Autograph 1r. Preface 1v  

COme che admemoria tornandomi Le Felicita tra
passate nellamiʆia vedendomi dovio sono mi
sieno digrave dolore manifesta cagione nō
me ꝑtāto discaro il riducere spesso nella faticha
ta mēte o crudel 5 donna lapiacevole ymagine
della vostra intera belleçça. Laquale piu pos
sente che ilmio ꝓponimēto dise ⁊damore gi
ovane danni ⁊disenno mifece subgecto. Et
quella quāte volte viviene cō ītero animo
cōtemplando piutosto celestiale che humana
figura esser 10 cōmeco dilibero ⁊ che essa quello cheio cōsidero sia
ilsuo effecto neporge argom̄to chiarissimo· ꝑo che ella cōgliocchi
dellamia mēte mirata nelmeçço dellemie pene īgannādo nōso
cō che ascosa soavita laflicto core| li fa quasi le sue cōtinue amaritu
dini 15 obliare· ⁊ ī quello disemedesima genera un pensierohumi
lissimo ilqual midice· q̄sta e quella fiammetta laluce de chui
belli occhi prima inostri accese ⁊gia fece cōtentoⁱ cōgliacti su
oi gran parte denostri fervēti disii O quāto allora me adme to
glendo 20 di mēte parendomi essere ne primi tempi liquali io nō ī
merito hora chonosco essere stati felici sento cōsolatione· Et certo
senō fossero leprōte sollecitudini delle quali lanemica fortuna
ma circūdato che nō una volta ma mille ī ongni picciolo mo
mēto 25 ditēpo cō pūture nō mai provate mispronano· io credo che
cosi cōtemplando, quasi gliultimi termini dellamia beatitudine
abracciando morremi· Tirato adūq⁊ue; daq̄llo ad che quātūque si
a stato lungo lospatio appena essere stato mipare quale io rimā
ga 30 amore cheimiei sospiri conosce ilpuo vedere· Ilquale anco
ra chevoi īgiustamēte dipiacevole sdegnosa siate tornata

Beginning with the large painted initial C, Bocc.'s preface is divided into 37 extended sentences. The 37 sentences have prominent initial capital letters, most of which are highlighted. All the capitals in the preface were most likely highlighted when Aut was first copied. Since fols. 1r and 1v are stained and fol. 2r has significant over-tracing, however, this is not absolutely certain. Because the capitals are highlighted in fol. 2v, which is the least damaged of the four pages containing the preface, it is safe to assume that Bocc.'s plan was to highlight the initial capitals in all 37 sentences.

Almost the same system occurs in NO: 36 extended sentences, with a large painted initial at the first sentence, followed by 35 initial capital letters, most of them highlighted. Many of the other Teseida MSS have capitals in the preface, but the highlighted initialing is unique to Aut and NO and indicates their relationship.

Bocc.'s overtracing, which is evident in lines 1-7 of the page and partly less so in lines 9-12, was required because fol. 1r, as the first page of the MS, suffered significant wear. The scribal retracing in the first line of the page (Ome ... tra) and the scribe's pen resemble the hand and pen used for the addition at the end of gl. 1.71.1: ipemestra· Lino on fol. 3v.
tra extends into the right margin beyond the text block. Because Bocc. has retraced it over original lettering (See Det. 1.), this is not an emendation. While Bocc. made significant additions to the glosses and several revisions in the poem during the years that MS Aut was in his possession, the only notable change he made in the preface was his retracing of the fading text.
Bocc. almost always uses the abbrebviation ⁊. Although the Eds. have opted to read the abbreviation as e, this edition of Aut represents the word as et since this is the form that Bocc. almost always uses when he spells out the word. Et is written in the proemio, for example, whenever it begins a sentence (and is therefore capitalized and highlighted). Et is also spelled out when it occurs at the beginning of line 7 of an octave in the poem, whose initial letter is capitalized. One exception occasionally occurs in the poem, where Bocc. uses e rather than et for the sake of elision, in order to preserve the hendecasyllabic meter of the poetic line (cf. IS gen.4; 1.3.4). However, these are instances that prove rather than challenge the rule.
The superscript i is Bocc.'s later emendation.
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