Petrarch

For the thoroughbred racehorse, seePetrarch (horse).For his namesake crater on Mercury, seePetrarch (crater).

Francis Petrarch
Portrait byAltichiero,c. 1370–1380
Born	Francesco di Petracco (1304-07-20)20 July 1304 Comune ofArezzo
Died	19 July 1374(1374-07-19)(aged 69) Arquà,Padua
Resting place	Arquà Petrarca
Occupation	Scholar poet Catholic cleric
Language	Italian (Tuscan dialect) Latin
Nationality	Aretine
Education	University of Montpellier University of Bologna
Period	Early Renaissance
Genres	Poetry (epic sonnet canzone eclogue canticle other) Prose (treatise polemic epistle travelogue autobiography anecdote correspondence oration)
Subjects	Beautiful lady other
Literary movement	Italian Renaissance humanism
Notable works	Il Canzoniere Triumphs
Notable awards	Poet laureateof Rome, 1341
Children	Giovanni (1337–1361) Francesca (born in 1343)
Parents	Ser Petracco(father) Eletta Canigiani(mother)
Relatives	Gherardo Petracco(brother) Giovanni Boccaccio(friend)

Santa Maria della Pieve inArezzo

La Casa del Petrarca (birthplace) at Vicolo dell'Orto, 28 inArezzo

Francis Petrarch(/ˈpɛtrɑːrk,ˈpiːt-/;20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374;Latin:Franciscus Petrarcha;modernItalian:Francesco Petrarca[franˈtʃeskopeˈtrarka]), bornFrancesco di Petracco,was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the earlyItalian Renaissanceand one of the earliesthumanists.

Petrarch's rediscovery ofCicero's letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century ItalianRenaissanceand the founding ofRenaissance humanism.In the 16th century,Pietro Bembocreated the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those ofGiovanni Boccaccio,and, to a lesser extent,Dante Alighieri.Petrarch was later endorsed as a model for Italian style by theAccademia della Crusca.

Petrarch's sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model forlyrical poetry.He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the "Dark Ages".

Biography

Youth and early career

Petrarch was born in theTuscancityArezzoon 20 July 1304. He was the son ofSer Petracco(a diminutive nickname forPietro) and his wife Eletta Canigiani. Petrarch's birth name wasFrancesco di Petracco( "Francesco [son] of Petracco" ), which heLatinizedtoFranciscus Petrarcha.His younger brother Gherardo (Gerard Petrarch) was born inIncisa in Val d'Arnoin 1307.Dante Alighieriwas a friend of his father.

Petrarch spent his early childhood in the village ofIncisa,nearFlorence.He spent much of his early life atAvignonand nearbyCarpentras,where his family moved to followPope Clement V,who moved there in 1309 to begin theAvignon Papacy.Petrarch studied law at theUniversity of Montpellier(1316–20) andBologna(1320–23) with a lifelong friend and schoolmate,Guido Sette,future archbishop of Genoa. Because his father was in the legal profession (anotary), he insisted that Petrarch and his brother also study law. Petrarch, however, was primarily interested in writing and studyingLatin literatureand considered these seven years wasted. Petrarch became so distracted by his non-legal interests that his father once threw his books into a fire, which he later lamented.Additionally, he proclaimed that through legal manipulation his guardians robbed him of his small property inheritance in Florence, which only reinforced his dislike for the legal system. He protested, "I couldn't face making a merchandise of my mind", since he viewed the legal system as the art of selling justice.

Petrarch was a prolific letter writer and countedBoccaccioamong the notable friends with whom he regularly corresponded. After the death of their parents, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo went back to Avignon in 1326, where he worked in numerous clerical offices. This work gave him much time to devote to his writing. With his first large-scale work,Africa,anepic poeminLatinabout the greatRomangeneralScipio Africanus,Petrarch emerged as a European celebrity. On 8 April 1341, he became the secondpoet laureatesinceclassical antiquityand was crowned by RomanSenatoriGiordano Orsiniand Orso dell'Anguillara on the holy grounds ofRome's Capitol.

He traveled widely in Europe, served as an ambassador, and has been called "the firsttourist"because he traveled for pleasuresuch as hisascent of Mont Ventoux.During his travels, he collected crumbling Latinmanuscriptsand was a prime mover in the recovery of knowledge from writers ofRomeandGreece.He encouraged and advisedLeontius Pilatus's translation ofHomerfrom a manuscript purchased by Boccaccio, although he was severely critical of the result. Petrarch had acquired a copy, which he did not entrust to Leontius,but he knew noGreek;Petrarch said of himself, "Homer was dumb to him, while he was deaf to Homer".In 1345 he personally discovered a collection ofCicero's letters not previously known to have existed, the collectionEpistulae ad Atticum,in theChapter Library(Biblioteca Capitolare) ofVerona Cathedral.

Disdaining what he believed to be the ignorance ofthe erain which he lived, Petrarch is credited with creating the concept of a historical "Dark Ages",which most modern scholars now find inaccurate and misleading.

Mount Ventoux

Main article:Ascent of Mont Ventoux

Summit ofMont Ventoux

Petrarch recounts that on 26 April 1336, with his brother and two servants, he climbed to the top ofMont Ventoux(1,912 meters (6,273 ft), a feat which he undertook for recreation rather than necessity.The exploit is described in a famous letter addressed to his friend and confessor, the monkDionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro,composed some time after the fact. In it, Petrarch claimed to have been inspired byPhilip V of Macedon's ascent ofMount Haemoand that an aged peasant had told him that nobody had ascended Ventoux before or after himself, 50 years earlier, and warned him against attempting to do so. The nineteenth-century Swiss historianJacob Burckhardtnoted thatJean Buridanhad climbed the same mountain a few years before, and ascents accomplished during theMiddle Ageshave been recorded, including that ofAnno II, Archbishop of Cologne.

Scholarsnote that Petrarch's letterto Dionigi displays a strikingly "modern" attitude of aesthetic gratification in the grandeur of the scenery and is still often cited in books and journals devoted to the sport ofmountaineering.In Petrarch, this attitude is coupled with an aspiration for a virtuous Christian life, and on reaching the summit, he took from his pocket a volume by his beloved mentor, Saint Augustine, that he always carried with him.

For pleasure alone he climbed Mont Ventoux, which rises to more than six thousand feet, beyond Vaucluse. It was no great feat, of course; but he was the first recordedAlpinistof modern times, the first to climb a mountain merely for the delight of looking from its top. (Or almost the first; for in a high pasture he met an old shepherd, who said that fifty years before he had attained the summit, and had got nothing from it save toil and repentance and torn clothing.) Petrarch was dazed and stirred by the view of the Alps, the mountains aroundLyons,theRhone,the Bay ofMarseilles.He tookAugustine'sConfessionsfrom his pocket and reflected that his climb was merely anallegoryof aspiration toward a better life.

Asthe book fell open,Petrarch's eyes were immediately drawn to the following words:

And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not.

Petrarch's response was to turn from the outer world of nature to the inner world of "soul":

I closed the book, angry with myself that I should still be admiring earthly things who might long ago have learned from even the pagan philosophers that nothing is wonderful but the soul, which, when great itself, finds nothing great outside itself. Then, in truth, I was satisfied that I had seen enough of the mountain; I turned my inward eye upon myself, and from that time not a syllable fell from my lips until we reached the bottom again.... [W]e look about us for what is to be found only within.... How many times, think you, did I turn back that day, to glance at the summit of the mountain which seemed scarcely a cubit high compared with the range of human contemplation

James Hillmanargues that this rediscovery of the inner world is the real significance of the Ventoux event.The Renaissance begins not with the ascent of Mont Ventoux but with the subsequent descent—the "return [...] to the valley of soul", as Hillman puts it.

Arguing against such a singular and hyperbolic periodization, Paul James suggests a different reading:

In the alternative argument that I want to make, these emotional responses, marked by the changing senses of space and time in Petrarch's writing, suggest a person caught in unsettled tension between two different but contemporaneous ontological formations: the traditional and the modern.

Later years

Petrarch spent the later part of his life journeying through northern Italy and southern France as an international scholar and poet-diplomat. His career inthe Churchdid not allow him to marry, but he is believed to have fathered two children by a woman (or women) unknown to posterity. A son, Giovanni, was born in 1337, and a daughter, Francesca, was born in 1343. He later legitimized both.

For a number of years in the 1340s and 1350s he lived in a small house at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse east of Avignon in France.

Petrarch'sArquàhouse nearPaduawhere he retired to spend his last years

Giovanni died of theplaguein 1361. In the same year Petrarch was namedcanoninMonselicenearPadua.Francesca marriedFrancescuolo da Brossano(who was later named executor of Petrarch'swill) that same year. In 1362, shortly after the birth of a daughter, Eletta (the same name as Petrarch's mother), they joined Petrarch inVeniceto flee the plague then ravaging parts of Europe. A second grandchild, Francesco, was born in 1366, but died before his second birthday. Francesca and her family lived with Petrarch in Venice for five years from 1362 to 1367 atPalazzo Molina;although Petrarch continued to travel in those years. Between 1361 and 1369 the younger Boccaccio paid the older Petrarch two visits. The first was in Venice, the second was in Padua.

About 1368 Petrarch and Francesca (with her family) moved to the small town ofArquàin theEuganean Hillsnear Padua, where he passed his remaining years in religious contemplation. He died in his house in Arquà on 18/19 July 1374. The house now hosts a permanent exhibition of Petrarch's works and curiosities, including the famous tomb of an embalmed cat long believed to be Petrarch's (although there is no evidence Petrarch actually had a cat).On the marble slab, there is a Latin inscription written byAntonio Quarenghi:

Original Latin

English translation

Etruscus gemino vates ardebat amore: Maximus ignis ego; Laura secundus erat. Quid rides? divinæ illam si gratia formæ, Me dignam eximio fecit amante fides. Si numeros geniumque sacris dedit illa libellis Causa ego ne sævis muribus esca forent. Arcebam sacro vivens a limine mures, Ne domini exitio scripta diserta forent; Incutio trepidis eadem defuncta pavorem, Et viget exanimi in corpore prisca fides.

The Tuscan bard of deathless fame Nursed in his breast a double flame, Unequally divided; And when I say I had his heart, While Laura play'd the second part, I must not be derided. For my fidelity was such, It merited regard as much As Laura's grace and beauty; She first inspired the poet's lay, But since I drove the mice away, His love repaid my duty. Through all my exemplary life, So well did I in constant strife Employ my claws and curses, That even now, though I am dead, Those nibbling wretches dare not tread On one of Petrarch's verses.

Petrarch's will (dated 4 April 1370) leaves fiftyflorinsto Boccaccio "to buy a warm winter dressing gown"; various legacies (a horse, a silver cup, a lute, aMadonna) to his brother and his friends; his house in Vaucluse to its caretaker; money for Masses offered for hissoul,and money for the poor; and the bulk of his estate to his son-in-law, Francescuolo da Brossano, who is to give half of it to "the person to whom, as he knows, I wish it to go"; presumably his daughter, Francesca, Brossano's wife. The will mentions neither the property in Arquà nor his library; Petrarch's library of notable manuscripts was already promised to Venice, in exchange for the Palazzo Molina. This arrangement was probably cancelled when he moved to Padua, the enemy of Venice, in 1368. The library was seized by the lords of Padua, and his books and manuscripts are now widely scattered over Europe.Nevertheless, theBiblioteca Marcianatraditionally claimed this bequest as its founding, although it was in fact founded byCardinal Bessarionin 1468.

Works

Original lyrics by Petrarch, found in 1985 in Erfurt

Petrarch'sVirgil(title page)(c. 1336)
Illuminated manuscript bySimone Martini,29 x 20 cm Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.

The Triumph of Death,orThe 3 Fates.Flemish tapestry (probably Brussels,c. 1510–1520). Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who spin, draw out and cut the thread of life, represent Death in this tapestry, as they triumph over the fallen body of Chastity. This is the third subject in Petrarch's poem "TheTriumphs".First, Love triumphs; then Love is overcome by Chastity, Chastity by Death, Death by Fame, Fame by Time and Time by Eternity

Petrarch is best known for his Italian poetry, notably theRerum vulgarium fragmenta( "Fragments of Vernacular Matters" ), a collection of 366 lyric poems in various genres also known as 'canzoniere' ('songbook'), andI trionfi( "TheTriumphs"), a six-part narrative poem of Dantean inspiration. However, Petrarch was an enthusiastic Latin scholar and did most of his writing in this language. His Latin writings include scholarly works, introspective essays, letters, and more poetry. Among them areSecretum( "My Secret Book" ), an intensely personal, imaginary dialogue with a figure inspired byAugustine of Hippo;De Viris Illustribus( "On Famous Men" ), a series of moral biographies;Rerum Memorandarum Libri,an incomplete treatise on thecardinal virtues;De Otio Religiosorum( "On Religious Leisure" )andDe vita solitaria( "On the Solitary Life" ), which praise the contemplative life;De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae( "Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul" ), a self-help book which remained popular for hundreds of years;Itinerarium( "Petrarch's Guide to the Holy Land" ); invectives against opponents such as doctors, scholastics, andthe French;theCarmen Bucolicum,a collection of 12 pastoral poems; and the unfinished epicAfrica.He translated seven psalms, a collection known as thePenitential Psalms.

Petrarch revived the work and letters of the ancientRoman SenatorMarcus Tullius Cicero

Petrarch also published many volumes of his letters, including a few written to long-dead figures from history such asCiceroandVirgil.Cicero, Virgil, andSenecawere his literary models. Most of his Latin writings are difficult to find today, but several of his works are available in English translations. Several of his Latin works are scheduled to appear in the Harvard University Press seriesI Tatti.It is difficult to assign any precise dates to his writings because he tended to revise them throughout his life.

Petrarch collected his letters into two major sets of books calledRerum familiarum liber( "Letters on Familiar Matters") andSeniles( "Letters of Old Age"), both of which are available in English translation.The plan for his letters was suggested to him by knowledge ofCicero's letters. These were published "without names" to protect the recipients, all of whom had close relationships to Petrarch. The recipients of these letters includedPhilippe de Cabassoles,bishop of Cavaillon;Ildebrandino Conti,bishop of Padua;Cola di Rienzo,tribuneof Rome;Francesco Nelli,priest of the Prior of the Church of the Holy Apostles inFlorence;andNiccolò di Capoccia,a cardinal and priest ofSaint Vitalis.His "Letter to Posterity" (the last letter inSeniles)gives anautobiographyand a synopsis of his philosophy in life. It was originally written in Latin and was completed in 1371 or 1372—the first such autobiography in a thousand years (sinceSaint Augustine).

While Petrarch's poetry was set to music frequently after his death, especially by Italianmadrigalcomposers of theRenaissancein the 16th century, only one musical setting composed during Petrarch's lifetime survives. This isNon al suo amantebyJacopo da Bologna,written around 1350.

Laura and poetry

On 6 April 1327,after Petrarch gave up his vocation as a priest, the sight of a woman called "Laura" in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignonawoke in him a lasting passion, celebrated in theRerum vulgarium fragmenta( "Fragments of Vernacular Matters" ). Laura may have beenLaura de Noves,the wife of CountHugues de Sade(an ancestor of theMarquis de Sade). There is little definite information in Petrarch's work concerning Laura, except that she is lovely to look at, fair-haired, with a modest, dignified bearing. Laura and Petrarch had little or no personal contact. According to his "Secretum", she refused him because she was already married. He channeled his feelings into love poems that were exclamatory rather than persuasive, and wrote prose that showed his contempt for men who pursue women. Upon her death in 1348, the poet found that hisgriefwas as difficult to live with as was his former despair. Later, in his "Letter to Posterity", Petrarch wrote: "In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair—my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did".

Laura de Noves

While it is possible she was an idealized or pseudonymous character—particularly since the name "Laura" has alinguisticconnection to the poetic "laurels" Petrarch coveted—Petrarch himself always denied it. His frequent use ofl'aurais also remarkable: for example, the line "Erano i capei d'oro al'aurasparsi "may mean both" her hair was all over Laura's body "and" the wind (l'aura) blew through her hair ". There is psychological realism in the description of Laura, although Petrarch draws heavily on conventionalised descriptions of love and lovers fromtroubadoursongs and other literature ofcourtly love.Her presence causes him unspeakable joy, but his unrequited love creates unendurable desires, inner conflicts between the ardent lover and themystic Christian,making it impossible to reconcile the two. Petrarch's quest for love leads to hopelessness and irreconcilable anguish, as he expresses in the series of paradoxes in Rima 134 "Pace non trovo, et non ò da far guerra;/e temo, et spero; et ardo, et son un ghiaccio": "I find no peace, and yet I make no war:/and fear, and hope: and burn, and I am ice".

Laura is unreachable and evanescent – descriptions of her are evocative yet fragmentary.Francesco de Sanctispraises the powerful music of his verse in hisStoria della letteratura italiana.Gianfranco Contini, in a famous essay ( "Preliminari sulla lingua del Petrarca". Petrarca, Canzoniere. Turin, Einaudi, 1964), has described Petrarch's language in terms of "unilinguismo" (contrasted with Dantean "plurilinguismo" ).

Sonnet 227

Original Italian

English translation by A.S. Kline

Aura che quelle chiome bionde et crespe cercondi et movi, et se’ mossa da loro, soavemente, et spargi quel dolce oro, et poi ’l raccogli, e ’n bei nodi il rincrespe, tu stai nelli occhi ond’amorose vespe mi pungon sí, che ’nfin qua il sento et ploro, et vacillando cerco il mio tesoro, come animal che spesso adombre e ’ncespe: ch’or me ’l par ritrovar, et or m’accorgo ch’i’ ne son lunge, or mi sollievo or caggio, ch’or quel ch’i’ bramo, or quel ch’è vero scorgo. Aër felice, col bel vivo raggio rimanti; et tu corrente et chiaro gorgo, ché non poss’io cangiar teco vïaggio?

Breeze, blowing that blonde curling hair, stirring it, and being softly stirred in turn, scattering that sweet gold about, then gathering it, in a lovely knot of curls again, you linger around bright eyes whose loving sting pierces me so, till I feel it and weep, and I wander searching for my treasure, like a creature that often shies and kicks: now I seem to find her, now I realise she’s far away, now I’m comforted, now despair, now longing for her, now truly seeing her. Happy air, remain here with your living rays: and you, clear running stream, why can’t I exchange my path for yours?

Dante

Dante Alighieri, detail from aLuca Signorellifrescoin the chapel ofSan Brizio,Duomo, Orvieto.

Petrarch is very different fromDanteand hisDivina Commedia.In spite of themetaphysicalsubject, theCommediais deeply rooted in the cultural and social milieu of turn-of-the-centuryFlorence:Dante's rise to power (1300) and exile (1302); his political passions call for a "violent" use of language, where he uses all the registers, from low and trivial to sublime and philosophical. Petrarch confessed to Boccaccio that he had never read theCommedia,remarks Contini, wondering whether this was true or Petrarch wanted to distance himself from Dante. Dante's language evolves as he grows old, from the courtly love of his earlystilnovisticRimeandVita nuovato theConvivioandDivina Commedia,whereBeatriceis sanctified as the goddess of philosophy—the philosophy announced by the Donna Gentile at the death of Beatrice.

In contrast, Petrarch's thought and style are relatively uniform throughout his life—he spent much of it revising the songs and sonnets of theCanzoniererather than moving to new subjects or poetry. Here, poetry alone provides a consolation for personal grief, much less philosophy or politics (as in Dante), for Petrarch fights within himself (sensuality versusmysticism,profane versusChristian literature), not against anything outside of himself. The strong moral and political convictions which had inspired Dante belong to the Middle Ages and the libertarian spirit of thecommune;Petrarch's moral dilemmas, his refusal to take a stand in politics, his reclusive life point to a different direction, or time. The free commune, the place that had made Dante an eminent politician and scholar, was being dismantled: thesignoriawas taking its place. Humanism and its spirit of empirical inquiry, however, were making progress—but the papacy (especially after Avignon) and the empire (Henry VII,the last hope of thewhite Guelphs,died near Siena in 1313) had lost much of their original prestige.

Petrarch polished and perfected the sonnet form inherited fromGiacomo da Lentiniand which Dante widely used in hisVita nuovato popularise the new courtly love of theDolce Stil Novo.The tercet benefits from Dante'sterza rima(compare theDivina Commedia), thequatrainsprefer the ABBA–ABBA to the ABAB–ABAB scheme of theSicilians.The imperfect rhymes ofuwith closedoandiwith closede(inherited from Guittone's mistaken rendering ofSicilian verse) are excluded, but the rhyme of open and closedois kept. Finally, Petrarch'senjambmentcreates longer semantic units by connecting one line to the following. The vast majority (317) of Petrarch's 366 poems collected in theCanzoniere(dedicated to Laura) weresonnets,and thePetrarchan sonnetstill bears his name.

Philosophy

Statue of Petrarch on the Uffizi Palace, in Florence

Petrarch is often referred to as the father ofhumanismand considered by many to be the "father of theRenaissance".InSecretum meum,he points out that secular achievements do not necessarily preclude an authentic relationship with God, arguing instead that God has given humans their vast intellectual and creative potential to be used to its fullest.He inspired humanist philosophy, which led to the intellectual flowering of the Renaissance. He believed in the immense moral and practical value of the study of ancient history and literature—that is, the study of human thought and action. Petrarch was a devout Catholic and did not see a conflict between realizing humanity's potential and havingreligious faith,although many philosophers and scholars have styled him aProto-Protestantwho challenged the Pope's dogma.

A highly introspective man, Petrarch helped shape the nascent humanist movement as many of the internal conflicts and musings expressed in his writings were embraced by Renaissance humanist philosophers and argued continually for the next 200 years. For example, he struggled with the proper relation between the active and contemplative life, and tended to emphasize the importance of solitude and study. In a clear disagreement with Dante, in 1346 Petrarch argued inDe vita solitariathatPope Celestine V's refusal of the papacy in 1294 was a virtuous example of solitary life.Later the politician and thinkerLeonardo Bruni(1370–1444) argued for the active life, or "civic humanism".As a result, a number of political, military, and religious leaders during the Renaissance were inculcated with the notion that their pursuit of personal fulfillment should be grounded inclassicalexample and philosophical contemplation.

Petrarchism

Petrarchism was a 16th-centuryliterary movementof Petrarch's style by Italian, French, Spanish and English followers (partially coincident withMannerism), who regarded his collection of poetryIl Canzoniereas a canonical text.Among them, the names are listed in order of precedence:Pietro Bembo,Michelangelo,Mellin de Saint-Gelais,Vittoria Colonna,Clément Marot,Garcilaso de la Vega,Giovanni della Casa,Thomas Wyatt,Henry Howard,Joachim du Bellay,Edmund Spenser,andPhilip Sidney.Thus, in Pietro Bembo's bookProse of the Vernacular Tongue(1525) Petrarch is the model of verse composition.

Legacy

Petrarch's tomb atArquà Petrarca

Petrarch's influence is evident in the works ofSerafino CiminellifromAquila(1466–1500) and in the works ofMarin Držić(1508–1567) fromDubrovnik.

TheRomanticcomposerFranz Lisztset three of Petrarch's Sonnets (47, 104, and 123) to music for voice,Tre sonetti del Petrarca,which he later would transcribe for solo piano for inclusion in the suiteAnnées de Pèlerinage.Liszt also set a poem byVictor Hugo,"Oh! quand je dors" in which Petrarch and Laura are invoked as the epitome of erotic love.

While in Avignon in 1991,ModernistcomposerElliott Cartercompleted his solo flute pieceScrivo in Ventowhich is in part inspired by and structured by Petrarch's Sonnet 212,Beato in sogno.It was premiered on Petrarch's 687th birthday.In 2004, Finnish composerKaija Saariahocrafted a miniature for solo piccolo flute titledDolce tormento,in which the flutist whispers fragments of Petrarch's Sonnet 132 into the instrument.

In November 2003, it was announced thatpathologicalanatomistswould be exhuming Petrarch's body from his casket inArquà Petrarca,to verify 19th-century reports that he had stood 1.83 meters (about six feet), which would have been tall for his period. The team from theUniversity of Paduaalso hoped to reconstruct his cranium to generate a computerized image of his features to coincide with his 700th birthday. The tomb had been opened previously in 1873 by Professor Giovanni Canestrini, also of Padua University. When the tomb was opened, the skull was discovered in fragments and aDNAtest revealed that the skull was not Petrarch's,prompting calls for the return of Petrarch's skull.

The researchers are fairly certain that the body in the tomb is Petrarch's due to the fact that theskeletonbears evidence of injuries mentioned by Petrarch in his writings, including a kick from a donkey when he was 42.

Numismatics

He is credited with being the first and most famous aficionado ofNumismatics.He described visiting Rome and asking peasants to bring him ancient coins they would find in the soil which he would buy from them, and writes of his delight at being able to identify the names and features of Roman emperors.

Works in English translation

• Africa,vol. 1–4, translated by Erik Z. D. Ellis (thesis; Baylor University, 2007).
• Bucolicum Carmen,translated byThomas G. Bergin(Yale University Press, 1974).ISBN9780300017243
• The Canzoniere; or, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta,translated byMark Musa(Indiana University Press, 1996).ISBN9780253213174
• Invectives,translated by David Marsh (Harvard University Press, 2008).ISBN9780674030886
• Itinerarium: A Proposed Route for a Pilgrimage from Genoa to the Holy Land,translated by H. James Shey (Binghamton, New York: Global Academic Publishers, 2004).ISBN9781586840228
• Letters on Familiar Matters(Rerum familiarium libri), vol. 1 (bkk. 1–8), vol. 2 (bkk. 9–16), vol. 3 (bkk. 17–24), translated by Aldo S. Bernardo (New York: Italica Press, 2005).ISBN9781599100005
• Letters of Old Age(Rerum senilium libri), vol. 1 (bkk. 1–9), vol. 2 (bkk. 10–18), translated by Aldo S. Bernardo, Saul Levin, & Reta A. Bernardo (New York: Italica Press, 2005).ISBN9781599100043
• The Life of Solitude,translated byJacob Zeitlin(1924); revised edition by Scott H. Moore (Baylor University Press 2023).ISBN9781481318099
• My Secret Book(Secretum), translated byNicholas Mann(Harvard University Press, 2016).ISBN9780674003460
• On Religious Leisure(De otio religioso), translated by Susan S. Schearer (New York: Italica Press, 2002).ISBN9780934977111
• Penitential Psalms and Prayers,translated by Demetrio S. Yocum (University of Notre Dame Press, 2024).ISBN9780268207847
• Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul,translated by Conrad H. Rawski (Indiana University Press, 1991).ISBN9780253348449
• The Revolution of Cola di Rienzo,translated by Mario E. Cosenza; 3rd revised edition by Ronald G. Musto (New York: Italica Press, 1996).ISBN9780934977005
• Selected Letters,vol. 1 & 2, translated byElaine Fantham(Harvard University Press, 2017).ISBN9780674058347,ISBN978-0674971622

See also

• Otium

References

• Bartlett, Kenneth R. (1992).The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance; a Source Book.Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company.ISBN0-669-20900-7
• Bishop, Morris(1961). "Petrarch." InJ. H. Plumb(Ed.),Renaissance Profiles,pp. 1–17. New York: Harper & Row.ISBN0-06-131162-6.
• Hanawalt, A. Barbara (1998).The Middle Ages: An Illustrated Historypp. 131–132 New York: Oxford University Press
• James, Paul(2014)."Emotional Ambivalence across Times and Spaces: Mapping Petrarch's Intersecting Worlds".Exemplaria.26(1): 81–104.doi:10.1179/1041257313z.00000000044.S2CID191454887.
• Kallendorf, Craig. "The Historical Petrarch,"The American Historical Review,Vol. 101, No. 1 (Feb. 1996): 130–141.
• Minta, Stephen (1980).Petrarch and Petrarchism: the English and French Traditions.Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press; Barnes & Noble.ISBN0-719-00745-3.

Further reading

• Bernardo, Aldo (1983). "Petrarch." InDictionary of the Middle Ages,volume 9
• Celenza, Christopher S. (2017).Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer.London: Reaktion.ISBN978-1780238388
• Hennigfeld, Ursula (2008).Der ruinierte Körper. Petrarkistische Sonette in transkultureller Perspektive.Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 2008,ISBN978-3-8260-3768-9
• Hollway-Calthrop, Henry (1907).Petrarch: His Life and Times,Methuen. FromGoogle Books
• Kohl, Benjamin G. (1978). "Francesco Petrarch: Introduction; How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State," inThe Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society,ed. Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, 25–78. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.ISBN0-8122-1097-2
• Nauert, Charles G. (2006).Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe: Second Edition.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-54781-4
• Rawski, Conrad H. (1991).Petrarch's Remedies for Fortune Fair and FoulA Modern English Translation ofDe remediis utriusque Fortune,with a Commentary.ISBN0-253-34849-8
• Robinson, James Harvey(1898).Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and Man of LettersHarvard University
• Kirkham, Victoria and Armando Maggi (2009).Petrarch: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works.University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-43741-5.
• A. Lee,Petrarch and St. Augustine: Classical Scholarship, Christian Theology and the Origins of the Renaissance in Italy,Brill, Leiden, 2012,ISBN978-9004224032
• N. Mann,Petrarca[Ediz. orig. Oxford University Press (1984)] – Ediz. ital. a cura di G. Alessio e L. Carlo Rossi – Premessa di G. Velli, LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 1993,ISBN88-7916-021-4
• Il Canzoniere» di Francesco Petrarca. La Critica Contemporanea,G. Barbarisi e C. Berra (edd.), LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 1992,ISBN88-7916-005-2
• G. Baldassari,Unum in locum. Strategie macrotestuali nel Petrarca politico,LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2006,ISBN88-7916-309-4
• Francesco Petrarca,Rerum vulgarium Fragmenta. Edizione critica di Giuseppe Savoca,Olschki, Firenze, 2008,ISBN978-88-222-5744-4
• Plumb, J. H.,The Italian Renaissance,Houghton Mifflin, 2001,ISBN0-618-12738-0
• Giuseppe Savoca,IlCanzonieredi Petrarca. Tra codicologia ed ecdotica,Olschki, Firenze, 2008,ISBN978-88-222-5805-2
• Roberta Antognini,Il progetto autobiografico delle "Familiares" di Petrarca,LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2008,ISBN978-88-7916-396-5
• Paul Geyer und Kerstin Thorwarth (hg),Petrarca und die Herausbildung des modernen Subjekts(Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009) (Gründungsmythen Europas in Literatur, Musik und Kunst, 2)
• Massimo Colella,«Cantin le ninfe co' soavi accenti». Per una definizione del petrarchismo di Veronica Gambara,in «Testo», 2022.

External links

• Petrarch and his Cat Muse
• Petrarchfrom theCatholic Encyclopedia
• Excerpts from his works and letters
• Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304–1374)
• Works by PetrarchatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Francesco Petrarcaat theInternet Archive
• Works by or about Petrarchat theInternet Archive
• Works by PetrarchatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• Timeline of life of Petrarch
• Poems From The Canzoniere,translated by Tony Kline.
• Francesco PetrarchatThe Online Library of Liberty
• De remediis utriusque fortunae,Cremonae, B. de Misintis ac Caesaris Parmensis, 1492.(Vicifons)
• Free scores of works by Petrarchin theChoral Public Domain Library(ChoralWiki)
• Petrarch and LauraMulti-lingual site including translated works in the public domain and biography, pictures, music.
• Petrarch – the poet who lost his headApril 2004 article inThe Guardianregarding the exhumation of Petrarch's remains
• Oregon Petrarch Open Book– A working database-driven hypertext in and around Francis Petrarch's Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta (Canzoniere)
• Historia GriseldisFrom theRare Book and Special Collections Divisionat theLibrary of Congress
• Francesco Petrarch,De viris illustribus,digitized French codex, atSomni
• Petrarch's Vision of the Muslim and Byzantine East – Nancy Bisaha, Speculum, University of Chicago Press