Object details
Object number
U11n9
Creator(s)
Title
Le Rime restituite nell'ordine e nella lezione del testo originario sugli autografi
Date
1900
Medium
Printed ink on paper
Language
Italian
Publication Place
Florence
Binding Description
Tooled red leather
Description
ii + v 379 pp. 64
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed in ink (on first blank page): I.S.G. from C.J. [Clayton Johns] Xmas 1905'.
Provenance
Gift from composer Clayton Johns (1857-1932) to Isabella Stewart Gardner on Christmas 1905.
Commentary
As a student of Harvard professor Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908) and a member of his Dante Society, Isabella Stewart Gardner had a great interest in Italian poetry and literature. She kept this small copy of Petrarch’s Le rime, a fourteenth-century collection of Italian vernacular poetry, close at hand inside her desk in the Macknight Room. This was a gift from her close friend, the composer-pianist Clayton Johns (1857-1932). Many objects in the Museum’s collection are associated with Petrarch, including numerous editions of his writings and artworks inspired by his poetry. The most significant of these Petrach-inspired works are the panels by Francesco Pesellino (1422-57) in the Early Italian Room. They depict scenes from Petrarch’s allegorical poem, The Triumphs of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity.
Bibliography
Kathleen King, "Isabella's Desk of Curiosities in the Macknight Room," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 31 May 2022, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/isabellas-desk-curiosities-macknight-room
Gallery
Macknight Room
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