Premesse per la delineazione di figure protagonistiche nella storiografia dell’Umanesimo: il rex/princeps/dux belli (e pacis)

The essay presents an argument on the requisites for depicting particular types of protagonists in humanistic historiography, like those depicted in the works and medallions based on modern «reges», «principes» and «duces» (in the two, always interconnected, faces of their activities «sub specie belli» and «pacis»), bearing in mind that the figures considered are men at the head of various kinds of governments: monarchies (as in the case of the King of Naples Robert of Anjou), principalities (like that of the Lord of Padua Francesco il Vecchio da Carrara), or republics (as in that of the Doge of Venice Andrea Dandolo).
Starting from a discussion of the different kinds of classical “sources” and their translations, the essay focuses on Petrarch’s Latin works, from «De viris illustribus» to «De gestis Cesaris», from «Familiares» to «Seniles». This observation point shows us some of the main elements of the lineaments that humanistic (and not only humanistic) historiography attributed to the figures of «reges»/«principes»/«duces», whose political and military virtues, in the best Classical Tradition, combine with attention to cultural and artistic aspects, as well as spiritual and religious values.