The Sonnets of Petrarch by Francesco Petrarch, Signed Harcourt Binding

Binding Details:  Signed custom binding by the Harcourt Bindery, Charlestown, Massachusetts bound in morocco leather over complimentary cloth covered boards with raised bands to the spine and gold gilt titles and ruling. There is gold gilt ruling to the boards, hand-sewn silk endbands, and the top page edges are gold gilted. The Harcourt Bindery label appears on the bottom of the last free endpaper.

Book Details:  Originally written in the 14th century, this is the 1966 Heritage Press, New York edition of The Sonnets of Petrarch. The book features the sonnets in the original Italian along with an English translation by Thomas G. Bergin and the illustrations from drawings by Aldo Salvadori. From The Poetry Foundation: “Influenced by his interest in the classics, his poems investigate the connection between love and chastity in the foreground of a political landscape, though many of them are also driven by emotion and sentimentality. Critic Robert Stanley Martin writes that Petrarch “reimagined the conventions of love poetry in the most profound way: love for the idealized lady was the path towards learning how to properly love God . . . His work has a grace that, among his predecessors, is second only to Dante’s, and it often shows a greater refinement, particularly in its development of conceits. Petrarch will often begin with a single trope and develop it into a conceit that defines the entire sonnet.”

Measures approximately 11.25” x 7.5” with 369 pages as well as an introduction by Thomas G. Bergin, table of contents, notes, and an index of translators.

Condition Report:  The binding is in FINE condition. Internally, the book is very clean with no signs of previous ownership.

A photograph of the binding appears in the photo section of the listing.