Written by
Petrarch, Italian, 1304 - 1374
Published by
Hurst & Company, American, founded 1883
Subject of
Rock Rest Tourist Home, American, 1948 - 1976
Owned by
Sinclair, Clayton, American
Sinclair, Hazel, American
Date
ca. 1901
Medium
ink on paper (fiber product) with book cloth (textile material) , cardboard , leaf (metal) and thread
Dimensions
H x W x D: 7 5/8 × 5 3/8 × 1 1/8 in. (19.3 × 13.6 × 2.8 cm)
Description
A hardcover book titled, The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch, by Petrarch and published by Hurst & Company. It is a cloth bound hardcover book with a sewn binding and gilded page edges. The green front cover of the embossed, cloth-bound volume features a large, gold leaf rectangular box at the top third of the cover. The shortened title of the book, [PETRARCH], is printed in green relief inside the box. The text is accented with illustrations of leaves and curled stems. Around the box is a band of repeating squares with circles at the center, divided by two small rectangles. It is surrounded by a second band filled with black and studded with gold polka dots. The box is framed with a gold band decorated with small, four petal flowers connected by curvilinear lines. Floral sprays with five petals flowers overlay the bands on the box. In the bottom right quadrant is a gold leaf illustration of a bird in flight inside a circular frame with floral flourishes at the top, bottom, right, and left sides. Surrounding the title box and bird illustration is an ornate black embossed frame embellished with rosettes and foliage. The spine of the book is heavily decorated with gold leaf floral designs and geometric patterns. The shortened title, [PETRARCH], and the publisher’s information [HURST AND CO.], are printed in green relief inside solid gold bands at the top and bottom. The back cover of the book is plain. The interior of the book has black type on white pages. There is a thin, red decorative border around all of the pages. The pastedowns and free endpapers are deep mauve. The book features dozens of a chronological history of Petrarch’s life, a biography of Petrarch, poems, sonnets, small black-and-white illustrations, and two printed, black-and-white illustrations of etchings. The book has 349 pages.
Place collected
Kittery, York County, Maine, United States, North and Central America
Place printed
New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
Collection title
The Rock Rest Tourist Home Collection
Classification
Books and Published Materials
Type
hardcover books
Topic
Black Enterprise
Black interiors
Literature
Poetry
Segregation
Travel
Credit Line
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, Inc.
Object number
2011.12.52.5
Restrictions & Rights
No Known Copyright Restrictions
Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd54aa209d3-4e3a-49e4-bf24-ec0c02de59a7

Cataloging is an ongoing process and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. If you have more information about this object, please contact us at NMAAHCDigiTeam@si.edu

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