Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 040: Francesco Petrarca, De remediis utriusque fortunae

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Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 040: Francesco Petrarca, De remediis utriusque fortunae

Alternate Title:

Petrarcha de remediis utriusque fortunae

Language:

Latin

Extent:

ff. 128

Dimensions:

340 Height (mm) and 240 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1375 - 1399]

Provenance:

At the bottom of 33v is pencilled: Johannes Bl...uell decanus assaph. This must be John Blodwell, Dean of St Asaph's from 1418 to 1442. He died in 1462, and his magnificent brass is in Balsham Church not far from Cambridge. Some books were given by Blodwell to Queens' College (Searle, Hist. I 53) but this was not among them.

Table of contents:

De remediis utriusque fortunae

Description:

CCCC MS 40 is the earliest known text by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304-74) to be copied in England in the last quarter of the fourteenth century, his De remediis utriusque fortunae. The text is concerned with the limitations of worldly success and pleasure, and the problems of misfortune and adversity. A large part of this is in the form of a dialogue between joy (Gaudium) and adversity (Dolor) with reason (Ratio). It is given a Humanist emphasis by its supposed use of a classical model - the De remediis fortuitorum, attributed in the Middle Ages to Seneca. There is no evidence for the place of production or ownership of the manuscript.