[2] It consists of twelve chapters (a total of 1959 verses) ordered in six triumphs envisioned by the poet in a dream honoring allegorical figures such as Love, Chastity, Death, and Fame, who vanquish each other in turn.

One spring day in Valchiusa, the poet falls asleep and dreams that Love, personified as a naked and winged young man armed with a bow, passes by on a fiery triumphal chariot drawn by four white horses.

Returning from the battle, the victorious host encounters a furious woman dressed in black, who reveals a countryside littered with the corpses of once proud people from all times and places, including emperors and popes.

She is attended by Scipio and Caesar, and many other figures from Rome's military history, as well as Hannibal, Alexander, Saladin, King Arthur, heroes from Homer's epics, and patriarchs from the Hebrew scriptures.

Triumphs examines the ideal course of a man from sin to redemption: A theme with roots in medieval culture, being typical of works like Roman de la Rose or the Divine Comedy.

Triumphs shares and builds on numerous themes of Petrarca's Canzoniere, such as the confrontation of death, as in the sonnet Movesi il vecchierel canuto e bianco ("Grizzled and white the old man leaves"), and the spiritualization of his love for Laura.

On the other hand, it has been criticized for the mechanical rigidity of its narrative in contrast to the more natural style of the Canzoniere, and the long enumerations of notable persons which often sap its vitality.