (Il Canzoniere di Petrarca tra codicologia ed ecdotica, 103).

For Wilkins the first part of this manuscript, the one copied by the first copist, represents the "eighth form" of the Rvf. In a different perspective, for Feo the Queriniano D II 21 represents the “third edition” of the Rvf immediately preceding the last configuration prepared by Petrarch in the Vat. lat. 3195. Other scholars, like Carlo Pulsoni, prefer not to speak of the Queriniano D II 21 in terms of special “form” or “edition” of the Rvf.