Petrarca: Trionfi - Florence Codex

Petrarca: Trionfi

The poetry of Francesco Petrarca belongs among the most significant examples of Italian literature and was a role model for the love poetry of countless famous poets worldwide. The Triumphs, whose Italian name reads Trionfi, are a famous example of the poetry of Petrarch. His tale of the Triumphs particularly shows its advantage in the so-called Florentine Codex. The extravagant illuminated codex contains miniatures and marginal decorations of incomparable quality. It comprises a Renaissance artwork of inconceivable quality.

Petrarch’s Work

Francesco Petrarca was an Italian poet and historian. He is considered to be a founder of Renaissance humanism and, along with Dante Alighieri and Boccaccio, one of the most important representatives of early Italian literature. The term Petrarchism comes from his names, which designated a widespread school of thought within European love poetry up to the 17th century. His works influenced world literature over the centuries. The Trionfi, one of the most popular poems worldwide, are a tale of the triumph of the good and the beautiful. Six triumphs that were sung about include, the triumph of love, of chastity, of fame, of time, the triumph of death over time, and the triumph of eternity.

Breathtaking Book Decoration

The tale of the Triumphs became an unforgettable masterpiece of 15th century Italian book art through the unbelievably rich and high quality book illustrations. The manuscript contains 23 full-page miniatures and moreover, each page of the book is embellished with heady marginal depictions. The breathtaking miniatures are reminiscent of the painting of the Italian Renaissance, e.g. the panel paintings of Raphael and Botticelli. The extremely rich marginal embellishments are particularly charming. They show an unbelievable variety of patterns. Flowers and plants twine along page margins, in the middle of which depictions of fruits as well as small depictions of people are found in golden frames. The gifted miniaturist Apollonio di Giovanni di Tommaso, one of the most beloved book artists of the Italian Renaissance, is probably responsible for the design of the work. Today the valuable original codex is stored in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence.