Epistolae familiares

Epistolae familiaresis the title of acollection of lettersofPetrarchwhich he edited during his lifetime. He originally called the collectionEpistolarum mearum ad diversos liber("a book of my letters to different people") but this was later shortened to the current title.

Petrarch discovered the text ofCicero's letters in 1345, which gave him the idea to collect his own sets of letters. It wasn't until four or five years later however, that he actually got started. He collected his letter correspondence in two different time periods. They are referred to asEpistolae familiaresandSeniles.

Epistolae familiares(a.k.a.Familiar Letters) was largely collected during his stay inProvenceabout 1351 to 1353, however was not ultimately completed until 1359 when he was inMilan.Petrarch had this collection of letters copied ontoparchmentin 1359 by a certainingeniosus homo et amicuswith another complete copy done in 1364. He added letters in 1366, bringing his first collection of letters to 350. He broke these down and sorted them into 24 volumes. This first collection of letters calledEpistolae familiareswere actually written between the years 1325 and 1366 (the first translation into English was done by historianJames Harvey Robinsonin 1898 in his bookThe First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters).

In January 1350 Petrarch wrote a lengthy letter to his dear friend ( "Socrates" as Petrarch liked to call him) dedicating the collection to him. He requests his friend to keep the letters safely out of sight of the censors and critics.^[1]It has since been discovered that Socrates was theFlemish Benedictine monkandmusic theorist Lodewijk Heyligenwhose acquaintance Petrarch had made in the circle ofcardinal Giovanni ColonnainAvignon.^[2]

Seniles

Petrarch begun a second collection of letters in 1361, also known asLetters of Old Age.It contains 128 letters written between 1361 and 1373.^[3]It is also broken down and sorted into volumes (18 books). The final letter, the first and only of the 18th book is his incompleteLetter to Posterity.Some English translations of this collection of letters that are out of copyright are availablehere^[4]Acomplete English translationis also available in two volumes from Italica Press, translated by Aldo S. Bernardo, formerly Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Italian and Comparative Literature, State University of New York at Binghamton.^[5]

Letters of interest

Litterae variae

There are many letters that Petrarch lost or did not keep a copy of. Others he destroyed the originals of for fear they would bring much criticism to his larger collection. There is a collection of 59 of these letters byGiuseppe Fracassetti.

Sine nomine

This special set (Book Without A Name) of letters Petrarch was too fond of to let out of his hands of some nineteen letters was kept out of the main body ofFamiliar Lettersto give respect to the papacy and the controversial lavish lifestyle practiced at Avignon. Liber sine nomine is an epitome of this same work in onevolume without a title(which is 19 letters).

References

^JSTOR:On the Evolution of Petrarch's Letter to Posterityby Ernest H. Wilkins; Speculum, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr., 1964), pp. 304-308 doi:10.2307/2852733
^Sur le Socrate de Pétrarque. Le musicien flamand Ludovicus sanctus de Beeringhen, Henry Cochin, in: Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, year 1918, Volume 37, Issue 37, pp. 3-32
^JSTOR A New Fragment of Petrarch's Epistolae Seniles by K. V. Sinclair; Speculum, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Apr., 1965), pp. 323-325doi:10.2307/2855561
^translation into English were done by historianJames Harvey Robinson(New York: G.P. Putnam, 1898) in his bookThe First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters.
^"Aldo S. Bernardo: Translator | Reta A. Bernardo: Translator | Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) | Letters on Familiar Matters (Rerum familiarium libri) | Letters of Old Age (Rerum senilium libri) | Italica Press".

English translations

Francesco Petrarch,Letters on Familiar Matters (Rerum familiarium libri),translated by Aldo S. Bernardo (New York: Italica Press, 2005).Volume 1, Books 1-8;Volume 2, Books 9-16;Volume 3, Books 17-24.
Francesco Petrarch,Letters of Old Age (Rerum senilium libri),translated by Aldo S. Bernardo, Saul Levin & Reta A. Bernardo (New York: Italica Press, 2005).Volume 1, Books 1-9;Volume 2, Books 10-18.

External links

[[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2852733-1] JSTOR:On the Evolution of Petrarch's Letter to Posterityby Ernest H. Wilkins; Speculum, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr., 1964), pp. 304-308 doi:10.2307/2852733

[[http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/mefr_0223-4874_1918_num_37_1_7137-2] Sur le Socrate de Pétrarque. Le musicien flamand Ludovicus sanctus de Beeringhen, Henry Cochin, in: Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, year 1918, Volume 37, Issue 37, pp. 3-32

[3] JSTOR A New Fragment of Petrarch's Epistolae Seniles by K. V. Sinclair; Speculum, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Apr., 1965), pp. 323-325doi:10.2307/2855561

[tanslation-4] translation into English were done by historianJames Harvey Robinson(New York: G.P. Putnam, 1898) in his bookThe First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters.

[5] "Aldo S. Bernardo: Translator | Reta A. Bernardo: Translator | Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) | Letters on Familiar Matters (Rerum familiarium libri) | Letters of Old Age (Rerum senilium libri) | Italica Press".

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