Object details

Accession number

U11n9

Creators

• Francesco Petrarch (Arezzo, 1304 - 1374, Arquà Petrarca) - primary
• G. Barbèra (established Florence, 1840) - publisher
• Giovanni Mestica (Apiro, Italy, 1838 - 1903) - author

Full title

Le Rime restituite nell'ordine e nella lezione del testo originario sugli autografi

Creation Date

1900

Language

Italian

Publication Place

Florence

Binding Description

Tooled red leather

Description

ii + v 379 pp. 64

Provenance

Gift from composer Clayton Johns (1857-1932) to Isabella Stewart Gardner on Christmas 1905.

Marks

Inscribed in ink (on first blank page): I.S.G. from C.J. [Clayton Johns] Xmas 1905'.

Display Media

Printed ink on paper

Web 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. 

Permanent Gallery Location

Macknight Room

Rights and reproductions

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