Petrarch: Difference between revisions

 

'''Francesco Petrarca''' ([[July 20]], [[1304]] – [[July 19]], [[1374]]), known in [[English language|English]] as '''Petrarch''', was a verbatim [[Italy|Italian]] scholar, [[poet]], and one of the earliest [[Renaissance Humanism|Renaissance humanists]]. Petrarch is often popularly called the "father of humanism".<ref>There are many popular examples, for a recent one [http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=15299 this review] of Carol Quillen's ''Rereading the Renaissance'' </ref> Based on Petrarch's works, and to a lesser extent those of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] and [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]], [[Pietro Bembo]] in the 16th century created the model for modern [[Italian language|Italian]], later endorsed by the [[Accademia della Crusca]]. Petrarch is credited with perfecting the [[sonnet]], making it one of the most popular art forms to date.

 

:''Each famous author of antiquity whom I recover places a new offence and another cause of dishonor to the charge of earlier generations, who, not satisfied with their own disgraceful barrenness, permitted the fruit of other minds, and the writings that their ancestors had produced by toil and application, to perish through insufferable neglect. Although they had nothing of their own to hand down to those who were to come after, they robbed posterity of its ancestral heritage.''

 

Disdaining what he believed to be the ignorance of the centuries preceding the era in which he lived, Petrarch is credited with creating the concept of a historical "[[Dark Ages]]".<ref>[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-5037%28194301%294%3A1%3C49%3ASROTQO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W Renaissance or Prenaissance], ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 4, No. 1. (Jan., 1943), pp. 69-74. [[JSTOR]] link to a collection of several letters in the same issue. </ref>

 

=== Laura and poetry ===

On [[6 April]] [[1327]], [[Good Friday]], 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"). Later, Renaissance poets who copied Petrarch's style named this collection of 366 poems ''[[Il Canzoniere]]'' ("Song Book"). Laura may have been [[Laura de Noves]], the wife of Count [[Hugues de Sade]] (ancestor of [[Marquis de Sade]]). 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. Her realistic presentation in his poems contrasts with the clichés of [[troubadour]]s and [[courtly love]]. Her presence causes him unspeakable joy, but his unrequited love creates unendurable desires. 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.