Storey, H. Wayne, John A. Walsh, and Isabella Magni, PIs and eds. Petrarchive: An Edition of Petrarch  s Songbook Rerum vulgarium fragmenta. Bloomington: Indiana University, 2013. Accessed 17 March 2025. petrarchive.org. Launched over a decade ago at Indiana University and still growing, the Petrarchive is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarly Editions and Translations grant and the brainchild of H. Wayne Storey, a leading expert in Petrarch and medieval codicology, and John A. Walsh, director of the HathiTrust Research Center and a pioneer in scholarly digital editions. At its core, the ambitious open access project presents an edition of Francis Petrarch  s poetic masterpiece the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (Rvf), known more colloquially as the Canzoniere. The hypermedia is a   rich text   edition insofar as it is accompanied by a suite of representational and informational tools for the reader/scholar. The TEI-encoded text is based on MS Vat. Lat. 3195, Petrarch  s own copy. Though the majority of the poems were transcribed by Petrarch  s personal assistant Giovanni Malpaghini, the rest are in the hand of the poet himself, who continued to perfect these pages alone from April 1367 until his death in the summer of 1374. Any partial holograph is naturally a wonderful codicological artifact, but MS Vat. Lat. 3195 is of particular value for two main reasons: first, because of its author, who was of obvious historical and literary importance, and second, because of a long-standing and pervasive belief among scholars that the correct readings of his Rvf must perforce be the final ones contained in this very manuscript. This uncritical tradition has led to what Storey calls   the cult of the autograph (holograph).  1 In reality, at the time of Petrarch  s death, his vernacular masterpiece was still an unbound collection of 36 bifolia, riddled with doubtful variants and cancellations. Indeed, the poet had kept it as a service copy from 1370 to 1373 and made continual use of these same chartae not only for   final   versions but also as a space for experimentation, small and large, including the order of the final 31 poems. Storey continues:   The implications of this veneration of the holograph and the treatment of erasure in Vat. Lat. 3195 have been profound and never truly confronted by philologists in the editions of the Fragmenta.  2 This statement is perhaps a fitting description of 1. Storey,   Doubting,   69. 2. Storey,   Doubting,   70.  Early Modern Digital Review 8.1 (2025) 14  Early Modern Digital Review  15  the Petrarchive  s raison d  être. Despite the manuscript  s universally recognized value, many of its genuine codicological complexities are still insufficiently examined. This historico-literary paradox exists for a variety of reasons, among which are Ernest Hatch Wilkin  s bold  and, in retrospect, exaggerated  claims of certainty regarding the phases of the text  s composition and the baronial nature of Italian academia. The Petrarchive aims to address this paradox by offering a unique look at the historic manuscript through its rich text edition, which represents the visual and material characteristics of the Rvf in a single interface. It is an altruistic project of discovery, in my opinion, and one that sheds welcome light on a surprisingly obscure corner of premodern Italian literature. Storey and Walsh explain in their overview of the project  s   digital-material design   that the Petrarchive was designed for   different kinds of users, from novice to specialist   (  Instructions  ). There is no doubt that the specialist, and specialistadjacent, will find themselves at home rather quickly. That said, the term   novice   must refer, I think, to users familiar with philology and codicology but not with Petrarch specifically. I confess that I have used the site with my own students, who are all novices, for pedagogical purposes because it provides ready examples of all sorts of philological concerns. Indeed, the project  s glossary alone is useful for novices, and yet a real gem for professors, too, so by that simple measure, it clearly suits the whole gamut of users. The Petrarchive  s initial presentation at the home page is a crisp and uncluttered overview of the work  s contents, programmed in PHP. This   visual index   or map of MS Vat. Lat. 3195 (Fig. 1) is essential to maintaining   simplicity and ease of use   (  Instructions  ). Because Petrarch never fully completed his revisions, this partial autograph is a unique window onto his personal habits and methodologies, whether the site  s users are interested in flipping curiously through the text, one charta at a time, or are meticulously studying the manuscript  s authorially constructed   visual poetics   (a term that Storey coined in 1981), which are accessible nowhere else. Each quadrangular image represents one side of a manuscript page (recto or verso). Poems in brown were copied by Malpaghini, those in blue by Petrarch himself. Unlike every other edition of the Rvf, the Petrarchive preserves the original layout of the poems, including the two-column charta ruled for 31 lines on each, on which sonnets, madrigals, a ballata, and a canzone are laid out across the two columns, with the sestinas presented in a vertical format. This means, for example, that the  16  Early Modern Digital Review  normal 14-verse sonnet appears transcribed across both columns on only seven lines. Petrarch quite purposefully arranged the 366 poems in a semiotically significant fashion that makes use of the available space to guide the reader  s understanding and perception of his work, not only regarding its intangible emotional impact but also the text  s two-part composition (Laura alive and dead), here denoted by the seven light blue rectangles that remain blank, and even punctuation. The layout itself challenges our notions regarding what is ancient and what is modern.  Fig. 1. Screenshot of the Petrarchive  s home page, featuring the visual index of MS Vat. Lat. 3195.  Early Modern Digital Review  17  Upon selecting one of the charta thumbnails, the user is shown first the diplomatic transcription (Fig. 2), flanked by paratextual information (poem and line numbers, for instance) and topped off with options for navigation and additional visualizations. Choosing the   edited   option in the top-right corner brings up the same charta in a more easily recognizable form (Fig 3). The two versions were done with such patience and precision that, even beyond their immediate service to readers and scholars of Petrarch, they are also an excellent teaching resource for budding philologists, especially as clicking on the manuscript link (also at the top right of the screen) displays a full-colour facsimile image of Petrarch  s codex that can be resized and opened in a new tab for more careful inspection or even just to practise reading his hand (Fig. 4). In combination with the glossary, these tools provide both an impressive self-help module for readers new to manuscript studies and plenty of material (including essential bibliography) for professors of philology to move their students past the introductory level. Indeed, the project  s ongoing work with multi-spectral light analysis and the codex  s   reportable surfaces   promises to provide authentically unique insights into this important text with regard to erasures and modifications of all types, including expunctuation, overwrites, and strikethroughs, as well as information on initials, the use of small caps, and even comparative line widths.  Fig. 2. Screenshot of a sample poem in corrected diplomatic transcription.  18  Early Modern Digital Review  Fig. 3. Screenshot of the same sample poem in edited transcription.  Fig. 4. Screenshot of the same sample poem in side-by-side transcription and colour reproduction. The text delivery system was constructed with open source TEI Boilerplate (created by John Walsh, Grant Simpson, and Saeed Moaddeli and available from GitHub: https://github.com/GrantLS/TEI-Boilerplate), which translates XML documents into HTML5 (delivered in PHP) through XSLT and makes them functional with built-in CSS3 and JavaScript. The acronymic result is an attractive, uncomplicated user interface that makes investigating the text simple and intuitive. It is so uncomplicated, in fact,  Early Modern Digital Review  19  that some of what the site offers is a bit hidden from first-time users because the navigation tools have been discreetly set into a single hamburger menu at the top left of every page (see Fig. 5). Once that admittedly low obstacle has been hurdled, however, the minimalism is easy to appreciate, particularly for those who spend a good deal of time here. It is simple to move throughout the entire work, and it takes no time to find the passage you want in each of the three visualizations.  Fig. 5. Screenshot of the Petrachive  s hamburger menu expanded with the   Instructions   page selected. In addition to the foregoing, there is also a   Visual Index Arranged by Fascicles   (highlighted in Fig. 5 and reproduced in Fig. 6) that gives a visual representation of the codex  s composition, whose study helps us to understand the process by which it was conceived, developed, and modified over the course of time, as well as the manner in which its text was physically organized and put together.   Just as archeologists need to excavate in order to recover traces of ancient civilizations overlaid by centuries of later constructions,   Isabella Magni explains,   the project digs below the surface of a   modernized Petrarch   to discover a more historically, textually and visually   authentic   one.  3 3. Magni,   Petrarchive Project,   124.  20  Early Modern Digital Review  Fig. 6. Screenshot of the visual representation of the first of the nine fascicles, which can be further examined by clicking on the V-shaped lines that represent bifolia. As you can see in Fig. 6, the   visual index   provides a sort of codicological road map that allows users to visualize the manuscript  s constituent parts and how they have been incorporated into the text  s final form. In this example, I selected the first gathering of the nine fascicles (now highlighted within a greybordered rectangular box), which brings up a larger interactive image below it. I then selected at random one of the bifolia (to the right), now represented by the thin black line and denoted to the left as c. 6r. Above that is the identification of the chartae contained in the quaternion that comprises the first quire (1r  8v). After selecting one of interest, the reader is shown the above-described page layout and dynamic menus that permit  and invite  closer scrutiny. I will bring these pages to a close with a preview of what the Petrarchive will offer its readers next, as described on the site itself. Upon the foundations of the two transcriptions of MS Vat. Lat. 3195 and the TEI-based backend, Storey and his colleagues will build an immense, 11-part commentary beginning with an introduction focused on Petrarch  s prosody, syntax, and style. Next  Early Modern Digital Review  21  will come a discussion of the manuscript  s genesis and history, a physical description, and a material commentary. After that, they promise a chapter on the Rvf  s   visual poetics,   which in my opinion will be of particular interest and usefulness, insofar as the term itself is well known among those familiar with medieval Italian codicology, thanks precisely to H. Wayne Storey. His seminal work, Transcription and Visual Poetics in the Early Italian Lyric, is a cornerstone of this innovative perspective. In essence,   visual poetics   is the realization that the physical layout and presentation of a poem on the manuscript page are not merely incidental or decorative but are instead integral components of its meaning and reception. Storey argues that early Italian poets, far from being oblivious to the material conditions of their work, actively composed with an acute awareness of how their lyrics would appear in written form. Storey  s   visual poetics   urges us to look beyond the words on the page and to   read   the page itself. It compels us to consider the manuscript not simply as the text  s container but as an active participant in the poetic act itself  one that reflects the aesthetic and communicative intentions of the poets and those who copied their verses. This perspective has been particularly influential in the study of lyric poetry but is of obvious value in the study of Petrarch  s Rvf as well. The site will also offer a catalogue of significant textual variants and thematic analyses and incorporate into its navigation a new English translation built upon included historical ones. The Petrarchive  s creators have thought of nearly everything, it seems, to facilitate their   digital-material design.   Michael Papio University of Massachusetts Amherst  Works Cited Magni, Isabella.   The Petrarchive Project: An Overview.   Italian Culture 37, no. 2 (2019): 123  31. https://doi.org/10.1080/01614622.2019.1720214. Storey, H. Wayne.   All  interno della poetica grafico-visiva di Petrarca.   In Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, codice Vat. Lat. 3195: Commentario all  edizione in fac-simile, by Francesco Petrarca, 131  71. Edited by Gino Belloni, Furio Brugnolo, H. Wayne Storey, and Stefano Zamponi. Rome: Antenore, 2004.  22  Early Modern Digital Review  Storey, H. Wayne.   Doubting Petrarca  s Last Words: Erasure in MS Vaticano Latino 3195.   In Petrarch and the Textual Origins of Interpretation, edited by Teodolinda Barolini and H. Wayne Storey, 67  91. Leiden: Brill, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004163225.i-268.9. Storey, H. Wayne. Transcription and Visual Poetics in the Early Italian Lyric. New York: Garland, 1993.

## Références

Isabella. “The Petrarchive Project: An Overview.” Italian Culture 37, no. 2 (2019): 123–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/01614622.2019.1720214.

Storey, H. Wayne. “All’interno della poetica grafico-visiva di Petrarca.” In Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, codice Vat. Lat. 3195: Commentario all’edizione in fac-simile, by Francesco Petrarca, 131–71. Edited by Gino Belloni, Furio Brugnolo, H. Wayne Storey, and Stefano Zamponi. Rome: Antenore, 2004.

H. Wayne. “Doubting Petrarca’s Last Words: Erasure in MS Vaticano Latino 3195.” In Petrarch and the Textual Origins of Interpretation, edited by Teodolinda Barolini and H. Wayne Storey, 67–91. Leiden: Brill, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004163225.i-268.9.

Storey, H. Wayne. Transcription and Visual Poetics in the Early Italian Lyric. New York: Garland, 1993.