In view of the conceptual character of the Senecan ideology which Petrarch had developed in his writings about the Neapolitan rex, it is unsurprising that he resorted to the same language when describing and prescribing the principles of good monarchical government to the signori. The Petrarchan development of the Senecan argument was clear: if a ruler possessed the requisite virtues, thereby ensuring that reason reigned supreme over his own person and over the political body which he ruled, then he could be duly named as princeps, or rex, or imperator irrespective of any external apparatus which might be adduced to support such a claim. In fact, Petrarch had openly denigrated the reliance on dynastic entitlement and the physical symbolism of monarchical power in his discussions of the identity of the true prince. This line of argument was of immense utility to signorial regimes looking to consolidate their princely claims. Through Petrarch's association with the signori, a political language already indebted to the texts of Roman imperial ideology in general and to the contentions of De clementia in particular developed a fully humanist character.

Before settling in Milan in 1353 for eight years, Petrarch had corresponded with its ruler, Luchino Visconti, and with Visconti's podestà in Parma, Paganino da Milano. Writing to Paganino during the 1340s, Petrarch declared that he was well aware of the argument that the Roman Empire had increased in size far more before the establishment of the Principate, but that it was nevertheless the opinion of many great men that ‘the happiest state of the res publica is under a single, just prince’.