From 1663 it became a permanent body, and was attended only by the representatives of the princes and the cities; and from that time it occupied itself mainly with trifles, leaving the affairs of each state to be looked after by its own authorities, and those of the country generally to such fortunes as chance should determine.
Fancy bothering about such trifles now!
Viewed in this light Petrarch anticipated the Italian Renaissance in its weakness - that philosophical superficiality, that tendency to ornate rhetoric, that preoccupation with stylistic trifles, that want of profound conviction and stern sincerity, which stamp its minor literary products with the note of mediocrity.
We won't grudge trifles, you are welcome to anything--we shall be delighted!
Mention must also be made of his epigrams, which he styled "Trifles" (Fraszki); they are full of spirit and geniality.
