PETRARCH

'Francesco Petrarca' (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), known in English as 'Petrarch', was an Italian scholar, poet, and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often popularly called the "father of humanism".^[1] Based on Petrarch's works, and to a lesser extent those of Dante and Boccaccio, Pietro Bembo in the 16th century created the model for modern Italian, later endorsed by the Accademia della Crusca. Petrarch is credited for perfecting the sonnet, making it one of the most popular art forms to date.

Contents

Biography

Works

Laura and poetry

Philosophy

Legacy

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Biography

Petrarch was born in Arezzo the son of a merchant, and spent his early childhood in the village of Incisa, near Florence. His father, Ser Petracco, had been exiled from Florence in 1302 (along with Dante) by the Black Guelphs. Petrarch spent much of his early life at Avignon and nearby Carpentras, where his family moved to follow Pope Clement V who moved there in 1309 to begin the Avignon Papacy. He studied at Montpellier (1316–20) and Bologna (1320–26), where his father insisted he study the law. However, Petrarch was primarily interested in writing and Latin literature.
When his father died in 1326, Petrarch went back to Avignon, where he worked in numerous different clerical offices. This work gave him much time to devote to his writing. With his first large scale work, ''Africa'', an epic in Latin about the great Roman general Scipio Africanus, Petrarch emerged as a European celebrity. In 1341 he brought back the poet laureate tradition from antiquity, and was crowned in Rome. He was the first man since antiquity to be given this honor. He traveled widely in Europe and served as an ambassador. He was a prolific letter writer, and counted Giovanni Boccaccio among his notable friends.
During his travels, he collected crumbling Latin manuscripts and was a prime mover in the recovery of knowledge from writers of Rome and Greece. He encouraged and advised Leontius Pilatus's translation of Homer, from a manuscript purchased by Boccaccio; although he was severely, and perhaps unfairly, critical of the result. Petrarch had acquired a copy, which he did not entrust to Leontius, ^[2] but he knew no Greek; Homer, Petrarch said, "was dumb to him, while he was deaf to Homer".^[3] In 1345 he personally discovered a collection of Cicero's letters not previously known to have existed, the collection ''ad Atticum''. He remarked:
: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".

Petrarch claimed that on April 26, 1336, with his brother and two servants, he climbed to the top of Mont Ventoux (1,909 m; 6,263 ft). He wrote a account of the trip, composed considerably later as a letter to his friend Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro. The accuracy of Petrarch's account is open to question; particularly the assertion that he was the first to climb a mountain for pleasure since Philip V of Macedon, and that an aged peasant had warned him off the unclimbable mountain. Jean Buridan had climbed the same mountain a few years before, and other ascents are recorded from the Middle Ages, including Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne. Jakob Burckhardt's rhapsody on the subject has been often repeated since. ^[4]
The later part of his life he spent in journeying through northern Italy as an international scholar and poet-diplomat. Petrarch's career in the Church did not allow him to marry, but he did father two children by a woman or women unknown to posterity. A son, Giovanni, was born in Avignon in 1337, and a daughter, Francesca, was born in Vaucluse in 1343.
Giovanni died of the plague in 1361. Francesca married Francescuolo da Brossano (who was later named executor of Petrarch's testament) that same year. In 1362, shortly after the birth of a daughter, Eletta, they joined Petrarch in Venice, to flee the plague then ravaging parts of Europe. A second grandchild, Francesco, was born in 1366, but died before his second birthday. Francesco and her family lived with Petrarch in Venice for five years from 1362 - 1367 at Palazzo Molina; although Petrarch continued to travel in those years.
About 1368 Petrarch and his daughter Francesca (with her family) moved and settled in Padua, where he passed his remaining years in religious contemplation. He died in Arquà in the Euganean Hills on July 19, 1374.
Petrarch's will (dated April 4, 1370) leaves fifty 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. 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 divided over Europe.^[5] Nevertheless, the Biblioteca Marciana traditionally claimed this bequest as its founding; although it was in fact founded by Cardinal Bessarion in 1468. ^[6]

Works

Petrarch is best known for his Italian poetry: notably the ''Canzoniere'' and the ''Trionfi'' ("Triumphs"). However, Petrarch was an enthusiastic Latin scholar and did most of his writing in this language. His Latin writings are quite varied and include scholarly works, introspective essays, letters, and more poetry. Among them are ''Secretum'' ("My Secret Book"), an intensely personal guilt-ridden imaginary dialogue with Augustine of Hippo; ''De Viris Illustribus'' ("On Famous Men"), a series of moral biographies; ''Rerum Memorandarum Libri'', an incomplete treatise on the cardinal virtues; ''De Otio Religiosorum'' ("On Religious Leisure") and ''De 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"), a distant ancestor of Fodor's and Lonely Planet; a number of invectives against opponents such as doctors, scholastics, and the French; the ''Carmen Bucolicum'', a collection of twelve pastoral poems; and the unfinished epic ''Africa''. Petrarch also published many volumes of his letters, including a few written to his long-dead friends from history like Cicero and Virgil. Cicero, Virgil, and Seneca were his literary models. Unfortunately most of his Latin writings are difficult to find today. It is difficult to assign any precise dates to his writings because he tended to revise them throughout his life.
In addition Petrarch collected his letters into two major sets of books called ''Epistolae familiares'' and ''Seniles'', a plan suggested to him by knowledge of Cicero's letters. He kept out of ''Epistolae familiares'' a special set of nineteen controversial letters called Liber sine nomine that had much criticism against the Avignon papacy. These were published "without names" to protect the recipients, all of whom had close relationships to Petrarch. The recipients of these letters included Philippe de Cabassoles, bishop of Cavaillon; Ildebrandino Conti, bishop of Padua; Cola di Rienzo, tribune of Rome; Francesco Nelli, priest of the Prior of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Florence; and Niccolà di Capoccia, a cardinal and priest of Saint Vitalis.
His "Letter to Posterity" (the last letter in ''Seniles'') gives an autobiography and a synopsis of his philosophy in life.
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 ca. 1350.

Laura and poetry

In 1327, 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 troubadours 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.
Laura and Petrarch had little or no personal contact. According to his "Secretum", she refused him for the very proper reason that she was already married to another man. 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 finds that his grief is 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."
Petrarch polished and perfected the known sonnet form inherited from Giacomo da Lentini and which Dante widely used in his ''Vita Nova'' to popularise the new courtly love of Dolce Stil Novo. Many of Petrarch's poems collected in the ''Canzoniere'' (dedicated to Laura) were indeed 'sonnets', and the Petrarchan sonnet still bears his name. Romantic composer Franz Liszt set 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 suite ''Années de Pèlerinage''.

Philosophy

Petrarch is traditionally called the father of Humanism and considered by many to be the "father of the Renaissance." He was the first to offer a combining of abstract entities of classical culture and Christian philosophy. In his work ''Secretum meum'' he points out that secular achievements didn't necessarily preclude an authentic relationship with God. Petrarch argued instead that God had given humans their vast intellectual and creative potential to be used to their fullest.^[7] 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. While humanism later became associated with secularism, Petrarch was a devout Christian and did not see a conflict between realizing humanity's potential and having religious faith. 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 two hundred 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. Later politician and thinker Leonardo Bruni argued for the active life, or "civic humanism." The result was that a surprising number of political, military, and religious leaders during the Renaissance were inculcated with the notion that their pursuit of personal glory should be grounded in classical example and philosophical contemplation.

Legacy

In November of 2003, it was announced that pathological anatomists would be exhuming Petrarch's body from his casket in Arquà Petrarca, in order to verify nineteenth-century reports that he had stood 1.83 meters (about 6 feet), which would have made him very tall for his period. The team from the University of Padua also hoped to reconstruct his cranium in order to obtain a computerized image of his features to coincide with the poet's 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 a DNA test revealed that the skull was not Petrarch's,[1] 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 forty-two.[2]

Notes

1. There are many popular examples, for a recent one this review of Carol Quillen's ''Rereading the Renaissance''
2. Vittore Branca, ''Boccaccio; The Man and His Works'', tr. Richard Monges, p.113-118
3. ''Ep. Fam.'' 18.2 §9
4. Lynn Thorndike, 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.
5. Bishop, pp. 360, 366. Francesca and the quotes from there; Bishop adds that the dressing-gown was a piece of tact: "fifty florins would have bought twenty dressing-gowns".
6. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, Libraries" §Italy.
7. Famous First Facts International, H.W. Wilson, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8242-0958-3, page 303, item 4567.

References

★ Bartlett, Kenneth R. (1992). ''The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance; a Source Book''. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company. ISBN 0-669-209000-7

★ Bishop, Morris (1961). "Petrarch." In J. H. Plumb (Ed.), ''Renaissance Profiles'', pp. 1-17. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-131162-6 .

★ Kallendorf, Craig. "The Historical Petrarch," The American Historical Review, Vol 101, No. 1 (Feb. 1996): 130-141.

★ Kohl, Benjamin G. (1978). "Francesco Petrarcha: Introduction; How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State," in ''The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society'', ed. Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, 25-78. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1097-2

★ Nauert, Charles G. (2006). ''Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe: Second Edition''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54781-4

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Further reading

★ Henry Hollway-Calthrop (1907). ''Petrarch: His Life and Times'', Methuen. From Google Books.

★ James Harvey Robinson (1898). ''Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters''[3], Greenwood Press. From Google Books.

★ Aldo Bernardo (1983). "Petrarch." In ''Dictionary of the Middle Ages'', volume 9.

★ Conrad H. Rawski (1991). ''Petrarch's Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul'' A Modern English Translation of ''De remediis utriusque Fortune'', with a Commentary. ISBN 0-253-34849-8

External links

★ Life And All Complete Works By Francesco Petrarca - Format HTML

★ Petrarch and Laura Multi-lingual site including many translated works (letters, poems, books) in the public domain and biography, pictures, music.

★ Petrarch from the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.

★ Excerpts from his works and letters

★ The Petrarchan Grotto

★ Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304-1374)

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★ Poems From The Canzoniere, translated by Tony Kline.

★ Petrarch - the poet who lost his head April 6, 2004 article in ''The Guardian'' regarding the exhumation of Petrarch's remains.

★ Francesco Petrarca at ''The Online Library of Liberty''