Humanist Transmission

Abstract

The pioneering humanist studies of the Roman triumph were produced by Valturio and Biondo in the 1440s and 1450s. A second wave of scholarship, pioneered by Marliani and Sigonio and consolidated by Panvinio, followed the discovery in 1546 of the Capitoline tables, ancient lists of Roman magistrates and triumphs. These writers codified the triumphal lore scattered throughout ancient sources, amplifying them with their own virtuoso and idealized descriptions. Renaissance antiquarians modelled themselves on Varro, whose collection of Antiquitates (described and praised by ancient writers, but now lost) was written with a political purpose. In the civil war and social stress of the first century BC, the Antiquitates set before its readers ‘the virtuous life of early Rome with its concern for wholesome work, social harmony and piety.’1 The three great Renaissance reconstructions of the triumph were likewise shaped by the political programmes of the patrons for whom they were written — a warrior prince, a papacy re-establishing itself at Rome, and an aspiring prelate striving to reconcile papal and imperial allegiances. In educating their readers about the triumph, these studies simultaneously model its appropriation.KeywordsEarly Modern PeriodPolitical ProgrammeHumanist TransmissionRoman EmperorVirtuous LifeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.