Petrarch and the Reading of Cicero’s De natura deorum in the ms. 552-2 of the Médiathèque du Grand Troyes

One of the richest collections of Ciceronian works of the XIVth century, the ms. 552-2 of the Médiathèque du Grand Troyes (France), belonged to Petrarch (1304-1374). Probably a gift from the Scaliger family, the codex was made in a workshop of northern Italy and decorated with several beautiful miniatures. By the time of its acquisition (c. 1342), the Troyes manuscript, containing the bulk of Cicero’s philosophical and rhetorical treatises, became one of the most vital books owned by the humanist because its margins are packed with thousands of glosses of different meanings and typologies: they point out oratorian stylistic devices (with parallels between Roman and Medieval techniques), draw Petrarch’s attention to religious themes, create links to parallel texts, correct the scribe’s errors, in an attentive philological effort. This corpus of glosses has never been published or entirely analysed even if several studies of marginalia have shown how crucial is this particular aspect of Petrarchan research. The article presents some of the annotations to the first book of the De natura deorum. The comparison of these notes with passages of Petrarch’s works, in particular the treatise De suis ipsius et multorum ignorantia, is decisive for evaluating the degree to which the reading of the Roman author was fruitful.

Il ms. 552-2 della Médiathèque du Grand Troyes (France), una delle più ricche raccolte ciceroniane del Trecento, commissionato probabilmente dalla veronese famiglia della Scala ad un atelier dell’Italia del Nord finemente decorato da splendide miniature, appartenne a Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374). Dal tempo della sua acquisizione, intorno agli anni ’40 del Trecento, l’umanista lasciò sui margini di questo codice centinaia di annotazioni di varia tipologia: ci sono postille che commentano lo stile dell’oratore, appunti sul contenuto religioso dei trattati, paragoni tra i precetti ciceroniani e la retorica medievale, rinvii ad altri autori, correzioni apposte al testo in un intenso impegno filologico. Il presente contributo offre una panoramica delle postille petrarchesche più interessanti, tuttora inedite, al primo libro del De natura deorum. Il raffronto tra queste annotazioni e le opere petrarchesche, in particolare il trattato De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia, è determinante per valutare il notevole peso che ebbe in Petrarca la lettura dell’autore latino.