Rerum vulgarium fragmenta: From Manuscript to Print

After describing the close relation between Petrarch’s and Dante’s conceptions of canzone form, this article explores the formats followed by Petrarch and his scribe Giovanni Malpaghini in their transcriptions in Vat. Lat. 3195. Giovanni’s traditional horizontal format allows for certain striking effects of collocation (as of 125-126) and for minimal page turns in canzoni; however, the vertical format of the sestinas and the vertical alignment of even-numbered verses in Petrarch’s own transcriptions of sonnets and canzoni suggest a gradually increasing sense of the possibilities of vertical format.