Francesca Petrarch. Francesco Petrarch

Among Petrarch's works are treatises, sonnets, canzones, sextinas, ballads, madrigals in Latin and Italian: "Canzoniere" ("Book of Songs", Canzoniere, 1327-1374; consists of 2 parts, "On the Life of Madonna Laura" and "On death of Madonna Laura" containing 366 poems in Italian: 317 sonnets, 29 canzones, 9 sextins, 7 ballads and 4 madrigals; in the latest edition of 1373 the collection is entitled Rerum vulgarium fragmenta - "Passages in the vernacular language"), "Africa" ​​(Africa , 1339-1342; epic poem in Latin about the 2nd Punic War), “My secret, or the Book of conversations about contempt for the world” (“De coutemptu mundi” or “De secreto conflictu curarum suarum”, 1342 - 1343; autobiography in the form of a dialogue between Petrarch and St. Augustine - a philosophical treatise in Latin), "The Triumph of Love" (Triumphus Cupidinis, 1342 - 1343; didactic poem), "The Triumph of Chastity" (Triumphus Pudicitie, 1342 - 1343; didactic poem), "Bucolics" (Basolicum carmen in XII aeglogas distinctum, 1346-1357; pastoral eclogues of allegorical content), “On the solitary life” (De vita solitaria, 1346; treatise), “On monastic leisure” (De otio religioso, 1347; treatise), “Triumphus Mortis” (Triumphus Mortis, 1350; poem), “Triumphus Fame” (Triumphus Fame, 1350; poem), “Invective against doctors” ( Invectiva contro medicum, 1351 - 1353), "On remedies against all fortune" (De remediis ultriusque fortunae, 1353 - 1354; more than 250 dialogues), "Senile letters" (Seniles, 1361 - 1374; 125 letters, divided into 17 books) , “Triumphs” (1373; the final version included six successive “triumphs”: Love, Chastity, Death, Glory, Time and Eternity), “Letter to Posterity” (Epistola ad posteros, 1374; unfinished autobiography in the form of a letter to posterity) ; treatises concerning ethical issues: “De remediis utriusque fortunae”, “De vita solitaria”, “De otio religioso”, “De vera sapientia”; "Letters without an address" (Epistolae sine titulo); "De rebus memorandis libri IV" (a collection of anecdotes and sayings borrowed from Latin authors and modern times, arranged according to headings); "Vitae virorum illustrium" (biographies of famous Romans); letters (“Epistolae de rebus fami iaribus et variae libri XXV”, “Epistolae seniles libri XVII”); "The Way to Syria" (Itinerarium syriacum, guide to the Holy Land), "Philology" (Filologia, comedy lost) (Petrarca, Francesco) (1304–1374) Italian poet, a recognized literary arbiter of his time and the forerunner of the European humanist movement.
Born on July 20, 1304 in Arezzo, where his father, a Florentine notary, fled due to political unrest. Seven months later, Francesco's mother took him to Ancisa, where they remained until 1311. At the beginning of 1312, the whole family moved to Avignon (France). After four years of studying with a private teacher, Francesco was sent to law school in Montpellier. In 1320, together with his brother, he went to Bologna to continue his study of jurisprudence. In April 1326, after the death of their father, both brothers returned to Avignon. By that time, Petrarch had already shown an undoubted inclination towards literary pursuits.
In 1327, on Good Friday, in an Avignon church, he met and fell in love with a girl named Laura - nothing more is known about her. It was she who inspired Petrarch to write his best poems.
To earn a living, Petrarch decided to take orders. He was ordained, but hardly ever officiated. In 1330 he became a chaplain to Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, and in 1335 he received his first benefice.
In 1337 Petrarch acquired a small estate in the Vaucluse, a valley near Avignon. There he began two works in Latin - the epic poem Africa (Africa) about the conqueror of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, and the book On Glorious Men (De viris illustribus) - a set of biographies of outstanding people of antiquity. At the same time he began to write lyric poetry in Italian, poetry and letters in Latin, and began writing the comedy Filologia, now lost. By 1340, Petrarch's literary activity, his connections with the papal court and his long travels had earned him European fame. On April 8, 1341, by decision of the Roman Senate, he was crowned poet laureate.
Petrarch spent 1342–1343 in Vaucluse, where he continued to work on an epic poem and biographies, and also, based on the model of the Confession of St. Augustine, wrote the book of confession My Secret (Secretum Meum) in the form of three dialogues between St. Augustine and Petrarch before the court of Truth. At the same time, the Penitential Psalms (Psalmi poenitentialis) were written or begun; On Memorable Events (Rerum memorandum libri) - a treatise on the cardinal virtues in the form of a collection of anecdotes and biographies; didactic poems Triumph of Love (Triumphus Cupidinis) and Triumph of Chastity (Triumphus Pudicitie), written in terzas; and the first edition of a book of lyric poetry in Italian – Canzoniere.
Towards the end of 1343, Petrarch went to Parma, where he stayed until the beginning of 1345. In Parma, he continued work on Africa and the treatise On Memorable Events. He did not finish both works and, it seems, never returned to them. At the end of 1345 Petrarch again came to Vaucluse. In the summer of 1347, he enthusiastically greeted the uprising raised in Rome by Cola di Rienzo (later suppressed). During this period, he wrote eight of the twelve allegorical eclogues Bucolic songs (Bucolicum carmen, 1346–1357), two prose treatises: On the solitary life (De vita solitaria, 1346) and On monastic leisure (De otio religioso, 1347) - on the beneficial influence solitary life and idleness on the creative mind, and also began the second edition of Canzoniere.
Perhaps it was sympathy for the uprising of Cola di Rienzo that prompted Petrarch to undertake a trip to Italy in 1347. However, his desire to join the revolt in Rome faded as soon as he learned of the atrocities committed by Cola. He stopped again in Parma. In 1348, the plague claimed the lives of Cardinal Colonna and Laura. In 1350 Petrarch met and became friends with Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco Nelli. During his stay in Italy, he wrote four more eclogues and the poem Triumph of Death (Triumphus Mortis), began the poem Triumph of Glory (Triumphus Fame), and also began Poetic Epistles (Epistolae metricae) and letters in prose.
Petrarch spent the years 1351–1353 mainly in Vaucluse, paying special attention to public life, especially the state of affairs at the papal court. At the same time, he wrote Invectiva contro medicum, criticizing the methods of the pope's treating doctors. Most of the letters written during this period and criticizing the situation in Avignon were later collected in the book Without an Address (Liber sine nomine).
In 1353, Petrarch, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Visconti, settled in Milan, where he served as secretary, orator and emissary. At the same time he completed Bucolic Songs and the collection Without an Address; began a lengthy essay On Remedies Against All Fortune (De remediis ultriusque fortunae), which eventually included more than 250 dialogues on how to cope with luck and failure; wrote The Way to Syria (Itinerarium syriacum) - a guide for pilgrims to the Holy Land. In 1361, Petrarch left Milan to escape the plague that was raging there. He spent a year in Padua, at the invitation of the Carrara family, where he completed work on the collection Poetic Epistles, as well as the collection Letters on Private Affairs (Familiarum rerum libri XXIV), which included 350 letters in Latin. At the same time, Petrarch began another collection, Letters of the Senile (Seniles), which ultimately included 125 letters written between 1361 and 1374 and divided into 17 books. In 1362, Petrarch, still fleeing the plague, fled to Venice. In 1366, a group of young followers of Aristotle attacked Petrarch. He responded with a caustic invective about his own and other people’s ignorance (De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia). In 1370 Petrarch bought a modest villa in Arqua, on the Euganean hills. In 1372, hostilities between Padua and Venice forced him to take refuge in Padua for a time. After the defeat of Padua, he and its ruler went to Venice to negotiate peace. In the last seven years of his life, Petraraca continued to improve Canzoniere (in the last edition of 1373 the collection was entitled in Latin Rerum vulgarium fragmenta - Passages in the vernacular) and worked on the Triumphs, which in the final edition included six successive “triumphs”: Love, Chastity, Death, Glory, Time and Eternity. Petrarch died in Arqua on July 19, 1374. Petrarch revised the cultural heritage of antiquity, carefully analyzing the texts of ancient writers and restoring their original form. He himself felt himself standing at the junction of two eras. He considered his age to be decadent and vicious, but he could not help but adopt some of its preferences. Such are, for example, the preference for the teachings of Plato and St. Augustine to Aristotle and Thomism, Petrarch's refusal to recognize secular poetry and active life as an obstacle to Christian salvation, a view of poetry as the highest form of art and knowledge, an understanding of virtues as the common denominator of ancient and Christian culture and, finally, a passionate desire to return Rome to the position of the center civilized world. Petrarch was tormented by a deep internal conflict caused by the clash of his beliefs and aspirations with the demands placed on a Christian. It is to him that Petrarch's poetry owes its highest soars. The immediate sources of inspiration were unrequited love for Laura and admiration for the valor and virtues of the ancients, embodied mainly in the figure of Scipio Africanus the Elder. Petrarch considered Africa his main achievement, but his “miraculous monument” was the Canzoniere - 366 various Italian poems, mainly dedicated to Laura. The sublime lyricism of these poems cannot be explained solely by the influence on Petrarch of the poetry of the Provençal troubadours, the “sweet new style,” Ovid and Virgil. Drawing a parallel between his love for Laura and the myth of Daphne, which Petrarch understands symbolically - as a story not only about fleeting love, but also about the eternal beauty of poetry - he brings into his “book of songs” a new, deeply personal and lyrical experience of love, putting it into a new artistic form. While he bows to the achievements of ancient heroes and thinkers, Petrarch at the same time views their achievements as a sign of a deep need for moral rebirth and redemption, a longing for eternal bliss. The life of a Christian is fuller and richer because he is given to understand that Divine light can turn the knowledge of the past into true wisdom. This same refraction of pagan mythology in the prism of the Christian worldview is also present in Petrarch’s love lyrics, where as a result the theme of redemption is heard. Laura as Beauty, Poetry and Earthly Love is worthy of admiration, but not at the cost of saving the soul. The way out of this seemingly intractable conflict, the redemption, consists more in Petrarch's effort to achieve the perfect expression of his passion than in the renunciation with which the collection begins and ends. Even sinful love can be justified before the Lord as pure poetry. Petrarch's first meeting with Laura took place, according to him, on Good Friday. Petrarch further identifies his beloved with religious, moral and philosophical ideals, while at the same time emphasizing her incomparable physical beauty. Thus, his love is on the same level with Plato’s eternal ideas that lead a person to the highest good. But, although Petrarch is within the framework of the poetic tradition, which began with Andrei Capellan and ended with a “sweet new style,” nevertheless, neither love nor the beloved are something unearthly, transcendental for him. Admiring ancient authors, Petrarch developed a Latin style, which was much more perfect than the Latin of that time. He did not attach any importance to writings in Italian. Perhaps this is why some of Canzoniere's poems have purely formal merits: in them he is carried away by wordplay, striking contrasts and strained metaphors. Unfortunately, it was precisely these traits that Petrarch’s imitators most readily adopted (the so-called Petrarchism). Petrarch's sonnet, one of the two typical sonnet forms (along with Shakespeare's), is distinguished by a two-part division into an initial eight-line (octave) with the rhyme abba abba and a final six-line (sextet) with the rhyme cde cde. In one form or another, Petrarchism appeared in most European countries. Having reached its peak in the 16th century, it was periodically revived until recently. At an early stage, they imitated mainly the works of Petrarch in Latin, later the Triumphas and, finally, the Canzoniere, whose influence turned out to be the most lasting. Among the famous poets and writers of the Renaissance, who were influenced to one degree or another by Petrarch, are G. Boccaccio, M. M. Boiardo, L. Medici and T. Tasso in Italy; Marquis de Santillana, A. Mark, G. de la Vega, J. Boscan and F. de Herrera in Spain; C. Marot, J. Du Bellay, M. Seve, P. Ronsard and F. Deporte in France; J. Chaucer, T. Wyeth, G. H. Sarri, E. Spencer, F. Sidney, T. Lodge and G. Constable in England; P. Fleming, M. Opitz, G. Weckerlin and T. Höck in Germany. During the period of romanticism, Petrarch also found admirers and imitators, the most notable of them being U. Foscolo and G. Leopardi in Italy; A. Lamartine, A. Musset and V. Hugo in France; G. W. Longfellow, J. R. Lowell and W. Irving in America.

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Humanitarian University

Yekaterinburg city

Faculty of Social Psychology

Specialty “Socio-cultural service and tourism”

Part-time form of study

Course 2 (2006)

FULL NAME. student: Vyatkina Svetlana Vladimirovna

Discipline

WORLD CULTURE AND ART

Test

Petrarch's lyrics

Teacher: Drozdova A.V.

Delivery date:

Result k\r

return date

Ekaterinburg – 2007

Introduction

Biographical milestones

Petrarch's lyrics

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

In the 14th century Italy experienced the Early Renaissance. This time includes such grandiose transformations as the transition from the hegemony of rural to the hegemony of urban culture; the formation of large states and nations; the formation of national languages ​​and national cultures. The next generation of Italian cultural figures after Dante formulates new values ​​- the ideas of humanism. Humanists, in search of support for a new view of the world, turn to antiquity and study the works of ancient thinkers. But this is not just a return to previous values. Humanism is characterized by a combination of ancient anthropocentrism (“Man is the measure of all things”), which applied only to free people, with the medieval idea of ​​equality arising from theocentrism (“All people are equal before God”). A unique feature of the Italian Renaissance is the emergence of the most significant writers at an early stage, in the 14th century, called the Trecento in Italian. One of them was Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374).

Petrarch's colossal authority was based, first of all, on his activities as a humanist scientist. Petrarch was the creator of humanistic culture in Europe, the founder of a science called classical philology. Petrarch's personal model gave rise to such an influential phenomenon as Petrarchism. All his life he was engaged in searching and studying ancient manuscripts and made a number of important discoveries in this regard; Thus, he found two speeches by Cicero and his letters, as well as Quintilian’s main work, “On the Education of the Orator.” More than other ancient authors, Petrarch revered Cicero and Virgil, calling the first his “father” and the second his “brother.” Due to his poor familiarity with the Greek language, Petrarch's knowledge of ancient literature was limited mainly to Roman literature. In Greek literature he saw the primary source of Roman literature. Not being able to read Homer in the original, he used the Latin translation of his poems.

Biographical milestones

Francesco Petrarca was the son of the Florentine notary Petracco, a friend and political associate of Dante. He was born in the city of Arezzo. In 1312, the notary Petracco moved with his family to the city of Avignon in the south of France, he took a position in the papal secretariat, and settled his family in the town of Carpentras. Here little Petrarch began his apprenticeship with the Latin scholar Convenevole da Prato, who instilled in him a taste for Roman literature. At the insistence of his father, he studied law, first in Montpellier, then at the famous University of Bologna, but left the classes he hated in 1326, when he lost his father and mother. Returning to Avignon, he accepted the ecclesiastical title, which gave him access to the papal court. Luxury, simony (selling church positions) and other vices reigned here, which caused deep indignation among many and were subsequently severely branded by the great humanist in his “Letters without an address” and in a number of accusatory sonnets.

In 1327, he met a beautiful young woman in the Church of St. Clare, whom he sang in poetry for many years under the name of Laura. The fame of the “singer Laura” played a significant role in Petrarch’s personal fate. In 1330, he entered the service of Giovanni Colonna, an enlightened philanthropist, who gave him the opportunity to study ancient writers. In 1337, Petrarch settled in the town of Vaucluse near Avignon, where he was engaged in literary work, writing poems about Laura, the poem “Africa”, which brought him the fame of a great poet and the crowning of laurels on the Capitol, the prose essay “On Illustrious Men”, the poem “Triumph” Love" and other works.

Tormented by inner restlessness and curiosity, Petrarch traveled a lot. He lived in Milan with the Visconti rulers there, in Venice, Padua, Rome, Pavia, even in Prague.

The poet spent his last years in the town of Arqua near Padua, where he built himself a small house. Here he died quietly on the night of July 18-19, 1374, bending over an ancient manuscript.

Petrarch's lyrics

Petrarch's admiration for the ancient world had the character of a real passion. He sought to be completely transported to the ancient world he adored, mastered not only the language, style, but also the way of thinking of Roman authors, wrote letters to Livy, Virgil, Seneca, Cicero, Homer, as his personal friends, constantly quoted them and looked for an answer in their works to contemporary issues. He considered himself a descendant of the ancient Romans, Italy - the heir of Roman glory, Italian literature - a continuation of Latin. Unlike Dante, Petrarch preferred to write not in Italian, but in Latin, which he considered the true literary language of Italy, and he sought to cleanse Latin of medieval layers, bringing it closer to the language of the ancient classics. But by doing this, Petrarch, in essence, moved backwards, for he alienated literature from the masses, making it accessible only to a narrow circle of educated people. In this regard, Petrarch's work was a preparation for the later academic rebirth of humanism that took place in the 15th century.

Petrarch's Latin works can be divided into two groups: poetic and moral-philosophical works. Of Petrarch’s poetic works written in Latin, the first place is occupied by the poem “Africa” (1338-1342), created in imitation of Virgil’s “Aeneid”. It consists of nine songs (the poem remained unfinished). It is a patriotic national epic celebrating the exploits of Scipio, the conqueror of Africa. Petrarch borrowed plot material from the Roman historian Titus Livy; from Cicero's "Republic" - a story about Scipio's dream, during which the shadow of the commander's father predicts the fall of Carthage to him, talks about the afterlife and prophesies about the coming decline of Rome. Petrarch combines the cult of antiquity with the assertion of the national independence of Italy, with hatred of foreigners and feudal rapists ruling the “eternal city.” The last song of the poem features the Roman poet Ennius, who predicts that after many centuries a poet will appear who will glorify Scipio and receive a crown in Rome. This allusion to himself, inserted into a poem from ancient life, is a clear manifestation of Petrarch’s self-awareness, his thirst for personal glory. The cult of antiquity provided support for this individualism, characteristic of the worldview of the Renaissance man.

Petrarch's contemporaries highly valued Africa, considering it a masterpiece. Later criticism noted the poem's length, lack of action, and weak composition. The strongest thing in the poem is not the epic beginning, but the lyrical passages, in particular the fiery hymns to the homeland.

In addition to "Africa", Petrarch wrote twelve more eclogues in Latin verse (1346-1356) in imitation of Virgil's "Bucolics". However, Petrarch put into the pastoral form a content completely alien to it. Some eclogues are sharply accusatory in nature, condemning the Neapolitan court, the Roman nobility, and the corruption of the papal curia. Other eclogues are deeply personal, intimate; Eclogue XI expresses the poet’s grief over Laura’s grave.

Petrarch’s “Epistle” is also written in Latin verse, adjacent to his prose letters, from which they differ only in their poetic form. Petrarch is the creator of the epistolary genre in modern European literature. Following the example of Cicero and Seneca, he turns his private letters into purely literary works, written in a masterful style and introducing the reader to various incidents from the poet’s personal life, with his thoughts, feelings, experiences, with his assessment of literary works and responses to social and political events life. The form of the letter or message attracted Petrarch with its ease and ability to accommodate any content. Some of Petrarch's letters have no addressees at all; these “Letters without an address” are filled with sharp satirical attacks against the depraved morals of the papal capital - the “new Babylon”. Private letters clearly depict the poet’s attention to his personality.

Among Petrarch's prosaic Latin works, it is necessary to highlight his historical works, in which he tried to summarize the fragmentary knowledge of his contemporaries about ancient antiquity. In the book “On Famous Men,” Petrarch outlined the biographies of prominent Romans, as well as Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus and Hannibal. Petrarch’s model for writing this book was Plutarch’s famous work on the heroes of antiquity, and he gleaned factual information from Titus Livy. The purpose of the book “On Famous Men” coincides with the task of “Africa”: it was to glorify Ancient Rome, reviving the memory of the valor of its best sons. The book was of great importance for the formation of the cult of ancient heroism, which was organically included in the worldview of the people of the Renaissance. In addition, it was a school of patriotism, social activism and civic duty.

Another historical work of Petrarch - “On Memorable Things” - is a collection of extracts, sayings and examples extracted from the works of ancient authors, as well as a number of legends about prominent Italian figures, including Dante. The book had great cultural and educational significance for its time. Of particular interest in Book II of this work is the section on witticisms and jokes with numerous examples that allow us to recognize Petrarch as the creator of the genre of short novella-anecdote in Latin, later developed by the humanist Poggio in his “Faceti.”

An important place among Petrarch's Latin works is occupied by moral and philosophical treatises, which clearly reflect the deep contradictions of his consciousness. On the one hand, Petrarch was an individualist who always brought his personality to the fore; he had an inquisitive, critical mind, a thirst for fame, a love of life and nature, and an enthusiastic worship of pagan antiquity. On the other hand, he carried a heavy burden of ascetic views and was powerless to break ties with the old, religious culture. The result is a painful discord in Petrarch’s consciousness between pagan and Christian ideals, between love of life and denial of life. On this basis, Petrarch developed a kind of mental illness, which he calls accidia; this word, borrowed by Petrarch from the practice of Christian hermits, means dissatisfaction and dejection of the heart, oppressive sadness, discouraging any activity.

But the most striking expression of the ideological struggle experienced by Petrarch is his book “On Contempt for the World” (1343), which he called his “secret”, because he wrote it not for others, but for himself, trying to understand the contradictions of his heart. This book represents the first confession of a restless personality in new literature. It is written in the form of a dialogue between Petrarch and St. Augustine, one of the founders of the medieval worldview, who himself in his youth experienced similar fluctuations, captured in his famous “Confessions.”

The dialogue between Petrarch and Augustine essentially depicts the internal struggle in the mind of Petrarch himself. It’s like a dialogue between his split soul. Augustine in his treatise is the exponent of the orthodox, Christian-ascetic point of view; he calls on the poet to suppress all worldly thoughts and desires, including the pursuit of poetry, the search for fame, love for Laura, for all this is decay, and one should only think about inevitable death. Petrarch argues with Augustine hotly and passionately. He tells him that he cannot give up love and fame. At the same time, he claims that his love for Laura lifts him up, for he loves not the flesh in her, but the immortal soul. In the end, Augustine gains the upper hand: he convinces Petrarch that his love for Laura is still an earthly feeling. He is ready to agree with him, ready to devote himself to caring about eternity, but first he must complete his earthly affairs. Thus, although Petrarch recognizes the moral superiority of Augustine, the humanistic side of his consciousness does not allow Christian-ascetic morality to suppress itself.

Petrarch's ideological contradictions were expressed not only in his moral and philosophical treatises, but also in his lyric poems, written, unlike the works considered, in Italian. Petrarch himself did not value his Italian poems very highly, calling them “trifles”, “trinkets”, because, in his opinion, only works written in Latin are full-fledged literature. But time has shown that Petrarch is great precisely for his Italian poems, in which he acted as a true pioneer of new paths in the field of not only Italian, but also European lyrics.

Petrarch began writing Italian poetry in his early youth. Like his Provençal and Italian predecessors, including Dante, he developed primarily the genre of love lyrics. Petrarch called his beloved Laura and said about her only that he first saw her on April 6, 1327. And that exactly 21 years later she died. After her death, Petrarch sang her praises for another ten years and subsequently divided the collection of poems dedicated to her, usually called “Canzoniere,” into two parts entitled “During the Life of Madonna Laura” and “After the Death of Madonna Laura.” The composition of “Canzoniere” is somewhat at odds with the title of the collection; the canzones are far from the most significant part of it, giving way to the first place to the sonnets. In addition to 317 sonnets and 29 canzonas, the collection also contains images of other lyrical genres - sextinas, ballads, madrigals. In addition to love poems, sonnets and canzones with philosophical and political content were included. Among the latter, the canzones “My Italy” and “High Spirit” are especially famous, as well as three anti-Vatican sonnets (136, 137 and 138), containing the most acute denunciation of the papal court and the monstrous debauchery that reigned there.

The name Laura seemed to many of Petrarch's biographers to be fictitious, under which the troubadours liked to hide the names of their ladies. Petrarch constantly plays with these words, claiming that his love for Laura brings him laurels, sometimes even calling his beloved a laurel.

Petrarch's biographers managed to collect a small amount of data about her. It has been established that Laura was born around 1307 into the noble Avignon family of Noves; in 1325 she married a local nobleman, Hugues de Sade, became the mother of 11 children and died in the plague year of 1348. Laura's married status does not contradict her image in Petrarch's poems: the poet portrayed her as a woman, not a girl, which was based on the old tradition of courtly lyric poetry. In Petrarch's poems there is no hint not only of Laura's reciprocal feeling for the poet, but even of a close acquaintance with her.

Not all the poems in honor of Laura have reached us, for the poet destroyed his early experiments, in which he had not yet sufficiently mastered poetic skill. The first of the poems that have come down to us (Canzone 1) is no older than 1330. It was written in the manner of the Provençal troubadours, whose songs were still alive in Avignon. Petrarch here is far from the spiritualization of love inherent in the Italian poets of the “sweet new style”, its transformation into a symbol of virtue, into a reflection of the “divine good”. Love here is a powerful force, taking the poet’s beloved as its ally, they turn the poet into an evergreen laurel. Echoes of the poetry of the troubadours are combined in the early lyrics of Petrarch with reminiscences from Roman poets, mainly from Ovid.

Poetic allegories, personifications, and mythological parallels remain in Petrarch’s poetry further. But they do not prevent the poet from striving to talk about his feelings without any philosophical abstractions. True, he could not avoid the influence of the lyrics of Dante and his school. Like Dante, he portrays his beloved as an image of virtue, making her the focus of all perfections. But at the same time, he does not equate beauty with virtue, and does not turn Laura into some kind of ethereal symbol. She remains, first of all, a beautiful woman whom the poet admires, finding new colors to describe her beauty, capturing what is peculiar and unique that is in her given pose, in this situation. Petrarch describes Laura's curls, her eyes, her tears, about which four sonnets are written; he paints Laura in a boat or in a carriage, in a meadow under a tree, and shows her showered with flowers.

But admiring a beautiful model does not have a self-sufficient character in Petrarch. The description of Laura’s beauty is only an excuse to express the feelings of the poet in love. She always remains a stern mistress; love for her is hopeless, it feeds only on dreams, makes him wish for death and seek relief in tears. These experiences, “outbursts of a sorrowful heart,” constitute the main poetic content of “Canzoniere.” Like the treatise “On Contempt for the World,” Petrarch’s book of poems reveals his spiritual contradictions; it depicts the poet’s painful split between sublime Platonism and sensual earthly love, the sinfulness of which he recognizes. He says: “On the one hand, I am stung by shame and sorrow, which draws me back, and on the other hand, I am not let go by a passion that, due to habit, has become so strong in me that it dares to argue with death itself.” The ideological conflict that dominates Petrarch’s consciousness imparts drama to his love lyrics; it gives rise to the dynamics of images and moods, growing, colliding, turning into their own opposite. The internal struggle ends with the awareness of the intractability of the conflict. He feels the inferiority of his psyche, recording it in the famous words: “Neither yes nor no resounds completely in my heart.” The inability to suppress one’s “sinful” feeling evokes Petrarch’s sorrowful exclamation: “And I see the best, but I am inclined towards the worst!”

In the second part of “Canzoniere,” dedicated to the deceased Laura, complaints about the severity of her beloved are replaced by grief about her loss. Her image is consecrated in memories; it becomes more alive and touching. Laura whispers consolations to the poet, gives him advice, dries his tears, sitting on the edge of his bed, and listens carefully to the story of his heartache. Like Dante, Petrarch turns his dead lover into a saint. At the same time, being in the heavenly abode, Laura thinks about him all the time and turns back, trying to make sure that the poet is following her. After Laura's death, the poet's passionate struggle against his feelings ends, because it loses its earthly character. However, here too, at times Petrarch has doubts about the admissibility of love. “Canzoniere” ends with a canzona addressed to the Virgin Mary - the poet asks to beg God’s forgiveness for him for the love that he is not able to refuse.

But Petrarch did not stop at Canzoniere. Continuing to strive to reconcile the contradictions in his consciousness, the poet at the end of his life returns to the old cultural and poetic tradition. He turns from the “low” genre of love lyrics to the “high” genre of allegorical vision poem in the manner of Dante and his school. In 1352 he began the poem in terzas "Triumphs", which he was working on in the year of his death. Petrarch shows here that in life Love triumphs over man, from which Chastity frees him; Death triumphs over Chastity, Glory triumphs over it, Time triumphs over Glory, Eternity triumphs over Time. Accordingly, the poem is divided into six “triumphs”, built according to the old scheme of “visions”. Petrarch tries to connect the apotheosis of Laura with the depiction of the destinies of humanity, for which he introduces a large amount of historical and legendary material into the poem. But for Italian society in the second half of the 14th century. Such learned allegorical poetry was a passed stage, and the synthesis sought by Petrarch did not work out.

Conclusion

The historical significance of Petrarch's lyrics lies in his liberation of Italian poetry from mysticism, allegorism from abstraction. For the first time in Petrarch, love lyrics began to serve the glorification of real earthly passion. She played a huge role in strengthening the humanistic worldview with its individualism and rehabilitation of earthly connections. The individualistic style created by Petrarch became canonical for lyric poetry.

A characteristic feature of Petrarch's poetic style in comparison with Dante is that Petrarch gives independent meaning to poetic form, while for Dante poetic form was only an instrument of thought. Petrarch's lyrics are always artistic, they are distinguished by grace and a constant desire for external beauty. This moment introduces the beginnings of aestheticism and even mannerism into his poetry. Researcher of Italian literature N. Tomashevsky, drawing on the long tradition of analyzing Petrarch’s texts, wrote: “The unit of Petrarch’s poetry is not the word, but the verse, or, rather, the rhythmic-syntactic segment in which a single word dissolves and becomes invisible. Petrarch paid special attention to this unit and carefully processed it. Most often, his rhythmic-syntactic unit contains some kind of complete judgment, a complete image. It is also significant that Petrarch is one of the few Italian poets whose individual poems have become proverbial.”

Petrarch left a huge stock of poetic images, forms and motifs as a legacy to European poetry, and brought to perfection the sonnet genre, already developed by his predecessors, which has now become the property of all European literature. All this allows us to see in him the true father of the new European lyricism, the teacher of all the great poets of the European Renaissance - Tasso, Ronsard, Spenser, Shakespeare (as a lyric poet).

Bibliography

1. Alekseev M.P., Zhirmussky V.M., Mokulsky S.S., Smirnov A.A. History of Western European literature. Middle Ages and Renaissance. - M.: Academy, 2000. – 5th ed., revised. and additional From 172-180.

2. Ilyina T.V. History of art. Western European art. – M.: Higher School, 2000. – pp. 90-92.

3. Lukov V.A. History of literature: foreign literature from its origins to the present day. – M.: Academy, 2003. - pp. 94-99.

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Francesco Petrarch is an Italian poet of the 14th century who became the founder of early humanism. Considered a mentor by the writer-monk Barlaam of Calabria, he played a major role in the Italian Proto-Renaissance and became a cult poet of the Middle Ages.

Francesco Petrarch was born in Arezzo on July 20, 1304. His father was Pietro di Ser Parenzo, a Florentine lawyer who was expelled from Florence at the same time as Dante for supporting the “white” party. Parenzo had the nickname “Petracco” - probably because of this, the poet’s pseudonym was subsequently formed. The Parenzo family moved from one city in Tuscany to another, and when Francesco was nine years old, they settled in Avignon, France. Subsequently, Petrarch's mother moved to the neighboring city of Carpentras.

In Avignon, the boy began to attend school, studied Latin and began to become interested in works of Roman literature. In 1319, Francesco graduated from school, after which his father advised him to study law. Although jurisprudence was not close to Francesco, the guy fulfilled his father’s wishes by entering Montpellier, and soon the University of Bologna. In 1326, Petrarch’s father died, and the young man himself finally realized that classical writers were much more interesting to him than legislative acts.

The only inheritance that Francesco received after his father's death was the manuscript of Virgil's works. Partly due to the difficult financial situation, partly due to the desire for spiritual enlightenment, after graduating from university, Petrarch decided to accept the priesthood. The Italian settled at the papal court in Avignon and became close to representatives of the authoritative Colonna family (Giacomo Colonna is a friend from his university days).

In 1327, Francesco first saw Laura de Nove, whose unrequited love for whom prompted him to write poetry, considered the pinnacle of excellence in the field of Italian sonnets.

Creation

Petrarch's greatest popularity came from his poetic works written in Italian. The vast majority is dedicated to Laura de Nov (although her full name is still a mystery, and Laura de Nov is only the most suitable candidate for the role of Petrarch's muse). The poet himself only reports about his beloved that her name is Laura, whom he first saw on April 6, 1327 in the church of Santa Chiara, and that on April 6, 1348, this woman died. After Laura's death, Francesco sang of this love for ten years.

The collection of canzonas and sonnets dedicated to Laura is called “II Canzoniere” or “Rime Sparse”. The collection consists of two parts. Although most of the works included in it describe Petrarch’s love for Laura, there was also room in “Canzoniere” for several poems of other content: religious and political. Even before the beginning of the seventeenth century, this collection was reprinted two hundred times. Reviews of the sonnets contained in “Canzoniere” were written by poets and scholars from different countries, recognizing the undeniable significance of Francesco’s works for the development of Italian and world literature.

It is noteworthy that Petrarch himself did not take his Italian poetic works seriously. Although it was the poems that ensured success with the public, and initially Petrarch wrote exclusively for himself and perceived them as trifles and trifles that helped him ease his soul. But their sincerity and spontaneity appealed to the taste of the world community, and as a result, these works influenced both Petrarch’s contemporaries and the writers of subsequent generations.

Petrarch’s Italian-language poem entitled “Triumphs” is also widely known, in which his philosophy of life was expressed. In it, the author, with the help of allegories, talks about a chain of victories: love defeats man, chastity - love, death - chastity, glory - death, time - glory, and, finally, eternity defeats time.

Francesco's Italian sonnets, canzones, and madrigals influenced not only poetry, but also music. Composers of the 14th (while the Renaissance lasted) and then the 19th centuries used these poems as the basis for their musical works. For example, he wrote “Sonnets of Petrarch” for piano under the deep impression of the poet’s poems dedicated to Laura.

Books in Latin

Francesco's significant works written in Latin include the following books:

• Autobiography “Epistola ad posteros” in the format of a letter to future generations. In this work, Petrarch sets out the story of his life from the outside (talks about the key events that happened along his life path).

• Autobiography "De contempu mundi", which translates as "On contempt for the world." The author wrote this work in the format of a dialogue with St. Augustine. The poet's second autobiography tells not so much about the external manifestations of his life story, but about his internal development, the struggle between personal desires and ascetic morality, and so on. The dialogue with Augustine turns into a kind of duel between the humanistic and religious-ascetic worldviews, in which humanism still wins.

• Invective (angry accusatory speeches) towards representatives of the cultural, political, religious spheres. Petrarch was one of the first creative figures capable of looking at the statements, teachings and beliefs of our time from a critical point of view. Thus, his invective against the doctor, who considered science more important than eloquence and poetry, is widely known. Francesco also spoke out against a number of French prelates (representatives of the highest Catholic clergy), against the Averroists (followers of the popular philosophical teaching of the 13th century), Roman scientists of yesteryear, and so on.

• “Letters without an Address” are works in which the author boldly criticizes the depraved morals of 14th-century Rome. Petrarch was a deeply devout Catholic throughout his life, but he did not feel reverence for the highest clergy, whose behavior he considered unacceptable, and did not hesitate to openly criticize them. “Letters without an address” are addressed either to fictional characters or to real people. Francesco borrowed ideas for writing works in this format from Cicero and Seneca.
• "Africa" ​​is an epic poem dedicated to the exploits of Scipio. It also contains prayers and penitential psalms.

Personal life

The love of Petrarch's life was Laura, whose identity has not yet been established for certain. After meeting this girl, the poet, for three years spent in Avignon, hoped to catch her chance glance in the church. In 1330, the poet moved to Lombe, and seven years later he bought an estate in Vaucluse to live near Laura. Having taken holy orders, Petrarch did not have the right to marry, but he did not shy away from carnal relations with other women. The story goes that Petrarch had two illegitimate children.

Laura herself, apparently, was a married woman, a faithful wife and mother of eleven children. The last time the poet saw his beloved was on September 27, 1347, and in 1348 the woman died.

The exact cause of death is unknown, but historians believe that it could have been the plague, which killed a large part of the population of Avignon in 1348. In addition, Laura could have died due to exhaustion due to frequent childbirth and tuberculosis. It is unknown whether Petrarch spoke about feelings, and whether Laura knew about his existence.

The poets note that if Laura had become Francesco’s legal wife, he would hardly have written so many heartfelt sonnets in her honor. For example, Byron spoke about this, as did the Soviet poet Igor Guberman. In their opinion, it was the remoteness of his beloved, the inability to be with her, that allowed Petrarch to write works that had a huge impact on all world literature.

Death

Even during Petrarch's lifetime, his literary works were appreciated by the public, and as a result he received invitations to the coronation with a laurel wreath from Naples, Paris and Rome (almost simultaneously). The poet chose Rome, where he was crowned with a laurel wreath on the Capitol on Easter 1341. Until 1353, he lived on his estate in Vaucluse, periodically leaving it for travel or preaching missions.

Leaving this place forever in the early 1350s, Francesco decided to settle in Milan, although he was offered a job at the department in Florence. Having settled at the Visconti court, he began carrying out diplomatic missions.

Subsequently, the poet wanted to return to his native Avignon, but tense relations with authoritative Italian families prevented him from doing so. As a result, he moved to Venice and settled near the family of his illegitimate daughter.

But here Petrarch did not stay long: he regularly traveled to various Italian cities, and in the last months of his life he ended up in the small village of Arqua. There the poet died on the night of July 18-19, 1374, when he had only one day to live before his 70th birthday. The story goes that Francesco passed away at the table, sitting over his biography work with a pen in his hand. He was buried in the local cemetery.

Bibliography

• Book of Songs
• Triumphs
• About contempt for the world
• Book about famous men
• Letter to descendants
• Letters without an address
• Bucolic songs
• Penitential Psalms

“Laura, known for her virtues and long glorified by my songs, first appeared to my eyes at the dawn of my youth, in the year of the Lord 1327, on the morning of April 6, in the Cathedral of St. Clare in Avignon. And in the same city, also in April and also on the sixth day of the same month, in the same morning hours in the year 1348, this ray of light left the world, when I happened to be in Verona, alas! not knowing about his fate. The sad news, through a letter from my Louis, overtook me in Parma of the same year on the morning of May 19th. This immaculate and beautiful body was buried in the Franciscan monastery that same day in the evening. Her soul, as Seneca says in African Spicio, returned, as I am sure, to heaven, from where it came. ..."

For 21 years during Laura’s life and 10 years after her death, the great Petrarch composed sonnets about his love.

Here in France, Petrarch went to school, learned Latin and gained a taste for Roman literature. After completing his studies (1319), Petrarch, at the request of his father, began to study law, first in Montpellier, and then at the University of Bologna, where he remained until his father’s death (1326). But jurisprudence did not interest Petrarch at all, who became more and more interested in classical writers. Upon leaving the university, he did not become a lawyer, but was ordained as a priest in order to find a means of living, since he inherited from his father only the manuscript of the works of Virgil. Having settled in Avignon at the papal court, Petrarch entered the ecclesiastical rank, and became close to the powerful Colonna family, one of whose members, Giacomo, was his university friend, and the next year (1327) he saw Laura for the first time, his unrequited love for whom was the main source his poetry and served as one of the reasons for his removal from Avignon to the secluded Vaucluse. Petrarch is also known for the first officially recorded ascent (with his brother) to the summit of Mont Ventoux, on April 26, 1336, although it is known that Jean Buridan and the ancient inhabitants of the area visited the summit before him. Colonna's patronage and literary fame brought him several church sinecures; he bought a house in the valley of the Sorgi River, where he lived intermittently for 16 years (1337–1353).

Meanwhile, Petrarch's letters and literary works made him a celebrity, and he almost simultaneously received an invitation from Paris, Naples and Rome to accept the coronation with a laurel wreath. Petrarch chose Rome and was solemnly crowned with a laurel wreath on the Capitol (1341). After living for about a year at the court of the Parma tyrant Azzo di Correggio, he returned to Vaucluse again. Dreaming of reviving the greatness of ancient Rome, he began to preach the restoration of the Roman Republic, supporting the adventure of the “tribune” Cola di Rienzi, which spoiled his relationship with Colonna and prompted him to move to Italy. After two long trips to Italy (1344–1345 and 1347–1351), where he established numerous friendships (including with Boccaccio), Petrarch left Vaucluse forever in 1353, when Innocent VI, who considered Petrarch a magician, ascended the papal throne, in view of his studies with Virgil. Having rejected the chair offered to him in Florence, Petrarch settled in Milan at the court of the Visconti; carried out various diplomatic missions and, by the way, was in Prague with Charles IV, whom Petrarch visited at his invitation during his stay in Mantua. In 1361, Petrarch left Milan and, after unsuccessful attempts to return to Avignon and move to Prague, settled in Venice (1362–67), where his illegitimate daughter lived with her husband. From here he undertook long trips to Italy almost every year. Petrarch spent the last years of his life at the court of Francesco da Kappapa, partly in Padua, partly in the country village of Arqua, where he died on the night of July 18-19, 1374, one day short of his 70th birthday. He was found in the morning at the table with a pen in his hand over the biography of Caesar.

Petrarch's works fall into two unequal parts: Italian poetry (“Canzoniere”) and various works written in Latin. If Petrarch's Latin works have more historical significance, then his world fame as a poet is based solely on his Italian poems. Petrarch himself treated them with disdain, as “trifles”, “trinkets”, which he wrote not for the public, but for himself, striving “somehow, not for the sake of glory, to ease a sorrowful heart.” The spontaneity and deep sincerity of Petrarch's Italian poems determined their enormous influence on his contemporaries and later generations. He calls his beloved Laura and reports about her only that he first saw her in the church of Santa Chiara on April 6, 1327 and that exactly 21 years later she died, after which he sang her praises for another 10 years, compiling a collection of sonnets dedicated to her and canzon (usually called "Canzoniere") into 2 parts: "for the life" and "for the death of Madonna Laura". In addition to the depiction of love for Laura, “Canzoniere” contains several poems of different content, mainly political and religious, and an allegorical picture of the poet’s love - Triumphs (“Trionfi”), which depict the victory of love over man, chastity over love, death over chastity, glory above death, time above glory and eternity above time. “Canzoniere,” which had already gone through about 200 editions before the beginning of the 17th century and was commented on by a whole host of scientists and poets from L. Marsiglia in the 14th century to Leopardi in the 19th century, determines the significance of Petrarch in the history of Italian and world literature.

He created a truly artistic form for Italian lyric poetry: poetry for the first time is for him the inner history of individual feeling. This interest in the inner life of man runs like a red thread through the Latin works of Petrarch, which determine his significance as a humanist. This includes, firstly, two of his autobiographies: one, unfinished, in the form of a letter to posterity (“Epistola ad posteros”) sets out the external history of the author, the other, in the form of a dialogue between Petrarch and St. Augustine - “On Contempt for the World” (“On Contempt for the World” (“On Contempt for the World”) De contemptu mundi" or "De secreto conflictu curarum suarum", 1343), depicts his moral struggle and inner life in general. The source of this struggle is the contradiction between Petrarch's personal aspirations and traditional ascetic morality; hence Petrarch’s special interest in ethical issues, to which he devoted 4 treatises (“De remediis utriusque fortunae”, “De vita solitaria” (“On the solitary life”), “De otio religioso” (“On monastic leisure”) and “De vera sapientia"). In the duel with Augustine, who personifies the religious-ascetic worldview, Petrarch’s humanistic worldview still wins. Remaining a strictly believing Catholic, Petrarch in these treatises, as well as in correspondence and other works, tries to reconcile his love of classical literature (Latin, since Petrarch did not learn Greek) with church doctrine, and sharply attacks the scholastics and his contemporary clergy. Especially in “Letters without an address” (“Epistolae sine titulo”), filled with sharp satirical attacks against the depraved morals of the papal capital - this “new Babylon”.

These letters form a quartet of books, all of them addressed either to real or to imaginary persons - a unique literary genre inspired by the letters of Cicero and Seneca and enjoyed enormous success both because of their masterful Latin style and because of their varied and topical content. Petrarch's critical attitude to church modernity on the one hand and to ancient literature on the other serves as a manifestation of his heightened self-awareness and critical mood in general: the expression of the first is his polemical writings - an invective against the physician who dared to put his science above poetry and eloquence (“Contra medicum quendam invectivarum libri IV"), an invective against a French prelate who condemned the return of Urban V to Rome ("Contra cujusdam Galli anonymi calumnias apologia"), the same invective against a French prelate who attacked the writings and behavior of Petrarch ("Contra quendam Gallum innominatum, sed in dignitate positum") and a polemical treatise against the Averists ("De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia"). Petrarch's criticism and his interest in ethical issues are also found in his historical writings - “De rebus memorandis libri IV” (a collection of anecdotes and sayings borrowed from Latin and modern authors, arranged according to ethical headings, for example about solitude, about wisdom, etc. .; an entire treatise in the second book of this work is devoted to the issue of witticisms and jokes, and numerous illustrations to this treatise allow us to recognize Petrarch as the creator of the genre of a short novella-anecdote in Latin, which was further developed in Poggio’s “Facetius”) and “Vitae virorum illustrium” or “De viris illustribus” (“On Famous Men”) - biographies of famous Romans. Of particular importance is the extensive correspondence of Petrarch (“Epistolae de rebus familiaribus et variae libri XXV” and “Epistolae seniles libri XVII”), which constitutes the main source for his biography and a supplement to his works; many of his letters are moral and political treatises, others are journalistic articles (for example, letters regarding the relocation of the popes to Rome and the coup of Cola di Rienzo).

Of less importance are the speeches of Petrarch, delivered by him on various solemn occasions, his description of the sights on the way from Genoa to Palestine (“Itinerarium Syriacum”) and Latin poetry - eclogues, in which he allegorically depicts events from his personal life and contemporary political history ( "Bucolicum carmen in XII aeglogas distinctum"), the epic poem "Africa", which glorifies the exploits of Scipio, penitential psalms and several prayers. The significance of Petrarch in the history of humanism lies in the fact that he laid the foundation for all directions of early humanistic literature with its deep interest in all aspects of the inner life of man, with its critical attitude towards modernity and the past, with its attempt to find in ancient literature the basis and support for developing a new worldview and justifying new needs. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the most complete collection of Petrarch's works was “Opera omnia”, published in Basel in 1554. In the 19th century, the best edition of his correspondence was considered to be the edition of Fracassetti, “Epist. famil. et variae" (Florence, 1854–1863; in Italian translation with numerous notes: Florence, 1863–1867). Complete edition of biographies of banners. people were given by Razzolini (Bologna, 1874); Petrarch's speeches were published by Hortis (“Scritti inediti F. R.”, Trieste, 1874); the best edition of Petrarch's non-love poems is Carducci (“Rime di F. P. sopra argomenti morali e diversi”, Livorno, 1876). In addition to Petrarch's lost comedy "Philologia", the following manuscripts are attributed to him: "Vita Senecae", "Sententia de Terentii vita", "De casu Medeae" and "Comoedia super destructionem Caesenae".

On the occasion of Petrarch's six hundredth anniversary, the Law of the Kingdom of Italy No. 365 of July 11, 1904 established a commission for the publication of his works (La Commissione per l'Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Francesco Petrarca), with the goal of a critical edition of all Petrarch's works. Leading philologists of Italy took part in its work, including V. Rossi (first president) and G. Gentile. The poem “Africa” was published first, in 1926, followed by letters. The Commission continues its work in the 21st century, its current president is Michele Feo.

Aphorisms

Just as a shadow cannot be born and maintain itself, so glory: if virtue does not serve as its foundation, it can be neither true nor lasting.
***
Praise is good for a smart person, but bad for a stupid person.
***
Since a person wants to get rid of his pitiful state, but wants it sincerely and completely, such a desire cannot be unsuccessful.
***
In controversial matters, judgments are different, but the truth is always the same.
***
Books have a special charm; books give us pleasure: they talk to us, give us good advice, they become living friends for us.
***
The greedy is always poor. Know the purpose and limit of lust.
***
A truly noble person is not born with a great soul, but makes himself such through his magnificent deeds.
Whoever is able to express how he burns is engulfed in a weak fire.
***
It is better to have no fame than to have false fame.
***
It is possible to love beauty shamefully.
***
Hope and desire mutually incite each other, so that when one grows cold, the other cools, and when one heats, the other boils.
***
Only those who love weakly know how to interpret their love.
***
Fame never helps the dead. Alive she was killed many times.
***
An argument even between friends has something rude, hostile and contrary to friendly relations.
He who has many vices has many rulers.
***
Humiliating others is a much worse form of pride than extolling oneself beyond what one deserves.
***
The greater the stinginess, the greater the cruelty.
***
What could be more beautiful in the world, what could be more worthy of a person and what could make him more like the Lord than serving people to the best of his ability? He who is capable of serving men and does not do so is rejecting the highest duty of man, and therefore must be denied the name and nature of man.
***
What good is it if you knew a lot if you didn’t know how to apply your knowledge to your needs?

List of works

* “Canzoniere” (“Book of Songs”), 366 sonnets to Laura
* "Trionfi" ("Triumphs")
* Dialogue “De contemptu mundi” (“De secreto conflictu curarum suarum” “On contempt for the world”, “My secret, or the Book of conversations about contempt for the world”), 1343
* treatises:
* "De remediis utriusque fortunae", 1360–1366
* “De vita solitaria”, ca. 1346–1356
* "De otio religioso", 1346–1356
* "De vera sapientia"
* invective:
* “Contra medicum quendam invectivarum”, 1355
* “Contra cujusdam Galli anonymi calumnias apologia”
* “Contra quendam Gallum innominatum, sed in dignitate positum” (“Contra eum qui maledixit Italiam”)
* “De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia”, 1368
* “De rebus memorandis” (Rerum memorandarum libri), 1350
* “De Viris Illustribus” (Book of Famous Men), 1337
* "Itinerarium ad sepulcrum Domini"
* Letters (Messages):
* “Epistolae de rebus familiaribus et variae” (Familiares, Familiarium rerum libri), 24 books with 350 letters, 1325–1361.
* "Epistolae seniles", 125 letters, 1361–1374
* “Epistola ad posteros” (“Letter to posterity”)
* “Sine nomine” (“Epistolae sine titulo”, “Letters without an address”), 19 letters, 1342–1358
* "Variae" (Extravagantes), 65 letters
* "Epistole metricae", 1333–1361, 66 letters
* "Itinerarium Syriacum"
* Eclogues "Bucolicum carmen" (Bucolic songs), 1346–1357, 12 poems
* epic poem "Africa", 1339–1342
* De gestis Caesaris
* Contra quendam magni status hominem
* Collatio laureationis
* “Psalmi penitentiales” (Penitential psalms)
* Collatio coram Johanne rege
* Collatio inter Scipionem, Alexandrum, Hannibalem
* Arringhe
* Orationes
*Testamentum
A crater on Mercury is named after Petrarch. The numbering of pages of a large book (works of the Italian poet Petrarch) was first given in Indian numerals in 1471.