Petrarch's will dated April 4, leaves 50 florins to Boccaccio "to buy a warm winter dressing gown"; various legacies a horse, a silver cup, a lute, a Madonna to his brother and his friends; his house in Vaucluse to its caretaker; for his soul , and 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. This arrangement was probably cancelled when he moved to Padua, the enemy of Venice, in The library was seized by the lords of Padua , and his books and manuscripts are now widely scattered over Europe.
Petrarch is best known for his Italian poetry, notably the Canzoniere "Songbook" and the Trionfi "Triumphs". 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. He translated seven psalms, a collection known as the Penitential Psalms.
Petrarch also published many volumes of his letters, including a few written to his long-dead friends from history such as Cicero and Virgil. Cicero, Virgil, and Seneca were his literary models. Most of his Latin writings are difficult to find today, but several of his works are available in English translations.
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Petrarch collected his letters into two major sets of books called Epistolae familiares " Letters on Familiar Matters " and Seniles " Letters of Old Age " , both of which are available in English translation. These were published "without names" to protect the recipients, all of whom had close relationships to Petrarch.
His "Letter to Posterity" the last letter in Seniles [33] gives an autobiography and a synopsis of his philosophy in life. It was originally written in Latin and was completed in or - the first such autobiography in a thousand years since Saint Augustine. While Petrarch's poetry was set to music frequently after his death, especially by Italian madrigal composers of the Renaissance in the 16th century, only one musical setting composed during Petrarch's lifetime survives.
This is Non al suo amante by Jacopo da Bologna , written around On April 6, , [36] after Petrarch gave up his vocation as a priest, the sight of a woman called "Laura" in the church of Sainte-Claire d' Avignon awoke in him a lasting passion, celebrated in the Rime sparse "Scattered rhymes". 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 , the poet found that his grief was as difficult to live with as was his former despair. Later in his "Letter to Posterity", Petrarch wrote: 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".
While it is possible she was an idealized or pseudonymous character — particularly since the name "Laura" has a linguistic connection to the poetic "laurels" Petrarch coveted — Petrarch himself always denied it. His frequent use of l'aura is also remarkable: There is psychological realism in the description of Laura, although Petrarch draws heavily on conventionalised descriptions of love and lovers from troubadour songs and other literature of courtly love.
Her presence causes him unspeakable joy, but his unrequited love creates unendurable desires, inner conflicts between the ardent lover and the mystic Christian , making it impossible to reconcile the two. Laura is unreachable — the few physical descriptions of her are vague, almost impalpable as the love he pines for, and such is perhaps the power of his verse, which lives off the melodies it evokes against the fading, diaphanous image that is no more consistent than a ghost.
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Francesco De Sanctis remarks much the same thing in his Storia della letteratura italiana , and contemporary critics agree on the powerful music of his verse. Perhaps the poet was inspired by a famous singer he met in Veneto around the s. Laura is too holy to be painted; she is an awe-inspiring goddess. Sensuality and passion are suggested rather by the rhythm and music that shape the vague contours of the lady. In addition, some today consider Laura to be a representation of an "ideal Renaissance woman", based on her nature and definitive characteristics.
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: Happy air, remain here with your living rays: Petrarch is a world apart from Dante and his Divina Commedia.
In spite of the metaphysical subject, the Commedia is deeply rooted in the cultural and social milieu of turn-of-the-century Florence: Dante's rise to power and exile , 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 the Commedia , 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 early stilnovistic Rime and Vita nuova to the Convivio and Divina Commedia , where Beatrice is 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 the Canzoniere rather 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 versus mysticism , profane versus Christian 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 the commune ; 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: 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 the white Guelphs , died near Siena in had lost much of their original prestige. Petrarch polished and perfected the sonnet form inherited from Giacomo da Lentini and which Dante widely used in his Vita nuova to popularise the new courtly love of the Dolce Stil Novo.
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The imperfect rhymes of u with closed o and i with closed e inherited from Guittone's mistaken rendering of Sicilian verse are excluded, but the rhyme of open and closed o is kept. Finally, Petrarch's enjambment creates longer semantic units by connecting one line to the following.
The vast majority of Petrarch's poems collected in the Canzoniere dedicated to Laura were sonnets , and the Petrarchan sonnet still bears his name. Petrarch is traditionally called the father of Humanism and considered by many to be the "father of the Renaissance. Petrarch argued instead that God had given humans their vast intellectual and creative potential to be used to their fullest.
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 having religious faith.
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A highly introspective man, he shaped the nascent humanist movement a great deal because many of the internal conflicts and musings expressed in his writings were seized upon by Renaissance humanist philosophers and argued continually for the next years. For example, Petrarch 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 Petrarch argued in his De vita solitaria that Pope Celestine V 's refusal of the papacy in was as a virtuous example of solitary life. 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 in classical example and philosophical contemplation.
Liszt also set a poem by Victor Hugo, " O quand je dors" in which Petrarch and Laura are invoked as the epitome of erotic love. While in Avignon in , Modernist composer Elliott Carter completed his solo flute piece Scrivo in Vento which is in part inspired by and structured by Petrarch's Sonnet , Beato in sogno. The team from the University of Padua also hoped to reconstruct his cranium in order to generate a computerized image of his features to coincide with his th birthday.
The tomb had been opened previously in by Professor Giovanni Canestrini, also of Padua University. When the tomb was opened, the skull was discovered in fragments and a DNA test revealed that the skull was not Petrarch's, [52] 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 the skeleton bears evidence of injuries mentioned by Petrarch in his writings, including a kick from a donkey when he was From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the thoroughbred racehorse, see Petrarch horse. For the crater on Mercury, see Petrarch crater. Ascent of Mont Ventoux. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. April Learn how and when to remove this template message. Volume 1, Books ; Volume 2, Books Schearer, introduction by Ronald G.
Cosenza; 3rd, revised, edition by Ronald G. Musto New York; Italica Press, Francesco Petrarch, Selected Letters , vol. Italy portal Literature portal. A Critical Guide to the Complete Works. University of Chicago Press. The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite , p.
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The Civilisation of the Period of the Renaissance in Italy Swan Sonnenschein , pp. JSTOR link to a collection of several letters in the same issue. The Horizon Book of the Renaissance. Mapping Petrarch's Intersecting Worlds". Retrieved 4 August V, Number , February 21, , Author: Francesca and the quotes from there; [ clarification needed ] Bishop adds that the dressing-gown was a piece of tact: Retrieved July 31, Update your profile Let us wish you a happy birthday! Make sure to buy your groceries and daily needs Buy Now.
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