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From Manuscript to Print to Digital: Petrarch and the Renaissance Filter

Isabella Magni, University of Sheffield & the 2024-2025 Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies and the Center for Italian Studies Fellow in Italian Manuscript Studies

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Thursday, April 10, 5:15 - 6:30 pm EST
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Hybrid: Online and Kislak Center, Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 6th Floor
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Open to the Public
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Hosted by: Kislak Center

Detail of illuminated manuscript with illuminated initial V containing half figure of a man. Decorated margins with a profile portrait of a man next to the illuminated initial V.

Petrarch’s Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (or canzoniere) has long been acknowledged as one of the most influential poetic masterpieces of early modern Western literature. The canzoniere’s reception has been extensive, with numerous manuscripts, editions, imitations, and partial translations of some of its 366 poems. Though it would be historically inappropriate to entirely dismiss centuries of textual editing of Petrarch’s canzoniere, it is essential to recognize the impact this history has had on the way we still read and interpret Petrarch today. In fact, even the most influential editions of the work were all spawned from its Renaissance reception. Yet, while Petrarch engaged with many themes and concepts that would become the pillars of humanist debates, he was a medieval poet and a medieval bookmaker. This talk will analyze the early transmission and cultural accretions of Petrarch’s canzoniere, and the Renaissance filter that still influences the way we read Petrarch’s poems and his role as the ‘editor’ of his songbook. It will also explore how digital technologies can help us trace this intricate history of transmission and re-interpretations.

STUDENT WORKSHOP April 11, 2025, 10:30am - 12:00pm

Digital Humanities in Practice: Tools and Methods for Literary and Historical Research

Led by Dr. Magni, this workshop will offer a practical introduction to digital tools and methods that support literary and historical research. Through real-world case studies and hands-on demonstrations, we will explore how digital approaches can be used to investigate research questions, and to edit and analyze cultural and textual data. Some of the projects we will discuss are Petrarchive, Italian Paleography, and SCWAReD. No prior computational experience is required.

Free and open to all Penn and Philadelphia-area students. Register here.

Isabella Magni

Isabella Magni is a Lecturer in digital humanities in the Digital Humanities Institute (DHI) at the University of Sheffield. Her research stands at the intersection between digital philology and digital editing, text and data analysis, cultural analytics, digital archives, mediaeval and early modern studies, mercantile and transcultural mediaeval cultures. She is the principal investigator of the project Petrarchive: An Edition of Petrarch’s Rerum vulgarium fragmenta and co-investigator of the project SCWAReD (Scholar-Curated Worksets for Analysis, Reuse & Dissemination).

Headshot of Isabella Magni with trees in fall colors in the background.

The lecture is sponsored jointly by the Center for Italian Studies, the Italian Studies section of the Department of Romance Languages, and the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies.

Featured image: Detail from 15th-century manuscript of Petrarch's Rime (titled in the manuscript as Sonectorum et cantilenarum liber; also known as Canzoniere) and Trionfi, written in Florence, Italy, ca. 1470 (UPenn Ms Codex 2196, fol. 16r).

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