The Making and Unmaking of Petrarch's Canzoniere

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course is an intensive reading of Petrarch's influential and groundbreaking self-anthology. Petrarch's collecting and ordering of his own work is in many ways without precedent. We examine in particular the historical redactions of the Canzoniere, its status as a work-in-progress, what Petrarch excluded from its various forms (especially the Rime disperse), early drafts, and authorial variants. The emergence of a new role for the vernacular author and the shifting space of handwriting and the book are central concerns in our discussions, and we make frequent use of facsimiles and diplomatic editions.