Pétrarque

Francesco Petrarca or Pétrarque (July 20th 1304 with Arezzo, in Tuscan - July 19th 1374 with Arquà Petrarca, in the Province of Padoue in Venezia) is a scholar, a Poète and a Humaniste Italy N. Dante, it takes into account among the “giants” of the Italian Littérature and both are regarded as the fathers of the Renaissance in Italy.

Biography

“ Monday July 20th of the year 1304, with the rising of the dawn, in a suburb of Arezzo called HOrto, I was born, in exile, honest parents, Florentins of birth and a fortune which touched with poverty. ”
C' is in these terms that author of the Canzoniere illustrates it speaks about itself in his “epistola AD Posteros”, ( epistle with the Posterity ). Wire of a notary, it passed his childhood in the village of Incisa, near to Florence. His/her father, Ser Petracco, were banished of Florence in 1302 by the Guelfes Noirs, because of his political bonds with Dante. Pétrarque thus passed the remainder of its youth in Avignon, where its family had moved, to follow there the pope Clément V (which settled there in 1309 at the time of the papal schism), then with Carpentras. He studied with Montpellier (of 1319 with 1323) then with Bologna, where he learned the right of 1323 to 1325. Thus formed in the law and the religion, it was initially interested by the writing and the Latin literature, sharing its passion with his friend Giovanni Boccaccio (Boccace). In its research old traditional Latin and manuscripts, it travelled to France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

To died of his/her father in 1326, Pétrarque turned over in Avignon, where he worked in various clerical offices. Pétrarque quickly became known like scholar and poet and was crowned, in 1341, like prize winner of poetry to Rome. He travelled in all Europe, as ambassador and had a provided correspondence. By collecting the manuscripts at the time of its voyages, it initiated the redécouverte writers of Rome and ancient Greece.

In a letter with his/her friend Francesco Dionigi, Pétrarque claimed to have climbed the Mont Ventoux. The excursion would have taken place the April 26th 1336, and Pétrarque would have been accompanied by his/her brother and two friends. However serious doubts were emitted as for the reality of this episode, it would then form part of the autobiographical fictions of Pétrarque - as potentially Laure. The anecdote gives however a “birth date” to the Alpinisme, Pétrarque would be then ( Petrarca alpinista ) the “father of the alpinism”.

Of return in Provence in 1337, it is hostile with corruption papal court of Avignon and is withdrawn on the edges of the Sorgue where it is devoted to its works as a recluse. It is harnessed with the Latin drafting of the Africa which will be worth the recognition of its pars to him. In spite of these successes, Pétrarque passes through a deep personal spiritual crisis when he discovers Saint Augustin in 1342. Thereafter, because of political concerns, Pétrarque leaves Provence and returns again to Italy. There he learns in 1347, the failure of the revolution of his friend Cola di Rienzo who had fought for the return to Rome of Papacy and the Empire. The following year Pétrarque learns the death from that which he always liked, Laura, carried by the plague which makes rage in all Europe. In 1353, Pétrarque is named ambassador by the archbishop of Milan Giovanni Visconti, its diplomatic missions will carry out it to Prague.

Pétrarque married never but was the father of three children of a woman or unknown women of the posterity. One of its sons, Giovanni, was born in Avignon in 1337 and a girl, Francesca, were born in the Vaucluse in 1343. His/her Giovanni son died of the plague in 1361 and his/her Francesca daughter will marry with Francescuolo da Brossano (which will be then named executor of Pétrarque). In 1362, shortly after the birth of a girl, Eletta, the couple joined Pétrarque with Venice, to flee the plague which devastated part of Europe then. A second grandson, Francesco, will be born in 1366 but he will die before its second birthday.

Pétrarque will be established in 1367 with Padoue, where it will pass the remainder of its life in religious contemplation. Finally, He died in Arquà in the Collines Euganéennes the July 18th 1374.

Laure and poetry

April 6th 1327, one Good Friday, with the sight of a woman called Laure in the church of Holy-Claire of Avignon, Pétrarque developed a long passion, celebrated in Canzoniere; (“Book of Song”). It is possible that it was Laure de Noves, the woman of Hugues de Sade (an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade) or a idealized anonymous character. Its realistic representation in its poems contrasts with the stereotypes of the Troubadours and the Courtly love. Its presence caused him an unexplainable joy but its love not shared made him endure an insupportable desire. There exists little of accurate informations in the work of Pétrarque relating to Laure, except which it is beautiful to look at, blonde with a worthy and modest port.

Laure and Pétrarque never met. It channeled its feelings in exclamative poems of love rather than persuasive and its prose showed its scorn towards the men who badgered the women. At the time of its death in 1348, the poet considered his sorrow as difficult to live as was to it its preceding despair. Later, in its “Letters with the Posterity”, Pétrarque wrote: “In my young age, I fought constantly against a passion in love overflowing but pure - my only love, and I would have still fought if the untimely death, bitter but salutary for me, had not extinguished the flames of passion. I would certainly like to be able to say that I was always entirely free of the desires of the flesh, but I would lie by saying it”

The Sonnet of Pétrarque bears its name.

Works

With its first rough work, Africa -- a Latin epopee who makes the account of the second Punic War -- Pétrarque becomes a European celebrity. Indeed, the Africa will be worth to him the laurel wreath of the poets decreed by the Capitole and thus the recognition of its pars.

However, if its Latin works devoted his celebrity of alive sound, it is especially its Canzoniere , written in Toscan which will pass to the posterity. From the 16th century and until XVIIIe the, many ones will be the imitateurs of his pure and harmonious style. Its imitations will be so numerous that they will give rise to a current: petrarquism. It is characterized by the dialogs with the ancient models, the recourse to the Antithèse, symmetries and the images.

The death of Pétrarque in 1374 prevents it from completing what should have constituted its third work of importance: the Trionfi .

Apart from the Africa , Canzoniere and Trionfi , Pétrarque left a very great number of Latin texts: eclogue heroic S, invectives, exemplary Biography S, accounts and several treaties. For that it is necessary to add a rich Epistolario of more than 600 letters addressed to his parents, friends and even with certain large thinkers of antiquity.

Among Latin works of Pétrarque, one finds De Viris Illustribus , the dialog Secretum (in which it makes the account of its thought and its interior combat and which was not intended for the publication), a debate with St Augustin, a Rerum Memorandarum Libri , an incomplete treaty on the cardinal Virtues, De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae , his work in the Latin prose most popular, Itinerarium , a guide on the Promised land and De Sui Ipsius And Multorum Ignorantia , against the Aristotéliciens. He wrote his cultural works and his poetic epopee in Latin, his Italian sonnets and songs.

The library of the Université of Manchester has sixteen editions Incunable S of the “ Rime ” of Pétrarque, since the edition princeps of 1470, printed with Venice by Vindelinus de Spira, to the edition of 1486, with its typography with the mode differentiating the worms (wholesale printed papers form characters) and the comments (in small characters). A very detailed attention must be carried to marvellous and extremely rare Lauer edition of 1471, like with three Venetian editions different of 1473. Manchester also holds two editions which are not in incomparable the Willard Fiske Collection of the library of the Cornell University: the Neapolitan edition of 1477 by Arnold of Brussels and a Venetian edition of 1480, due to an unknown printer. It has moreover 80 of (roughly) the 150 editions published during the 16th century, of which the totality of the editions Aldine, famous Lyons editions counterfeited, like two of the ten specimens on Velin of the edition of 1501.

Judgments on Pétrarque and its work

“ fertile, young Siècle, significant, whose admiration stirred up the entrails; century which obeyed the quadrant of a large poet, as with the law of a legislator. It is in Pétrarque that we owe to the return of the sovereign pontiff with the the Vatican; these is the voice which made be born Raphaël and leave ground the dome Michel-Angel ” - François-Rene de Chateaubriand, Mémoires of in addition to-fall , 2nd part, book 14, chapter 2 (Voyage in the South of France, 1802)

Heritage

In November 2003, anatomists announced to want to exhume the body of Pétrarque with Arquà Petrarca, so as to check the reports drawn up at the 19th century indicating that it had a size of 1,83 m, which would have made it very large for this period. The group of scientists also wished to rebuild his cranium to obtain a digitized image of its facial characteristics. Unfortunately, the tests of DNA carried out in 2004 revealed that the cranium found in its coffin was not it his, which involved the cancellation of all the operation.

External bonds

"The rise of the Ventoux" Mount; , by Pétrarque
" It canzoniere" and another works
Biography and complete listing of the works of Francesco Petrarca
Biography of Pétrarque on the site Catholic Encyclopedia
“'' Petrarch and Laura ''”, multilingual Site including translations (letters, poems, books) of the public domain, biographies, images and music
Conference of Leigh Husband Kimmel on Pétrarque at the University of Illinois in 1995
a bibliography of the studies on Pétrarque and its manuscript of the '' Virgile '' of the utriusque Library Ambrosienne
'' Of remediis fortunae '', Cremonae, B. of Misintis ac Caesaris Parmensis, 1492. (Vicifons)

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