- 1304 - 1374
- Italian scholar, poet, and humanist whose poems addressed to Laura, an idealized beloved, contributed to the Renaissance flowering of lyric poetry.
- besties with Boccaccio
By making a synthesis of the two seemingly conflicting ideals (Classics and Christianity) —regarding the one as the rich promise and the other as its divine fulfillment—he can claim to be the founder and great representative of the movement known as European humanism.
It was Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, who first understood fully that antiquity was a civilization apart and, understanding it, outlined a program of Classically oriented studies that would lay bare its spirit. The focus of Petrarch’s insight was language: if Classical antiquity was to be understood in its own terms, it would be through the speech with which the ancients had communicated their thoughts. This meant that the languages of antiquity had to be studied as the ancients had used them and not as vehicles for carrying modern thoughts. Thus, grammar, which included the reading and careful imitation of ancient authors from a linguistic point of view, was the basis of Petrarch’s entire program.
Works
- in the De vita solitaria (1346) he developed the theoretical basis and description of the “solitary life” whereby man enjoys the consolations of nature and study together with those of prayer.
- Canzoniere
Quotes:
said Petrarch in a dictum that could stand as the slogan of Renaissance humanism, “it is better to will the good than to know the truth.”