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FRANCESCO PETRARCA
1304-74
Petrarch is most readily remembered as a lyric poet, the author
of 366 poems collected in his Canzoniere or song book.
It would be difficult to imagine the fate of the sonnet, even
for Shakespeare, without the masterful examples of Petrarch’s
poems about the love of his life, Laura. Petrarch’s other
major collection of poetry, the Trionfi, takes the
poet from his intense worldly love for Laura, joined by loves
and lovers throughout the ages, to the contemplation of the
successive victories of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and
Eternity. The poet becomes the moralist and philosopher who
searches for meaning, as life passes from one stage to the next.
Beyond earthly bonds, Petrarch envisions eternal bliss, but
not one without his great love. In the final verse, he hopes
to see Laura again in a form even more beautiful than on earth:
“Now how will it be to see her again in heaven.”
Ironically, Petrarch did not seek fame with his lyric poems
in Italian, which he called little triflings, but instead with
his Latin epic poem, Africa. Even beginning in the
15th century, Africa was little read and less loved
than the Canzoniere. Today, our reading of Africa
is often reduced to a single dramatic episode, the few verses
that describe the death of Hannibal’s younger brother
Mago.
Petrarch was a prolific writer. From his pen flowed not only
poetry in Italian and Latin, but also hundreds of letters as
well as essays and histories on such topics as good and ill
fortune, the religious and solitary life, famous people, self-assessment,
the nature of ignorance. In his writings we find the stuff of
life expressed in all its human variety and vitality.
Not only was Petrarch a poet, philosopher, and moralist, he
was above all a scholar of exceptional intellectual curiosity
and competence. Beginning as a child, he dedicated his life
passionately to the pursuit of knowledge, especially from the
classical world of ancient Greece and Rome. As an adult he brought
the past to life, collecting the words of ancient thinkers and
writers and passing them on to later generations. He collected
books, discovered long-lost writings, and edited texts, especially
those of his favorite authors Cicero, Livy, and Virgil. By the
end of his life, he owned one of the largest private libraries
in the world, which he gave to the city of Venice in exchange
for a house there.
Petrarch’s library was intended to become the first public
library in the western world. Instead his books were dispersed,
and many now reside in libraries and collections throughout
the world, including the United States. Together with manuscripts
and books by and about Petrarch, they form a formidable collection
of Petrarch’s powerful words.
As Ernest Hatch Wilkins writes in his Life of Petrarch,
“Petrarch was the most remarkable man of his time; and
he is one of the most remarkable men of all time.” Petrarch’s
legacy encourages us to study the human condition of the past,
enabling us in turn to engage in the present more fully and
to prepare more wisely for the future. It is this heritage that
we celebrate 700 years later.
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