Francesco Petrarca

Francesco Petrarca, more commonly known as Petrarch

Petrarch, was a scholar, poet, and humanist philosopher who was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, on July 20, 1304. Due to his commitments as a lawyer, his father had previously relocated from Florence to Arezzo in 1302, where Petrarch was born. Later on in 1312, the family relocated once more to Avignon, where the Papal Court was located in Southern France and where it was simple for lawyers to find work. Petrarch started his official schooling at Carpentras in France. As a result of his father’s insistence, Petrarch left for Montpellier, France, in 1316 to pursue his legal studies. In 1320, he travelled with his younger brother from France to Bologna, Italy.

Interest in Literature and Law

While studying law at Montpellier, Petrarch was already gaining interest on the study of literature with a particular attraction to classical authors. During the period of movement from Montpellier to Bologna, Petrarch’s mother passed away and his early works in literature involved poems about his mother. His knowledge on vernacular poetry in Italy increased during his period at Bologna while simultaneously studying law as his main course. His father passed away in 1326 and Petrarch was now free to pursue his literature interests without his father’s insistence on law.

Connection to Cardinal Giovanni Colonna

Petrarch returned to Avignon and entered the household of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna a very influential literature enthusiast in the town. Petrarch and his brother loved life in Avignon and they were quickly making a name for themselves in the town for their elegant culture. They were both in their youth and apart from literature Petrarch was also committed to religious faith, a love of virtue and the upright way of approaching human affairs. These virtues made Petrarch develop as a man of morals in the society.

The Love for Laura

In the year 1327, he met a girl known as Laura in a church known as St. Clare, at Avignon and fell in love with her. This was the beginning of his famous chaste love for Laura who despite attempts to identify her remained unknown apart from what Petrarch wrote about her. Laura, however, was outside of Petrarch’s reach despite the strong and chaste love he had for her. This chaste love for Laura inspired Petrarch’s popular Italian poems which he wrote in a vulgar language before later recollecting them and revising them throughout his life.

Travel and Literary Works

In 1330 he travelled to France and stayed with the bishop an old friend of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. Petrarch continued to reside in Avignon despite receiving a canonry in 1335 to continue staying with the bishop. During these years in Paris, he was given a copy of the confessions of St Augustine that facilitated his spiritual growth as well as his literature interests. By studying the spiritual writings at the time, Petrarch became an advocate for the Christian message and the values in the Classic Culture. He composed literature concerning divine fulfillment and his works can be attributed with the rising of the European Humanist Movement of the time.

Moral Crisis and Legacy

Petrarch’s extensive revision habits complicate the chronological order of his literature works but some of his popular individual poems are Epistolae metricae and Rime. In 1340, his popularity through these extensive works made him be invited to both Rome and Paris to be crowned as a poet. In 1343 he went through a moral crisis that directed him to write the Secretum meum, which is a series of treaties. This period marked the height of his moral and literature optimum as he concluded that even amidst worldly preoccupations and numerous errors, man can still find his way to God (Bergin, 1970). Petrarch had bitter relations with the Avignon court and he moved away permanently. Petrarch died in 1374 while working in Aqua and was found early in the morning resting on top of a manuscript.

Reference

Bergin, T. G. (1970). Petrarch (Vol. 81). MacMillan Publishing Company.