Caption: "Petarch, Sonnets and Canzoni, 'The melody of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound' - Wordsworth, printed by Gabriel Giolito, Venice, 1559. Francesco Petrarch, 1304-74, as the 'first modern man,' inaugurated the Renaissance. Symonds states that in Petrarch '. . . The particular is superseded by the universal . . . the citizen is sunk in the man . . . his language has lost all traces of the dialect, and his verse fixes the poetic diction for all time in Italy.' This volume of several hundred sonnets and canzoni reveals the idealized love of the poet for Laura over a period of forty years and forms' . . . one of the most splendid bodies of amorous verse in all literature . . . remarkable for exquisiteness and finish.'. 'What little I am, such as it is,' the poet said, 'I am through her.' Petrarch's writings gave 'dignity and importance to living this side of the grave.' Petrarch, Dante and Boccaccio are considered the three 'fountains' of Italian literature, although Petrarch judged his Latin writings more important than these immortal sonnets written in Italian. Gabriel Giolito, the most prolific printer in Italy during the sixteenth century, printed about eight hundred and fifty books from the date of founding his press in 1539 to his death in 1578. In the first twenty-one years, before 1560, twenty-two editions of Petrarch’s poems bore his imprint. Giolito also exercised great influence on his contemporaries and successors in the form and decoration of books, especially of title pages.”
Italian poetry--14th century Literature, Medieval Sonnets, Italian Italian Literature Printing--Italy--History--16th century Early printed books--Specimens Printing--Specimens
Place
Venice (Italy)
Source
Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University
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