Debate between earthly passions and spiritual ordinances
In Avignon, France, he met the Augustinian scholar Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro, who guided him towards a greater awareness of the importance of Christian Patristic Literature. Dionigi gave him the book Confessions, by Saint Augustine of Hippo, a theologian considered a precursor of the Christian Church.
The contact with the theologian's work generated in Petrarch an internal process of questioning existence. Throughout his life he struggled between earthly passions and spiritual ordinances, a recurring theme in his poetic work.
Never abandoning his religious beliefs, Petrarch was a shrewd student of the works of St. Augustine, whom he considered more significant than Aristotle, a figure who then greatly preoccupied scholars. For Augustine, believing is the condition for knowing the Truth. A reason that you try to know without believing, you will never succeed. Faith, therefore, is not an end in itself, but impels reason so that, purified, it can continue its exercise.
In the autumn of 1330 he entered the service of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, after having received the four Minor Orders necessary for an ecclesiastical career. In 1333, as a cleric, he traveled to France, Flanders, Brabant, Rhineland and Germany with the aim of deepening his knowledge of classical literature. Even not knowing how to read Greek, he collected several manuscripts such as the Iliad . He also rediscovered copies of letters and speeches by the Roman statesman and author Cicero.
These experiences led him to actively defend the effective link between classical culture and the Christian message, rejecting discussions within the scholastic system. Scholastic philosophy had as its main characteristic the connection with the Christian faith. Philosophy was seen as an auxiliary science of theology, being a rational search for the solution of religious problems. Philosophers were concerned with formulating, interpreting, explaining or demonstrating Catholic dogmas.
On April 8, 1341, at the Capitol, he received invitations from Rome and Paris, to be crowned a poet in Rome. Petrarch had long been pushing the Pope for the title, which for him symbolized the possibility that poets and scholars could take Italy and Europe back to the glory days of the Roman Empire's Romana Pax
Petrarch's Influence on the Renaissance
In the early Renaissance, turning to antiquity for inspiration was considered the best way to advance thought, art, and architecture. Petrarch was one of the first to do this. The poet even went so far as to imitate Cicero in his own works by writing plays addressed to ancient famous scholars of the past, as well as contemporaries and civic leaders.
Writing Petrarch
Petrarch's interest in classical Literature was reflected in his own Latin verses and sonnets. His first poems, written while he was a law student, were on the subject of his mother's death.
Many scholars find it difficult to establish a chronological order of his works, due to the many corrections and edits that were given later. It is known, however, that they were based on love and lack of love and on their existential conflict between religion and profane actions.
Petrarch had the highest regard for his work Africa, an epic poem about the Second Punic War. His vernacular poems (in the vernacular) achieved greater renown. They would later be used to help create the modern Italian language, a subject already covered in the post about Dante Alighieri.
The use of sonnets influenced poets across Europe and profoundly affected Renaissance literature. Petrarch's best-known vernacular compositions were lyrical poems about Laura, the woman he met at church in Avignon on 6 April 1327. Laura is mentioned in several works as Laura de Noves, a character wife of a French nobleman. His beloved died of the plague of the Black Death in 1348, 21 years after Petrarch first met her.
Even after Laura died, he continued to write about her for most of his life. No one to this day knows Laura's true identity, but there is no doubt about her existence or the intensity of the poet's platonic passion, which lasted after her beloved's death as a melancholy longing.
Petrarchism
Petrarch's literary style, known as Petrarchism, emerged in the 15th century and lasted until the 17th century. His preference for Latin in studies helped to continue the use of that language during the Renaissance, but he preferred to use the vernacular in poetry.
His main focus of study was lyrical poetry, based on love themes. Petrarch's poetics stood out as an example of perfection based on simple language and metrical innovations, such as the use of hendecasyllabic verses, composed of eleven poetic syllables.
Petrarch's main works
His works are divided into two parts: those written in Latin and those written in vulgar or colloquial language. With his works in Latin, the poet aspired to achieve maximum recognition, because they were the ones that gave him the most triumph.
Poetry
Laura and the Canzonière - In 1348, Petrarch lost several friends and his beloved Laura during the outbreak of the Black Death. He took refuge in Vaucluse, where he organized his poems, which were published as Canzonière or Rerum vulgarum fragmenta, written in the Tuscan vernacular with extra vocabulary from other Italian dialects. Canzonière's theme goes far beyond Petrarch's platonic love and outlines a new lyric from the selection of what was most refined and vigorous in the two previous centuries.
Its 366 poems, 227 of which are sonnets, are divided into two sections: the first, from 1 to 263, is dedicated to Laura in life and the second, from 264 to 366, to Laura in death. The content covers the themes of unrequited love, lost love, and regret, among others. Such a solution to his spiritual problem showed him that the love he had for Laura was wrong, because it was a love for the creature and not for the Creator. If the sonnet genre existed before Petrarch, it was he who synthesized it and gave it the main marks that remain intact almost 700 years later.
Africa - epic poem about the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) between Rome and Carthage. The poem focuses on the life of the great Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Inserted in Petrarch's Latin writings, the work is composed in hexameter, a metric widely used in classical writings.
Song book - this work was originally called Fragment of Things in Vulgar, and later as Book of Songs by Petrarch, is composed of about three hundred sonnets and poems. As its name implies, it was written in vulgar language. Narrated in first person, it expresses Petrarch's feelings for Laura. In addition to describing his platonic love, he also chronicles his spiritual experience. Their muse becomes an angel and communicates with God so that he gives them permission to live out his love from a moral point of view.
Even after Laura's death, Petrarch continued writing for a few years until he finished it. This allowed him to include his sadness at the loss of his beloved. The work also contains some poems dealing with political issues, friendship, morals and even patriotism.
Trionfi (Triumphs) - allegorical poem written between 1351 and 1374 but never completed. It tells the passage of the human soul to the enlightenment and knowledge of God.
Prose texts
The Solitary Life - is part of Petrarch's prose writings, between 1346 and 1356. It brings together aspects of moral and religious issues. Its main objective is the achievement of moral and spiritual perfection not based on religiosity.
It leans towards meditation and life in solitude as a reflective act. It is also oriented towards studying, reading and writing as a way of favoring the concentration process; from there begins freedom as individuals and the essence of happiness proposed by Francesco Petrarca.
secret - work dated 1347 and 1353, narrates a fictitious conversation between Petrarch and Saint Augustine in front of the figure of Truth, who remains as an observer. Although Petrarch opens his mind to Saint Augustine's explanations, he does not have the strength to stop his desires. The name is given because it touches on the writer's personal issues and, in principle, the work should not be published. Sectrum is composed of three books:
St. Augustine tells the poet what steps he must take to achieve peace in his soul.
Analysis and confrontation of Petrarch's negative attitudes.
In-depth analysis of the Italian writer's two great dreams, which are passion and glory for his beloved Laura, which he considers his two biggest faults.
Summary of letters or epistolary collections - they are works that cannot be overlooked for their relevance from an autobiographical point of view, as they contain a lot of information about Petrarch's life. They were written in Latin and grouped by date. In the work, the author is seen as a perfect and magnificent person. For their later publication, the letters were examined and, in many cases, rewritten.stand out Familia, Senile and Sine Nomine Líber.
De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae - the translation of the Latin title would be something like Remedies for the extremes of fortune. Written between 1360 and 1366, in prose and in Latin. The work helped revive interest in Stoicism. They are a series of speeches within 254 scenes, which in turn are interpreted by allegorical figures, where an attempt is made to capture education and morals.
De Viris Illustribus (Men) - Petrarch began writing this prose work in 1337, based on a number of biographies, including Adam Old TestamentAt first, he narrated the life of the representative of the province of Padua, Francesco da Carrara. The first idea was to narrate the existence of the men who made history in Rome.
It started with Rômulo, considered the founder of the city, to reach Tito. However, it only went to Nero, the last emperor of the well-known Julio-Claudian dynasty. Subsequently, Petrarch added prominent figures in human history. The work was extensive but never completed.
Posteritati (Letter to posterity) - the main content of this work is humanistic in nature. It refers to the qualities that the future society must have in order to realign itself with certain aspects that it had lost, especially those related to the classical conventions of citizenship and the persistence of Latin as a language.
From Otio Religious - in this work, the author exposes the lifestyle that is lived inside monasteries and the importance of living a peaceful life through serenity and peace. Its elaboration took ten years, specifically from 1346 to 1356.
Retreat and Scholarship
Petrarch appears to have adopted the approach to the life of Cicero, the Roman scholar whose works he rediscovered while searching ancient texts in the libraries of Europe. This approach was otium cum dignitate (leisure well spent), meaning an educated man should strike the right balance between a fully active public life and a reclusive private life devoted to study.
For eight years he stayed in Milan under the patronage of Giovanni Visconti and later Galeazzo II Visconti, enjoying seclusion and freedom to study while using his pen to incite peace between Italian cities and states.
Petrarch continued to write for the next 25 years, building up an impressive catalog of studies. He even turned down an offer from his close friend, the poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio, of a position at the University of Florence.
Trying to avoid the Black Death and ending up in Venice, the poet was given at least one house in exchange for bequeathing his personal library to the city. In 1367 he moved for the last time to the seclusion of Arquà in the hills outside Padua.
Biography
Francesco Petrarca was born in Arezzo, Italy, on July 20, 1304. His parents were the Florentine notary Ser Petracco and Eletta Canigiani. From a young age, his family lived in several French and Italian cities, since his father was a political exile.
Around 1311, his family moved to Avignon, France, home to the now exiled popes. He studied law, first at Montpellier, France, in 1316 and then back in Italy at Bologna.
His passion was Literature, particularly that of ancient Greece and Rome. He studied languages, literature, grammar, rhetoric and dialectics. During a surprise visit, her father discovered some hidden books and started burning them. Moved by his son's entreaty, he spared Rhetoric and a copy of Virgil.
After his father's death in 1326, Petrarch left law to focus on classical studies. Free to pursue his own interests, he abandoned the law and participated in Avignon's elegant social life.
Early in his professional life, he had to make do with trivial clerical duties until something better came along. So he accepted minor requests and worked for Cardinal Giovanni Colonna in Avignon until 1337. His required commitment to celibacy did not prevent him from having two illegitimate children, Giovanni in 1337 and Francesca in 1343.
Public life
All the while, he maintained an estate in the hills of Vaucluse, near Avignon, to which he returned sporadically as he deplored what he saw as the corruption and duplicity of court life in the towns that gave him employment.
Death and legacy
Petrarch suffered a stroke in 1370 in Ferrara while traveling to Rome. He recovered and continued to write, but died in July 1374, at his home outside Padua, while working at his desk. When her body was discovered, her head was resting on a manuscript by Roman author Virgil. Petrarch was buried in Arquà.
As one of the world's first classical scholars, Petrarch unearthed vast stores of knowledge in the lost texts he discovered, while his philosophy of humanism helped foster the intellectual growth and achievements of the Renaissance. Petrarch's legacy also includes his poems, sonnets and other writings. Its vernacular was immortalized when it was used – alongside the works of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio – as a basis for the modern Italian language.
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