Petrarch's Remedies for fortune fair and foul (review)

174 Reviews illuminating intellectual glitter of its own. It is to be recommended in the introductory role to which it lays claim. Valerie I. J. Hint Department of History University of Auckland Rawski, Conrad H. Petrarch's Remedies for fortune fair and foul, 5 Vols, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, cloth; pp. 368, 512, 368, 560, 592; 227 plates, tables; R.R.P. U S $395.00. This five volume study of Petrarch's essays De remediis utriusque fortunae is certainly an impressive work, both for its lavish presentation and for its wealth of scholarship. The first two volumes cover Book 1, the Remedies for prosperity, with Rawski's English translation and his very full commentary. Volumes 3 and 4 translate and comment on Book II, the Remedies for adversity. They are followed by a book of references. All five volumes are splendidly bound, using top quality paper, and incorporating many illustrations. Some of these help to explain Petrarch's message and some exemplify he artistic background to his period; however, there really was no need to include portraits of well-known celebrities from ancient Greece and R o m e such as Alexander, Hannibal, Sulla, Marius; Cicero, Cato, Augustus, Tiberius, Seneca and Vespasian. And yet there is a major omission in Rawski's "modem edition" of the De remediis: the Latin original. The main variants are noted by him between the 1492 and 1581 editions, and Twyne's 1579 translation, although in most cases without the benefit of the original context. He also does discuss and occasional crux, but the manuscript history is barely mentioned, and highlighted changes in an English translation are a very poor substitute for the original Latin text Rawski's version is misleading in places, but seems to be accurate for the most part However, his special love of Plutarch's masterpiece and his possession of an annotated copy of it from his boyhood days might well be compared with Petrarch's lifelong passion for classical literature and history, and his regular use of itsrichsupply of exempla. The commentaries suffer from some sins of omission and commission. In his many comments on Plutarch's character, Rawski makes no mention of the important role played in his life by that kindred spirit, Abelard. There is a manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (Ms Lat 2923) in which the first folio has two initial containing the portraits of Abelard and Heloise (although her face was later blotted out). This once belonged to that great collector and lover of manuscripts, Petrarch. He only corrected one of its textual corruptions (eitoegi), but added several dates and many coded notes, equating his own angst with that of the castrated and soul-searching Abelard. A more Reviews 175 physical link tied in with Petrarch's fall from a horse on February 23rd, 1345, when he added the note et me node (T too at nighf) to Abelard's die quadam de nostra lapsum equitatura ('on a certain day falling from m y riding'). However, there were two Latin authors who had a far greater influence on the contents of the De remediis: (Epistulae Morales) and Juvenal. The latter's Satires provided the loci classici for most of thefirsttwenty Remedies in Book I but were rarely mentioned or quoted in full. It was much the same with Seneca's moralizing letters, despite their great influence on the overall format and subjectmatter of most of the Remedies. When classical authors are quoted, sometimes at painful length, Rawski's choice of translations leaves a lot to be desired. Most come from the old-fashioned and often patently erroneous versions in the Loeb series, suggesting that he has little knowledge of the greatly improved translations by m o d e m Classical scholars. On the other hand, Rawski's 60-page bibliography and his immense range of quotations suggests a life-long study and thorough understanding of Petrarchian and medieval scholarship. However, there is one very stimulating work on Petrarch that was published in America at about the same time, a book that might have helped him to understand Petrarch's psyche: Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle's, Petrarch's Genius: Pentimento and Prophecy. On pages...