I stumbled about a German text "Trionfi. Mit 60 Abbildungen." (1919) by Werner Weisbach. ("Trionfi. With 60 pictures.")Perhaps Weisbach can tell us.
https://archive.org/details/trionfimit60abbi00weisuoft
The collection is more about more about Military Trionfi than about the Petrarca-style Trionfi.
Interestingly the author expresses the opinion, that the general orientation to the aims of the church ("against personal fame") during 13th and 14th century suppressed the Western development of "personal Trionfi", as they took place later during 15th century.
That's a rather simple idea, and the author doesn't go far with it in his introduction, but possibly it's the key element of the Trionfi development. There was "fame" inside the church, a complex arrangement by the church how to become a Beati or a Saint, open to people of all classes and the church controlled this to its own favor. Lower fame was also possible by sponsoring church buildings.
The author gives one example of an earlier conflict between "personal fame" and "fame inside church" ...
after the victory at Cortenuova (1237) emperor Fredrick II had sent the Carroccio as booty to Rome and demanded to celebrate the success in the manner of a Roman triumphator.
The story is told here by wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cortenuova
The Carroccio is explained here ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CarroccioA Carroccio was a four-wheeled war altar, mounting a large vexillum standard, drawn by oxen, used by the medieval republics of Italy. It was a rectangular platform on which the standard of the city and an altar were erected; priests held services on the altar before the battle, and the trumpeters beside them encouraged the fighters to the fray.
In battle the Carroccio was surrounded by the bravest warriors in the army as the carroccio guard, and it served both as a rallying-point and as the palladium of the city's honour; its capture by the enemy was regarded as an irretrievable defeat and humiliation. It was first employed by the Milanese in 1038, and played a great part in the wars of the Lombard League against the emperor Frederick Barbarossa. One account states that it first appeared in Milan in 1039, when archbishop Heribert urged the Milanese to construct one.[1] It was afterwards adopted by other cities, and first appears on a Florentine battlefield in 1228.
The Florentine Carroccio was usually followed by a smaller cart bearing the Martinella, a bell to ring out military signals. When war was regarded as likely the Martinella was attached to the door of the Church of Santa Maria in the Mercato Nuovo in Florence and rung to warn both citizens and enemies. In times of peace the Carroccio was in the keeping of a great family which had distinguished itself by signal services to the republic.
The Florentine carroccio was captured by the Ghibelline forces of Castruccio Castracani in the 1325 Battle of Altopascio, after which it was displayed by the victors in a triumph held in the streets of Lucca.
The carro della guerra of Milan was described in detail in 1288 by Bonvesin de la Riva in his book on the "Marvels of Milan". Wrapped in scarlet cloth and drawn by three yoke of oxen that were caparisoned in white with the red cross of Saint George, the city's patron, it carried a crucifix so massive it took four men to step it in place, like a ship's mast.[2]
A medieval miniature depicting the Battle of Cortenuova. (with Carroccio)
Well, "Carroccio" seems to be a term, which one should know in this question. It occasionally appeared in our forum, but I overlooked its quite interesting details.
Another interesting aspect of the text (also overlooked by me) showed up with Petrarca's "Africa" ... Weisbach notes, that "Africa" contains at the end of the 9th book a "triumphal scene (in a not very descriptive manner, as the author remarks). I attempted to get the scene, but wasn't successful. Anyway, the wikipedia description of "africa" and its development is interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_%28Petrarch%29
Petrarca visited Rome in 1337, and Africa was written 1338-39, staring in Vaucluse ...
... and 1343 under the impression of this journey. In 1341 he had arranged his Poetus Laureatus scene (well, his interest in personal Fame) with an expressed great interest to have the activity in Rome, and "Africa" was the reason, why he got the title.While I was wandering in those mountains upon a Friday in Holy Week, the strong desire seized me to write an epic in an heroic strain, taking as my theme Scipio Africanus the Great, who had, strange to say, been dear to me from my childhood. But although I began the execution of this project with enthusiasm, I straightway abandoned it, owing to a variety of distractions.
Well, Easter Sunday is an important day in Rome, nowadays. In that time of 1341 the pope lived in Avignon.Coronation
Petrarch's "Coronation Oration" (a.k.a. Collatio laureationis) is the formal public speech of acceptance by him of the title poet laureate on April 8, 1341 (Easter Sunday), for his work on Africa about Cornelius Scipio. Petrarch's speech, given in the form of a medieval sermon, demonstrates the gradual transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It is considered the first manifesto of the Renaissance. Petrarch looked at his laureateship as political. In his grand speech he said of the description of his laurel that it was ...equally appropriate of Caesars and poets. It was a triumphal event where trumpets were blared. King Robert gave Petrarch a special robe to wear in honor of this event. He was given the titles of "poet," "master," "professor" of poetry and history and "the most famous private citizen then living." At the time of the coronation, the Africa consisted of just a few books (maybe four out of the nine written).
Actually King Robert offered him to crown him in Naples already, but Petrarca insisted on Rome..... he received two invitations (from Rome and from Paris) in September 1340 each asking him to accept the crown as poet laureate.[
In 1443 we have, that King Robert died at 20th of January, c. 65 years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert,_King_of_Naples
The death of Robert likely gave the impulse to proceed with Africa, but Petrarca didn't give the manuscript out of his hands, likely with the feeling, that it wasn't finished. As we know, he worked on the Trionfi, and these also weren't finished. And seeing, that Weisbach calls the triumphal scene at the end of the 9th and last chapter of Africa "not very descriptive", then it looks plausible to assume, that Petrarca hadn't finished, but likely desired to finish it inside a knot between "Trionfi" and "Africa", combining his both great works.King Robert was nicknamed "the peace-maker of Italy" due to the years of significant changes he made to Naples. The city and nation's economy lay in the hands of Tuscan merchants, who erected superb buildings, monuments and statues that drastically changed King Robert's capital from a dirty seaport to a city of elegance and medieval splendor. Robert commissioned Tino di Camaino to produce a tomb for his son, who should have been his heir, and Giotto painted several works for him. The University of Naples flourished under the patronage of the king dismissed by Dante as a re di sermone, "king of words", attracting students from all parts of Italy.[8] There was virtually no middle class in the South to balance the local interests and centripetal power of the entrenched aristocracy, who retained the feudal independence that had been their bargain with the Angevins' Norman predecessors.
He was remembered by Petrarch and Boccaccio as a cultured man and a generous patron of the arts, "unique among the kings of our day," Boccaccio claimed after Robert's death, "a friend of knowledge and virtue." Petrarch asked to be examined by Robert before being crowned as poet in the Campidoglio in Rome (1341); his Latin epic Africa is dedicated to Robert, though it was not made available to readers until 1397, long after both Petrarch and Robert were dead.
"Africa" was based on Livius, but Livius' great work was more or less unknown ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livy
During the Middle Ages, interest in Livy declined.[14] Due to the length of the work, the literate class was already reading summaries rather than the work itself, which was tedious to copy, expensive, and required a lot of storage space. It must have been during this period, if not before, that manuscripts began to be lost without replacement.
The Renaissance was a time of intense revival; the population discovered that Livy's work was being lost and large amounts of money changed hands in the rush to collect Livy manuscripts. The poet Beccadelli sold a country home for funding to purchase one manuscript copied by Poggio. Petrarch and Pope Nicholas V launched a search for the now missing books. Laurentius Valla published an amended text initiating the field of Livy scholarship. Dante speaks highly of him in his poetry ...
Petrarca's enthusiasm (which made him Poetus Laureatus) and that, what made him to have the trumpets blown in Rome at Easter Sunday, was just about the reconstruction of (some humble and little) history. At least little in our eyes, as we have so much to read about the past and the sure knowledge, that we will never find the complete end.
It's interesting to observe, that Boccaccio wrote his "Amorosa Visione" in 1443 (new edited in 1365) ... that' close to King Robert's death ... and close to Petrarca's show in Rome at Easter Sunday 1441.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorosa_visione
Amorosa visione (1342, revised c. 1365) was a narrative poem by Boccaccio, full of echoes of the Divine Comedy and consisting of 50 canti in Terza rima . It tells of a dream in which the poet sees, in sequence, the triumphs of Wisdom, Earthly Glory, Wealth, Love, all-destroying Fortune (and her servant Death), and thereby becomes worthy of the now heavenly love of Fiammetta. The triumphs include mythological, classical and contemporary medieval figures. Their moral, cultural, and historical architecture was without precedent, and led Petrarch to create his own Trionfi on the same model. Among contemporaries Giotto and Dante stand out, the latter being celebrated over and above any other artist, ancient or modern.
"... Wisdom, Earthly Glory, Wealth, Love, all-destroying Fortune (and her servant Death)" ...
looks like 5 (or 6) figures
Wisdom ... Eternity (?)
Early Glory ... Vana Gloria (?) ... Fame (?)
Wealth ... (???) ... Time (?) or Chastity (?)
Love ... Love
Fortune ... (???) ... Time (?) or Chastity (?)
(servant Death) .... Death
Maybe Boccaccio's desire for a "50" made him chose 5 major figures instead of 6? The Decamerone had its 100 stories, Boccaccio loved this scheme.
Petrarca had visited Naples again in 1343. He observed a devastating earth quake with tsunami in November ...
http://www.italicapress.com/Italica_Pre ... nna_I.html
Later Petrarca was seriously astonished about very brutal customs in Naples.
As far I know, Petrarca and Boccaccio didn't meet at these opportunities. I read from a first meeting in 1350 (or 1351) in Rome. But Boccaccio knew texts of Petrarca already in 1333.
Cola di Rienzo (possibly inspired by Petrarca ?) in 1443 had been part of a Roman delegation in Avignon, which demanded the return of the pope, already protesting against the behavior of the Roman nobility. He worked as a lawyer. His rebellion was successful in May 1447 and was chosen as a tribun, in the course of a few months he lost his mind in too much triumphal habits of the old Roman style, so that he also lost his rebellion. At 20th of November there was a street battle with a hundred of victims, at December 15 he left Rome.
The Black Plague arrived in October 1347 in Sicily (wiki gives no precise date). The street battle of 20th of November in Rome might have had been already known about it, possibly there had been a causal relation (?).
Petrarca's "Africa" was published by Vergerius in 1396/97, the man, who went finally to the court of emperor Sigismund. That's likely the detection of the "poet Petrarca", before he had more the merit of the "scholar Petrarca". Well, "Africa" seems to be a mix of history (scholar) and poem (poet).
I remember, that they had a discussion in Ferrara around 1435 (in the pre-Trionfi-card-time; Guarino and Poggio), if Caesar or Scipio would have been the better man. Perhaps the debate started about the attention, that Petrarca gave to Scipio (?). Perhaps a sign, that Petrarca got an increased interest in the public in the 1430s.
The text presents two Scipio pictures:
This is given to c. 1400, so possibly in context of the Vergerius edition.
The following is given to 1466 ... by the author, who detected Medici and Rucellai heraldic on the picture, and who assumes, that this cassone was part of the wedding of Lorenzo's sister with a member of the Rucellai family (1466 ... I would like to have the precise date). Anyway, that's the year, when Lorenzo got the Minchiate letter from Pulci.
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I think, one should pay some attention to Boccaccio's Trionfi arrangement in 1343.