Il manoscritto di dedica del ‘De vita solitaria’ rivisto e corretto da Petrarca

Here for the first time, MS Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, 9633 is demonstrated to be the dedication copy of ‘De vita solitaria’ sent by Petrarch to his friend Philippe de Cabassole in June 1366. The author carefully revised his text and added marginal notes, flourished parenthesis and maniculae. Gathering information from Petrarch’s letters, the complex history of the writing of the treatise is reconstructed from the first draft in 1346 to the successive stages until the ‘publication’ in 1346 (but Petrarch later made a substantial addition to the text). The identification of this manuscript marks a positive advance towards a steady edition of ‘De vita solitaria’.