40 folios, complete (i9, ii8, iii7, iv-v8), written in pale brown ink in a extremely elegant and fine italic bookhand, on 14 long lines (justification: 85 x 50 mm) with capitals slightly separated at start of lines, text in pristine condition. Bound in eighteenth-century red morocco, boards with twisted roll-tool border, small flower tools at each corner of gilt border, gilt board edges and turn-ins, spine in 5 compartments, green morocco title piece in second compartment, crowned monogram in fourth compartment "PR", marbled pastedowns, gilt edges, in a fitted box. Dimensions 165 x 110 mm.Previously unknown copy of Guidiccioni's sonnets, written in a beautiful calligraphic hand. The present manuscript contains the final, revised version of the sonnets, incorporating corrections by his secretary and close friend Annibale Caro, known from marginal annotations in a working copy in Parma, as well as an unpublished, previously unknown sonnet by Caro to Guidiccioni.
Provenance
1. Prince Vincenzo Carafa, his eighteenth-century engraved bookplate on front pastedown;
2. Charles Edward Harris St-John, his bookplate pasted on inside front flyleaf.
3. On front flyleaves, the following inscriptions: "Dr. F. O. Beggis Library" and "D. B. Harris, Fybury Hall, 1890".
Text
f. 1, Title added by a later hand: "Mons. Guidiccione. Rime"
f. 2, Dedicatory epistle, Guidiccioni to Annibale Caro: "Mons. Guidiccione al Caro. Messer Annibale mio. Perche da l'un lato mi sento chiamare da piu severo giuditio a piu gravi studii..."; This dedicatory epistle is printed in Guidiccioni,
Rime e prose... (1720), p. 151 and again in Guidiccioni,
Opere... (1767), vol. I, 246: the letter accompanies the sonnets Guidiccioni sent to Caro, asking him to improve or correct his sonnets. Chiorboli quotes this letter and believes it was written by Guidiccioni from Fossombrone, where he was bishop: "Io piuttosto la riterrei scritta di Fossombrone, dove s'era dato con ardore nuovo agli studi davvero "gravi" della filosofia e alle pie pratiche della religione, il settembre o l'ottobre di quell'anno [1539]. Poiche il Caro gli scrive cola di Roma, agli 11 di novembre 1539, che "i luoghi dei sonetti si corregeranno, secondo gli dice"" (Chiorboli, 1907, p. 71-72).
ff. 3-39, Sonnets (73 in all) composed between 1526 and 1530; first sonnet: "Viva fiamma di Marte, honor de tuoi" (Chiorboli,
Rime, 1912, sonnet no. IV, p. 5); last sonnet: "Il verde de l'eta nel fango vissi"(Chiorboli,
Rime, 1912, sonnet no. CXXVI, p. 78); the first 12 sonnets are dedicated to his "Patria" and reveal his nationalistic pride; the following 61 sonnets are dedicated to themes of love and religion;
f. 40, Sonnet by Annibale Caro dedicated to Guidiccioni, according to a later marginal annotation; incipit, "Ne veder basso altrui, ne voi si altero..." ; explicit, "Tanto si fanno il mondo amico et Dio".
Giovanni Guidiccioni was born in Lucca in 1500 and died at Macerata in 1541. A nephew of Cardinal Bartolomeo Guidiccioni, he was made governor of Rome at the age of 34, bishop of Fossombrone by Paul III Farnese, governor of Romagna in 1539, and governor of the Ancona region in 1541. Prelate, diplomat, and scholar, he was an accomplished poet admired by many literary figures of his time. Annibale Caro (1507-1566), who served as his secretary,was a close friend.
A superb piece of calligraphy, this deluxe manuscript contains 73 of Guidiccioni's sonnets addressed to his friend and fellow poet Annibale Caro. The sonnets, which express his grief for the sad state to which his country was reduced, are prefaced by a dedicatory epistle written to Caro. At the end is a sonnet written by Caro in Guidiccioni's honor (sonnet 74). The Naples edition of Guidiccioni's sonnets includes a letter to Caro in which Guidiccioni thanks him for a sonnet which reached him upon his return from Spain and Tunisia where the prelate went as papal nuncio to Charles V. This last sonnet in the present manuscript mentions the rivers Ebro (Catalunya, Spain), Bagrada (Tunisia), and Ibero (Spain, rivers resounding to the dedicatee's name ("Risuoni il Tebro, el Bagrada, et l'Ibero / V'hanno Guidiccion mio recato sdegno"). It is possible that this sonnet may be the one Guidiccioni refers to in his letter (Guidiccioni,
Rime e Prose...(1720), p. 136). The Caro sonnet is not previously recorded and was no doubt included by Guidiccioni when the corrections to his own sonnets were transcribed.
The present manuscript appears to be a sister manuscript of a manuscript in Parma (Palatino di Parma, MS. 344), titled "Rime di Monsig. Guidiccione colle correzioni del Caro." The Parma manuscript contains the same number of sonnets, 74 in all, along with the corrections by Annibale Caro to his friend's poems (for a description of the Parma copy, see Chiorboli, 1907, pp. 175-176). It seems likely that Guidiccioni had an exemplar of his sonnets copied to be sent out to Annibale Caro, his "corrector" and that this is the Parma manuscript. Then, the Parma manuscript, or at least the corrections to it, was likely sent back to Guidiccioni, who in turn had a fresh, corrected, and revised version copied. In his study of Guidiccioni's verses, Chiorboli gives examples of the corrections Caro made that are found in the Parma manuscript. The present manuscript gives the new and revised verses. In the sonnet numbered LXVIII [68] in the Parma manuscript, Guidiccioni had originally written: "Se la tua' santa man, Signor verace / Che coronato stai sovra le stelle / L'avvelenoto stral dal cor non svelle / Che languir sempre e vaneggiar mi face." Caro corrects and rewrites the verses, giving the final version copied on folio 36v of our manuscript, the same version that was ultimately printed in 1557: "Se la tua santa man, Signor verace / Che coronato stai sovra le stelle / Lo stral che si l'accese indi non svelle / Como avro saggio dell'eterna pace." If the hypothesis presented here is correct, then the present manuscript contains the updated, final revised copy of Guidiccione's verses, a copy that incorporates the marginal annotations in the Parma manuscript.
Most of the eighteenth-century editors did not know of the existence of this final revised version, because they print the first draft without Caro's corrections: for sonnet 35, the 1767 edition (Guidiccioni,
Opere...(1767), vol. I, p. 29) reads "E 'n sen portando i miei pensier nascosi / Di tutt'altri mortal diletti schivo / Accuso il tardo trapassar de l'ore"; whereas both Caro's correction in the Parma manuscript and the present newly copied version reads "Sollo io : ma in seno ho i miei desir nascosi / E le dolci speranze, el piacer vivo / Felice e ben chi nasce a tanto honore"(the present manuscript, folio 19). Chiorboli speaks of the "ritocchie," that is "alterations" or "touching up," by Annibale Caro. Yet Chiorboli clearly was unaware of the existence of the present neat copy since he based his edition of Guidiccioni's Rime on the readings contained in the Parma manuscript.
"Le rime noi abbiamo date qui, per 74 sonetti, secondo la lezione del codice palatino di Parma 344, il quale altro non e se non la scelta che dell'opera sua di poeta compose lo stesso autore, e, transcritta nella sua casa, mando ad Annibale Caro, amicissimo suo, affinche, como fece di sua mano, qua e la abilmente la ritoccasse. Intorno ai quali ritocchie all'importanza del manoscritto, inesplorato agli editori antecedenti, salvo, come s'e accennato, al parmigiano 1729, che, peraltro, non ne trasse il debito partito, rimando lo studioso al mio studio suddetto, alle pagine 72-75 et all'appendice III, serbata ai codici altrui incogniti o mal noti" (Chiorboli, 1912, p. 332-333).
One further hypothesis should be entertained: it is possible that our revised and "clean" exemplar was copied under Annibale Caro's direction, the one Guidiccioni refers to in his own verse as "mastro famoso di leggiadre rime" [famous master of elegant verses](our manuscript, f. 35v). It is important to note that the present copy boasts an elegant hand that resembles that found in the Hours of Alessandro Farnese (Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. 69) which Vasari describes as being in the hand of the scribe Francesco Monterchi (Harrsen, no. 102, pp. 57-58). Annibale Caro was close to the Farnese Court, which he served before and after the death of his protector Guidiccioni: "Morti, il Guidiccioni nel ‘41 e il Gaddi nel ‘42, il Caro, gia noto como squisito letterato, fu assunto come primo segretario da Pier Luigi Farnese, figlio di Paolo III, in Roma. Con lui o per lui viaggio in legazioni e commissioni varie. Quando Pier Luigi fu investito del ducato fi Parma e Piacenza, il Caro fu messo a capo dell'amministrazione della giustizia, e quando il duca fu ucciso, nel settembre 1547, egli si salvo a stento" (Enciclopedia italiana, II, p. 109). Also, Chiorboli adds that Annibale Caro joined Guidiccioni posted in Romagna: "Poco dopo [dicembre 1539] esso Caro raggiungeva, segretario ambitissimo, il benefattore suo nelle Romagne; e la, nelle poche ore libere dalle cure del governo, doveva comunicare a lui e discutere insieme le fatte correzioni" (Chiorboli, 1907, p. 72). Perhaps this new copy was presented to Guidiccioni at this moment?
Whether Guidiccioni himself had the manuscript transcribed or whether its completion was undertaken at Caro's instigation, this copy contains the final, previously unrecorded version of Guidiccioni's sonnets, along with a hitherto unpublished sonnet by Caro.
Literature
Chiorboli, Ezio. Giovanni Guidiccioni, Jesi, Stab. Tipografico cooperativo, 1907.
Chiorboli, Ezio. G. Guidiccioni - F. Coppetta Beccuti. Rime, Bari, G. Laterza and Figli, 1912.
Ferrarim Luigi. Onomasticon. Repertorio bio-bibliografico degli scrittori italiani dal 1501 al 1850, Milano, Hoepli, 1947.
Guidiccioni, Giovanni. Oratione di Monsignor Guidiccione alla Republica di Lucca, con alcune rime del medesimo, In Fiorenza, [Lorenzo Torrentino], 1557.
Guidiccioni, Giovanni. Rime e prose di M. Giovanni Guidiccione,... ora la prima volta insieme raccolte, Napoli, Per gli eredi di Laino, 1720.
Guidiccioni, Giovanni. Opere di Giovanni Guidiccioni, raccolte dalle più antiche edizioni e da' manoscritti, ora la prima volta pubblicate [da Alessandro Pompeo Berti], Genoa, presso B. Tarigo, 1767.
Ghilini, Girolamo. Teatro d'huomini letterati, Venezia, per il Guerigli, 1647.
Harrsen, Meta and G. K. Boyce. Italian Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1953.
Inghirami, Francesco. Storia della Toscana, Fiesole, Poligrafia Fiesolana, 1841-1844.
Online resources
Census of Italian editions of the Sixteenth century:
http://edit16.iccu.sbn.it/
Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
