Petrarch: Triumphs

This codex is one of the Petrarch manuscripts which are limited to the Triumphs (not containing the Songs). The Triumphs is an allegorical didactic poem about the soul of the poet and the history of mankind. The 7 full-page miniatures in the manuscript are the work of Ser Ricciardo di Nanni. In keeping with Italian tastes of the time, the pictures are surrounded by ornate border ornamentation, which includes an abundance of pictorial gems with mythological and grotesque figures in a foliate and floral latticework inhabited by animals, birds and other creatures. The main figures themselves represent the style of the High renaissance, to which Florence more than anywhere else was home in the late Quattrocento.

On folios 11v and 12r, the miniature on the left page shows Chastity’s triumph over Love, amidst a sumptuous border ornamentation. On the right there is a portrait of the author.