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FRANCESCO PETRARCA, 1304-1374
Canzoniere, no. 3
On paper
Florence, 1409, written by Giovanni Tolosini
MS 688, ff 155v - 156r
Petrarch went to great lengths to polish his rhymes and
edit them into a coherent collection, known today as the
Canzoniere, and he also took care to restrict
his readership to those few who would best comprehend
and appreciate his poetry. He did not foresee, nor most
likely would he have condoned the fate of the third sonnet
of his collection in the hands of Giovanni Tolosini. After
transcribing Giovanni di Bonsignori’s Allegorie
ed esposizioni delle Metamorphosi, Tolosini noticed
that he had some extra blank space. What to do? Fill the
void by adding a few sonnets. The first of those sonnets
is Petrarch’s no. 3. The sonnet, which originally
commemorated Petrarch’s falling in love with Laura,
is adapted to serve as consoling verses for the lovelorn
Tolosini himself. In the same way that he manipulated
Petrarch’s sonnet, Tolosini took three other sonnets
and transported them into a new context, changing the
authors’ original intention into expressions of
happiness or sadness for new and different people and
times.
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