Trionfi

At the beginning of the 16th century, under the rule of Louis XII and Francis I, Petrarch’s "Triumphi" were translated into French no less than five times. Even if this fact and the translations themselves have been studied separatedly, they have scarcely been attended as a whole. After a succinct introduction to the influence of the "Triumphi" in 15th-century France, I describe each of these translations, either in prose or in verse, to make possible
a future comparison with Antonio de Obregón’s rendering into Spanish (1512). Some of these translations into French were based in the well-known commentary by Bernardo Ilicino (1475), and even though only one was printed, and not in such a neat arrangement as Obregon’s, they found a privileged place in the libraries of the royal family and the aristocracy, as some of their copies in manuscript stand among the best samples of the
flourishing art of illumination in the France of the period.

This essay aims to investigate the lost ‘Uomini Illustri’ cycles in Napoli, Milano
and Padova, traditionally linked to Giotto, Petrarch and to the ‘Proto-Humanistic’
culture. The author offers some research ideas and hypothesis on the iconography
of the lost frescoes and their cultural contexts, considering the most recent critical
literature, with particular attention to Petrarchan studies, the circulation of ideas,
books and images, and the surviving transformations of classical, artistic and literary
models in Europe during the Middle Ages.