‘Tracce’ petrarchesche: tipologia, analisi, datazione

The issue presents the provisional results of studies of a particular category of Petrarch's autographs, those which are to be found in his manuscripts written on spaces not originally specifically destined to receive formal writing: flyleaves, white margins and in general blank spaces scattered around the books. Such autographs, which should be classed as tracce (according to the meaning attached to the word by recent paleographical studies) have not enjoyed – and perhaps not surprisingly – the same attention which has been devoted to others Petrarch’s autographs. However, research into texts transmitted as addition to book or to the back of documents has shown that this writing practice was widely adopted during the Middel Ages, especially in the later period. As a consequence, Petrarch's writing habits do not represent an exception or a personal invention, but rather they are the expression fo a graphic habit widely adopted also among his contemporaries. In order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon is therefore vital to explain the significance of Petrarch's personal uses. The intention is also of dating Petrarch's tracce individually so as to establish their chronological sequence, and also to describe and analyse writings which – far from being occasional occurrences – constitute a coherent unit which responds to certain features and to a graphic and cultural project which is well worth of our attention.