FRANCESCO PETRARCA
(1304-1374)
The Renaissance era in the minds of our contemporaries is usually associated with the names of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Durer, Bruegel, Rabelais, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Boccaccio, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Montaigne. But Europe, perhaps first, owes its cultural revival to the great Italian, Francesco Petrarch. He was the first outstanding humanist, poet, who managed to see the integrity of the flow of thoughts that preceded the Renaissance, and combine them in a poetic synthesis, which became the program of subsequent European generations.
Petrarch is the founder of modern modern poetry, a man who decided in the darkness of the Middle Ages to ignite the flame of not so much divine as earthly, human feeling.
Francesco Petrarca was born in the town of Arezzo in the family of a notary who, together with Dante, was expelled from Florence in 1302 for belonging to the snow-white Guelph party. In 1312, the family moved to the city of Avignon in the south of France, where the pope's residence was located at that time. From the age of five or six, Petrarch was already studying grammar, rhetoric and logic.
At the insistence of his father, Francesco studied law first in Montpellier, then in Bologna, but he disliked it, preferring legal sciences, studies in old literature, and was seriously interested in classical poets. The father did not approve of his son’s hobby and somehow even threw the works of Cicero, Virgil and other traditional creators into the fire. In 1318, Francesco's mother dies. In 1320, his father sent Petrarch to Bologna, a famous center for the study of Roman law. The young man liked the cheerfulness and splendor of Bologna. Countless acquaintances had already read the poet’s poems, but the father did not see the future glory of his son in this. But Francesco continued to write in secret, because he felt disgust for jurisprudence. In his youth, the formation of Petrarch's personality takes place: love for freedom, for nature, tranquility, zeal for knowledge, an active, relevant position. With all his heart he hates feudal civil strife, fratricidal wars, and the despotism of rulers. At this time, the young man developed a desire for moral philosophy. The death of his father (1326) immediately changed everything.
Having soon become a lyric poet, Petrarch did not lose his enthusiasm for traditional antiquity. On the contrary, this enthusiasm grew and grew until it turned into real passion. Petrarch enthusiastically studied the merits of the ancient creators, who opened up a new and beautiful world for him, unlike the world of medieval religious fanaticism, church dogma and ascetic fanaticism. From that time on, ancient culture was no longer seen as a handmaiden of theology. He was the first to see with remarkable clarity what was truly most basic in her: a lively enthusiasm for man and the world around him; in his hands traditional antiquity became the battle banner of Renaissance humanism.
Petrarch's burning love for the old world was unchanged. He wrote in the language of traditional Rome; with rare enthusiasm he sought out and studied ancient manuscripts and rejoiced if he managed to find some lost meaning in the work of Cicero or Quintilian. He had a unique library of traditional texts. His mind-blowing erudition evoked well-deserved respect and ecstasy among his contemporaries. He based his poem “Africa,” written in imitation of Virgil’s “Aeneid,” on the actions of the ancient Roman leader Scipio Africanus the Elder. He considered Cicero and Virgil to be the greatest writers in the world, and their works to be unsurpassed standards of literary excellence. Petrarch became so close to the old world, entered into it so much that this world ceased to be old, dead. He always felt his living breath, heard his voice.
Prominent Roman writers became his close friends and mentors. He respectfully called Cicero dad, and Virgil - brother. He wrote friendly letters to them all, as if they lived with him. He even admitted that memoirs about the ancients and their deeds arouse in him a “beautiful feeling of joy,” while only the contemplation of his contemporaries causes disgust.
But based on similar confessions, there is no need to imagine Petrarch as such a pedant that he lost all connection with reality. After all, the ancient creators taught him how to write, how to live. In them he found answers to pressing questions that worried him. So, carried away by the greatness of Old Rome, he at the same time bitterly complained about the political chaos in contemporary Italy. Like Dante, he considered political fragmentation to be a state disaster, which gave rise to endless strife and internecine wars, but he did not know, and could not, in the historical criteria of that time, indicate the paths that led the country to municipal unity. Therefore, Petrarch either warmly welcomed the anti-feudal uprising in Rome in 1347, led by the people's tribune Cola di Rienzi, who appointed a republic in Rome and declared the political unification of Italy, then pinned his hopes on Popes Benedict XII and Clement VI, then on the Neapolitan King Robert Anjou, then to the ruler Charles IV. His political standards were not clear and consistent. There was a lot of gullibility and utopianism in them, but one thing does not cause hesitation - Petrarch’s sincere love for his homeland, the desire to see it strengthened and refreshed, worthy of its former Roman greatness. In the famous canzone “My Italy” he poured out his patriotic feelings with great passion.
Petrarch had an inquisitive spirit, which in the Middle Ages was looked upon as one of the most serious sins. He traveled to a number of states, visited Rome and Paris, Germany and Flanders, everywhere he carefully studied the character of people, enjoyed contemplating unfamiliar places and associated what he saw with what was perfectly clear to him. The range of his interests is very wide: he is a philologist and historian, ethnographer, geographer, philosopher and moralist. Everything that has to do with a person, his mind, his actions, his culture attracts the close attention of Petrarch. The book “About Famous Guys” contains biographies of famous Romans from Romulus to Caesar, also Alexander the Great and Hannibal. With an abundance of historical anecdotes, expressions and witticisms taken from Cicero. The treatise “On Remedies for Happiness and Unhappiness” concerns a wide variety of current situations and guides the reader through all levels of the social ladders of that time. By the way, in this treatise, Petrarch challenged centuries-old feudal ideas, according to which real nobility lies in authoritative origin, in “blue blood.”
If in the Middle Ages the path from man, and all other paths, necessarily led to God, then in Petrarch all paths lead to man. With all this, a person for Petrarch is first himself. And he analyzes, weighs, evaluates his actions and internal motivations. The Church sought humility and wisdom from people, glorifying those who denied themselves in the name of God. Petrarch dared to look into himself and was filled with pride for the man. In himself, he found the inexhaustible riches of the human brain and spirit. The son of a moderate notary, noble nobles, crowned princes and princes of the church spoke to him as an equal. His glory was the glory of Italy. But the Middle Ages showed stubborn resistance to the pressure of humanism. It approached Petrarch in the forms of statues, painting and architecture, persistently reminded him of himself from church and institute departments, and sometimes it resonated resoundingly within himself. Then it began to seem to the outstanding humanist, an exalted fan of pagan antiquity, that he was following a sinful and unsafe method. A medieval ascetic came to life in him, who saw earthly temptations with detachment.
He put aside the works of Virgil and Cicero in order to delve into the Bible and the writings of the church fathers. These internal contradictions of Petrarch were rooted in the deepest contradictions of that transitional time; with him they were only more sharply expressed. With all this, he cautiously followed his “internal disorder” and even tried to put it in the book “On Contempt for the World” (1343), this interesting confession of an exciting soul.
A significant role in the fate of Petrarch is not much acquaintance with the Colonna family. After the death of his father, he was left without funds. The decision to take holy orders made Petrarch the chaplain of the home church of the Avignon cardinal Giovanni Colonna. Petrarch had the opportunity to engage in creativity.
The Avignon period" (1327-1337) was fruitful for the poet. It was at this time that he began to intensively study the ancient classics; is preparing a scientific edition of the recognizable “Decades” of Titus Livy, and in Liege in the monastery library he finds two speeches by Cicero “In Defense of the Poet Archius.” And at the end of 1336, at the invitation of the Colonnaya family, he found himself in Rome for the first time, which he loved with all his heart. Petrarch joyfully accepted the honorable title of Roman citizen in 1341, but considered all of Italy his own homeland.
Researchers call the subsequent period in Petrarch’s life “The first stop at Vauclusis” (1337-1341). Petrarch did not adapt to life in Avignon and therefore ended up in Vauclusis. Here he writes many sonnets, the poem “Africa” in Latin, which tells about the heroic past of Italy and about the famous personality of Scipio, is successfully promoted. Here he takes up the treatise “On Outstanding Guys”: in 1343, 23 biographies of ancient figures were written.
In Vauclusis, Petrarch gave birth to a son, Giovanni, who died in his youth. Then his daughter Francesca was born, thanks to whom many of the poet’s drafts and personal belongings were preserved.
The result of all creative efforts was the coronation of Petrarch on the Capitol on April 8, 1341. This was a personal triumph for the poet and an attempt to bring poetry to the level it occupied in ancient Rome. He was awarded a diploma and received the title of master, doctor of poetic arts and history.
It is very interesting that the Neapolitan ruler Robert did not consider it humiliating to ask Petrarch to become his mentor in poetry, but the poet refused such a noble duty. At this coronation, Petrarch pronounced the “Lay”, in which he laid out his awareness of poetry and its tasks.
In the 40s, the formation of a new worldview began. In “My Secret,” the whole complexity of the struggle between the new and the old in the poet’s mind is revealed. December 1343-early 1345 - “Stop at Parma.” The first nine months were a period of creative activity: he continued to work on the poem “Africa”, on sonnets, and finished one of the books of the treatise “On Memorable Deeds”. But when the city was surrounded by the troops of the Marquis Ferrari, Petrarch was forced to flee Parma and return to Vaucluse.
The “2nd stop in Vauclusis” begins, during these years Petrarch wrote the treatise “On the Solitary Life” (1346), “Bucolic Song” (1346-1348), “On Monastic Leisure” (1347).
When Petrarch arrived in Rome in 1350, Boccaccio offered him the position of doctor of poetry and history at the Florence Institute, but the humanist refused, apparently so as not to waste time, since there were new creative plans ahead.
Summer 1351 - May 1353 - 3rd stop in Vauclusis, where Petrarch finishes his works. He is writing 12 new biographies of ancient guys, working on “Triumphs”, where he expressed his opinions about glory, time, love and death in poetic words.
In 1353, Francesco Petrarch returned to Italy and remained there until the end of his life. The “Milanese period” begins (1353 - 1361). The poet took upon himself the responsible responsibility of negotiations with the king. He already had a mature understanding of the need to unite all of Italy.
Somewhere in May 1354, work began on the treatise “On Means Against Every Fate,” which sets out the independent ideological positions of the humanist. This included several dialogues against despotism, in which the Milanese rulers had the opportunity to clarify the means of their own rule. The most fascinating part of these works is the defense of poetry, art, and antiquity from the attacks of the scholastics.
In 1361, Petrarch travels from Milan due to the plague epidemic and ends up in Venice. Throughout the “Venetian period” (until 1368), the poet worked on a collection of “senile letters”. The local philosophers recognized only Aristotle and spread gossip about Petrarch’s lack of education, to which the poet adequately responded in his own treatise “On his own and many others’ lack of education” (1367), where he heatedly polemicized with local philosophers.
In recent years (1369-1374), Petrarch was in Arquia, where he was persuaded to move by the ruler of the town, Francesco Carrara, who personally visited the poet, who was bothered by illness.
During the “Paduan period”, Petrarch was in a hurry to finish his works: the treatise “On Famous Guys”, “Triumphs”, “Senile Letters” and the famous “Book of Songs” or “Canzoniere”. “Canzoniere” is divided into two parts: “During the life of Madonna Laura” and “After the death of Madonna Laura.” Not counting 317 sonnets and 29 canzonas, it contains standards of other lyrical genres.
But Petrarch received true fame as the creator of lyrical poems dedicated to the golden-haired Laura (on April 6, 1327, in the church of St. Clare, the poet met his love - a young, very pretty lady who entered world literature under the name Laura. Laura died during an epidemic plague in 1348). The creator himself wrote about this collection as poetic “trifles,” as if he was apologizing that it was written not in traditional Latin, but in everyday Italian. But in essence, Petrarch greatly valued this inspired work, preserved and painstakingly processed it.
This is how the “Book of Songs” appeared, consisting of 317 sonnets, 29 canzonas, also sextins, ballads and madrigals. This book is also a confession of Petrarch, only this time it is a lyrical confession. It reflected the poet’s love for a beautiful married lady who came from a noble Avignon family. She was born around 1307, married in 1325 and died in the terrible year 1348, when the plague raged in almost all European countries. The meeting with Laura filled Petrarch's soul with a great feeling that touched the most tender, most melodic strings of his soul. When Petrarch learned about the untimely death of his beloved, he wrote in a copy of Virgil: “Laura, popular for her virtues and glorified for a long time in my poems, appeared before my eyes for the first time in the years of my early youth, in 1327, on the afternoon of April 6, in the church of St. Clara in Avignon; and in the same town, the same month and on the same day and hour in 1348, this light went out when I was in Verona, not knowing my own fate.”
In fact, “The Book of Songs” is first a picture of Petrarch’s various sincere states. For decades, he glorified the lady who did not utter a single tender word to him. The mirror of love always reflected his difficult inner world. In poetry, Laura is perceived as truly alive: she has a light gait, a gentle voice, and golden hair. Petrarch's innovation lies in the fact that he not only makes the image of his beloved, but also reveals the inner world of his own hero, who loves and suffers. Thus, Petrarch becomes the creator of the newest, psychic lyric poetry, becoming a precious contribution to the treasury of world poetry.
Laura's poetic triumph immediately became the triumph of Petrarch. It is no coincidence that in the “Book of Songs” the name Laura is so tightly intertwined with the word laurel. Over time, even the border separating Laura from the tree of glory is erased; the beautiful lady is transformed into a sign of earthly glory for the poet. She crowns his forehead with a branch of greenish laurel, and in a thousand years people will keep Laura’s singer in their heads.
In Russia, Petrarch was well known already in the 19th century. His exalted fan was the poet K. N. Batyushkov.
The Italian poet was highly regarded by Pushkin, who named Petrarch among the greatest European lyricists in his own sonnet on sonnets. “With her, my lips will acquire the language of Petrarch and love,” he wrote in the first chapter of “Eugene Onegin,” and put a poetic excerpt from Petrarch as the epigraph to Chapter VI of this novel.
Centuries separate us from 14th century Italy. But through the abyss of years, the grateful population of the earth will respectfully carry the name of Petrarch as one of the founders of humanism, a poet who sang not so much divine as the satisfaction of human existence, earthly love for a lovely lady, his ordinary and therefore such the highest thoughts and feelings.
I am still one of many, although I am trying with all my might to become one of the few.
Francesco Petrarca
The Italian thinker and poet Francesco Petrarca was born on July 20, 1304 in the city of Arezzo, where his father, a notary by profession, who had once been expelled from Florence, lived for some time. In 1312, when Francesco was eight years old, his family moved to Avignon, where the papal court was then located. Petrarch spent his entire childhood in Avignon.
As a nine-year-old boy, Petrarch became interested in the sayings of Cicero, the music of his words, to whom he was introduced by his teacher, Convenevole da Prato. Later he spoke about this: “Such harmony and sonority of the words naturally captivated me, so that everything else that I read or heard seemed to me rude and not nearly as harmonious.” Undoubtedly, the writings of Cicero remained in his memory for the rest of his life.
In 1326, Petrarch took holy orders. His teachers, whose thoughts he relentlessly followed in religious matters, were only the ancient authors and founders of the early church (most of all Jerome and Augustine). Then, in 1326, Petrarch entered the Faculty of Law in Bologna, where he attended classes with his younger brother, Gherardo Petrarca.
Perhaps one day, April 6, 1327, became a turning point in the life of Francesco Petrarch. Then he met a woman whom he fell in love with for the rest of his life. She went down in history under the name Laura. Who she was is still not known for certain. Inspired by his feeling, Petrarch wrote his first sonnets, which not only entered the golden fund of the “poetic science of love,” but also became an excellent model for Petrarch’s followers and imitators and remain so to this day. It is known that Francesco Petrarca was not only a brilliant thinker and philosopher, but also a poet; he is considered the founder of Italian national poetry.
In 1330, Petrarch completed his studies and entered the service of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, which gave him, the son of an exile, both a certain social position and the opportunity to play a prominent role in the life of his contemporary world.
At the beginning of 1337, Petrarch visited Rome for the first time. Later he wrote about it this way: “Rome seemed to me even greater than I expected, its ruins seemed especially great to me.” You might think that the thinker said this jokingly, but this is not at all true. Rather, Petrarch spoke about the great past of the then Roman Empire. Then the philosopher settled in the town of Vaucluse, near Avignon, where his work actually began to flourish. Petrarch's poetic creations bore fruit, and already on September 1, 1340, he received two offers to be crowned with the laurels of the first poet: the first came from the University of Paris, the second from Rome. Petrarch, on reflection, gave preference to Rome. In April 1341, Petrarch was crowned with laurels on the Capitol.
Petrarch witnessed the terrible plague, which in the 14th century killed more than a third of the population of Europe. In the Italian cities of Siena and Pisa alone, more than half of the inhabitants died. However, Petrarch himself was spared the plague.
In 1351, the Florentine commune sent Giovanni Boccaccio (a famous thinker who later became a close friend of Petrarch) to Petrarch with an official message inviting the poet to return to Florence, from where his parents were expelled, and head the university department created especially for him. Petrarch pretended to be flattered and ready to accept this offer, however, after leaving Vaucluse in 1353 and returning to Italy, he settled not in Florence, but in Milan.
In the summer of 1356, Petrarch was on an embassy to the Czech king Charles IV from the sovereign of Milan, Galeazzo Visconti.
In the spring of 1362, Francesco Petrarch, “tired of the world, of people, of affairs, tired to the extreme of himself,” went from Milan to Prague, following the triple invitation of Charles IV, but on the way he was detained by mercenary detachments ruling in Lombardy and turned to Venice, where he settled.
In Venice, Petrarch was the guest of honor. The decision of the Great Council of Venice on September 4, 1362, when the Republic accepted his plan for a public library, stated that “there was no philosopher or poet in the Christian world within the memory of man who could be compared with him.” In his will, Petrarch donated all his books to the Venetian Republic with the condition that they would become the basis of a public library built according to his plan.
According to Petrarch himself, his life was not easy. He spoke about his fate like this: “Almost my entire life was spent in wanderings. I compare my wanderings with Odysseus's; if the brilliance of his name and exploits were the same, his wanderings would not have been longer or longer than mine... it is easier for me to count the sand of the sea and the stars of heaven than all the obstacles that fortune, jealous of my labors, has posed.”
Petrarch once said: “I want death to find me either praying or writing.” And so it happened. Francesco Petrarca died in Arqua on the night of July 19, 1374, just one day short of his seventieth birthday.
All of Petrarch's works were imbued with extraordinary romanticism and humanism, love for the surrounding world. Among his most famous works: the comedy “Philology”, “Canzoniere”, that is, a book of poems and songs, the heroic poem “Africa”, “Medicines for the vicissitudes of fate”, collections of sonnets “For the Life of Laura” and “For the Death of Laura”, “ The Book of Memorable Things” and the unfinished poem “Triumphs”.
Francesco Petrarch was the first great humanist, poet and citizen who was able to discern the integrity of the pre-Renaissance currents of thought and unite them in a poetic synthesis, which became the program of coming European generations. With his creativity, he managed to instill in these future diverse generations of Western and Eastern Europe a consciousness - albeit not always clear, but one that became, as it were, supreme in reason and inspiration for them.
Petrarch is the founder of new modern poetry. His “Canzoniere” for a long time determined the path of development of European lyricism, becoming a kind of indisputable model. If at first for his contemporaries and closest followers in his homeland, Petrarch was a great restorer of classical antiquity, a harbinger of new paths in art and literature, then, starting in 1501, when, through the efforts of the typographer Aldo Manuzio, the Vatican Codex “Canzoniere” was made widely public, the era of the so-called began Petrarchism, not only in poetry, but also in the field of aesthetic and critical thought. Petrarchism spread beyond Italy. Evidence of this is the work of such famous poets as Gongora (in Spain), Camões in (Portugal), Shakespeare (in England), Kokhanovsky (in Poland). Without Petrarch, their lyrics would not only be incomprehensible to us, but simply impossible.
Moreover, Petrarch paved the way for his poetic heirs to understand the tasks and essence of poetry, to understand the moral and civic calling of the poet.
In the self-portrait that involuntarily arises when reading Petrarch, one striking feature is the need for love. This is both the desire to love and the need to be loved. This trait found an extremely clear expression in the poet’s love for Laura, the main subject of the sonnets and other poems that make up “Canzoniere.” An innumerable number of scientific works are devoted to Petrarch’s love for Laura. Laura is a very real figure. Love for her, as often happens in real poetry, is romantic and impetuous; towards the end of the poet’s life it somewhat subsided and almost merged with the idea of heavenly, ideal love.
Another trait that the poet himself revealed in himself, for which he sometimes (especially in his declining years) castigated himself, was the love of fame. Not in the sense of simple vanity, however. Petrarch's desire for fame was closely connected with the creative impulse. This is what prompted Petrarch to take up writing to a greater extent. Over the years, this love, the love of fame, began to moderate. Having achieved unprecedented fame, Petrarch realized that it aroused much more envy in those around him than good feelings. In his “Letter to Descendants,” he writes with sadness about his crowning in Rome, and before his death he is even ready to recognize the triumph of Time over Glory.
The acquaintance of the Russian public with Petrarch was started by the Russian poet Konstantin Batyushkov, perhaps the first adherent of so-called Italianism in Russia, the author of articles about Petrarch. Batyushkov also translated one of his most famous sonnets - the 269th, and wrote an arrangement of his first canzone, which he called “Evening”. The greatest credit for introducing the work of Petrarch belongs to the poet Vyacheslav Ivanov. Perhaps, Ivanov’s main merit as a translator of Petrarch is that he, the first of the major Russian writers, approached Petrarch not “suddenly,” but fully armed with the most thorough philological and historical-cultural knowledge, while remaining a considerable poet.
Undoubtedly, Francesco Petrarch made a huge contribution to the development of philosophy and literature in general, first of all, as the founder of true humanism, which, perhaps, turned out to be what attracted followers and imitators of Petrarch in his work.
Francesco Petrarca.LXIsonnet (translation by V. Ivanov)
Blessed is that land, and that valley is bright,
Where I became a prisoner of beautiful eyes!
Blessed is the pain that's the first time
I felt it when I didn't notice it
How deeply pierced by the arrow that aimed
There is a God in my heart who secretly destroys us!
Blessed are the complaints and groans,
How I announced the dream of the oak forests,
Waking up echoing the name of Madonna!
Blessed are you that there are so many glories
They acquired melodious canzones for her, -
The thoughts of gold about her, united, alloy!
Thoughts and sayings of Francesco Petrarch
Human life on earth is not just military service, but combat.
Personal presence is detrimental to fame.
Love is great at winning.
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
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 activities, 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 predilections. 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 regeneration 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). The Petrarchan 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.
