Earthly passions and spiritual ordinances
Francesco Petrarca was a dedicated scholar. An appreciator of the classical period, he venerated that time and challenged the limitations of his own time. For him, humanity could once again reach the heights of past achievements, even while living amid varied and confusing storms. The doctrine he adopted became known as humanism and created a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
In Avignon, France, he met the Augustinian scholar Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro, who guided him toward a greater awareness of the importance of Christian patristic literature. Dionigi gave him as a gift the book Confessions, by Saint Augustine, a theologian considered the precursor of the Christian Church.
Contact with the theologian's work generated in Petrarch an internal process of questioning existence. Throughout his life he debated between earthly passions and spiritual ordinances, a recurring theme in his poetic work.
Never abandoning his religious beliefs, Petrarch was an astute student of the works of Saint Augustine, whom he considered more significant than Aristotle. For Augustine, believing is the condition for knowing the Truth. A reason that you will never achieve if you try to know without believing. Faith, therefore, is not an end in itself, but drives 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 clergyman, he traveled to France, Flanders, Brabant, the Rhineland, and Germany with the aim of deepening his knowledge of classical literature. Even though he did not know how to read Greek, he collected several manuscripts such as Homer's Iliad. He also rediscovered copies of letters and speeches by the Roman statesperson 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's main characteristic was its connection with the Christian faith. Philosophy was seen as an auxiliary science of theology, being a rational search for solving 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 poet in Rome. Petrarch had long lobbied 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 Pax Romana.
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 imitated Cicero's letters in his own works by writing pieces addressed to famous ancient scholars of the past, as well as contemporaries and civic leaders.
Petrarch's writing
The poet'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 made 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 held in highest regard his work Africa, an epic poem about the Second Punic War. His vernacular poems (in vulgar language) achieved greater renown. They would later be used to help create the modern Italian language, a subject we will also cover in the post about Dante Alighieri.
The use of sonnets influenced poets across Europe and reached deep into renaissance literature. Petrarch's best-known vernacular compositions were lyric poems about Laura, the woman he met in church in Avignon on April 6, 1327. Laura is mentioned in several works as Laura de Noves, the character wife of a French nobleman. His beloved died due to the Black Death in 1348, 21 years after Petrarch met her.
Even after Laura's death, he continued writing about her for most of his life. To this day, no one knows Laura's true identity, but there is no doubt about her existence or the intensity of the poet's platonic passion, which persisted after his beloved's death like a melancholic longing.
Petrarchism
Petrarch's literary style, known as Petrarchism, emerged in the 15th century, and continued until the 17th century. His preference for Latin in his studies helped him continue the use of that language during the Renaissance, but he preferred to use the vernacular in poetry.
His focus of study was lyrical poetry, based on love themes. Petrarchan poetics stood out as an example of perfection based on simple language and metric innovations, such as the use of hendecasyllable verses, composed of eleven poetic syllables.
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 aimed to achieve maximum recognition, as they were the ones that brought him the most triumph.
Poems
Laura and the Canzonière (Songbooks) - 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. The theme of the Canzonière goes far beyond Petrarch's platonic love and outlines a new lyric based on the selection of what was most refined and vigorous in the previous two 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, as 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 seven hundred 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 meter widely used in classical writings.
Songbook - this work was originally called Fragment of Things in Vulgar, and later as Petrarch's Songbook, it is composed of around three hundred sonnets and poems. As the name suggests, it was written in vulgar language. Narrated in the first person, it expresses Petrarch's feelings for Laura. In addition to describing his platonic love, he also narrates his spiritual experience. His muse becomes an angel and communicates with God so that he gives them permission to live their 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 loved one. The work also contains some poems that deal 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 enlightenment and knowledge of God.
Prose texts
Of 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.
He leans towards meditation and life in solitude as a reflective act. It is also oriented towards studying, reading and writing as a way of promoting the concentration process; Hence begins freedom as individuals and the essence of happiness proposed by Francesco Petrarca.
Secretum - a work dated between 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 made up of three books:
1. Saint Augustine tells the poet what steps he must follow to achieve peace in his soul.
2. Analysis and confrontation of Petrarch's negative attitudes.
3. In-depth analysis of the Italian writer's two greatest dreams, which are passion and glory for his beloved Laura, which he considers his two greatest flaws.
Summary of letters or epistolary collections - these are works that cannot be left aside due to 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 subsequent publication, the letters were examined and, in many cases, rewritten. Family, Senile and Sine Nomine Líber stand out.
De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae - the translation of the title from Latin would be something like Remedies for the extremes of fortune. Written between 1360 and 1366, in prose and 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 series of biographies, including Adam, from the Old Testament and many Roman figures. At 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 Romulus, considered the founder of the city, to reach Titus. However, it only went as far as Nero, the last emperor of the well-known Julio-Claudian dynasty. Later, Petrarch added prominent figures from 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 future society must have to realign itself with certain aspects that it had lost, especially those related to classical conventions of citizenship and the persistence of Latin as a language.
De Otio Religioso - in this work, the author exposes the lifestyle lived within the monasteries and the importance of living a peaceful life through serenity and peace. Its elaboration took place over 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 for ancient texts in the libraries of Europe. This approach was otium cum dignitate (leisure well spent), that is, an educated man should find the right balance between a fully active public life and a reclusive private life dedicated 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 urge peace between Italian cities and states.
Petrarch continued to write for the next 25 years, building an impressive catalog of studies. He even rejected an offer from his great 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 received at least one house in exchange for leaving his personal library to the city in his will. 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. Since he was little, his family lived in several French and Italian cities, as his father was a political exile.
Around 1311, his family moved to Avignon, France, home of the now-exiled popes. He studied law, first in Montpellier, France, in 1316 and then back in Italy, in Bologna.
His passion was literature, particularly that of Greece and Rome. He studied languages, literature, grammar, rhetoric and dialectics. During a surprise visit, her father discovered some hidden books and began burning them. Moved by his son's plea, he spared Cicero's Rhetoric and a copy of Virgil from the fire.
After his father's death in 1326, Petrarch left law to concentrate on classical studies. Free to pursue his own interests, he abandoned the law and participated in the elegant social life of Avignon.
At the beginning of his professional life, he had to be content with trivial clerical tasks until something better came along. Thus he accepted minor orders 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 cities 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 his body was discovered, his head was resting on a manuscript by the Roman author Virgil. Petrarch was buried in Arquà.
As one of the world's first classical scholars, Petrarch unearthed vast reserves 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. His vernacular writing was immortalized when it was used – alongside the works of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio – as the basis for the modern Italian language.
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