[5] Le Rime di Francesco Petrarca con l’interpretazione di Giacomo Leopardi ... e gli argomenti di A. Marsand. Florence. 1839. p. 866. Translation in, Petrarch: His Life and Times. By H. C. Hollway-Calthrop. London. 1907. pp. 41-42.
With the exception of the first plate, The Triumph of Love, none of these engravings illustrates, in any strict sense of the word, the text of Petrarch’s poem. It is the spirit which the engraver has interpreted. Who may have been the designer we know not, but they show certain affinities to the work of Pesellino and Baldovinetti.
ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. TRIUMPH OF
CHASTITY. FROM THE TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH
Size of the original engraving, 10 × 6⅜ inches
In the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. LIBYAN SIBYL
Size of the original engraving, 7 × 4¼ inches
In the British Museum
In the first plate, Cupid, the blind archer, with flame-tipped arrow, is poised upon a ball rising from a flaming vase, the base of which, in its turn, rests upon flame. Jupiter(?), chained, is seated in the front of the car, while Samson, bearing a column, walks upon the further side. Four prancing steeds draw the car; behind, Love’s victims follow in endless procession. In the second plate, Chastity stands upon an urn; in front of her kneels Cupid, still blindfolded, with his broken arrow beside him. Two unicorns, symbols of chastity, draw the car, while upon the banner borne by the maiden at the extreme right there appears the symbolic ermine. Then follow in order the Triumphs of Death, of Fame, of Time, and of Eternity.
This series of illustrations reappears, somewhat modified and simplified, in the form of woodcuts, in the editions of the Trionfi published in Venice in 1488, 1490, 1492, and in Florence in 1499.