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{{About||the thoroughbred racehorse|Petrarch (horse)|his namesake crater on Mercury|Petrarch (crater)}}
{{Short description|Italian scholar and poet (1304–1374)}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name             = Francis Petrarch
| image            = File:Altichiero, ritratto di Francesco Petrarca.jpg
| caption          = Portrait by [[Altichiero]], {{circa|1370–1380}}
| birth_name       = Francesco di Petracco
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1304|7|20|df=y}}
| birth_place      = Comune of [[Arezzo]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1374|7|19|1304|7|20|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Arquà Petrarca|Arquà]], [[Padua]]
| resting_place    = Arquà Petrarca
| occupation       = {{cslist|Scholar|poet|[[priesthood in the Catholic Church|Catholic cleric]]}}
| language         = {{hlist| Italian ([[Tuscan dialect]])|[[Latin language|Latin]]}}
| nationality      = [[Arezzo|Aretine]]
| education        = {{ubl|[[University of Montpellier]]|[[University of Bologna]]}}
| period           = [[Early Renaissance]]
| genres           = {{hlist|Poetry ([[epic poetry|epic]]|[[sonnet]]|[[canzone]]|[[eclogue]]|[[canticle]]|''other'')}}
{{hlist|Prose ([[treatise]]|[[polemic]]|[[epistle]]|[[travel literature|travelogue]]|[[autobiography]]|[[anecdote]]|[[letter (message)|correspondence]]|[[public speech|oration]])}}
| subjects         = {{cslist|Beautiful lady|''other''}}
| movement         = {{cslist|[[Italian Renaissance]]|[[Renaissance humanism|humanism]]}}
| notable_works    = {{ubl|''[[Il Canzoniere]]''|''[[Triumphs]]''}}
| awards           = [[Poet laureate]] of Rome, 1341
| children         = Giovanni (1337–1361)<br /> Francesca (born in 1343)
| parents          = [[Ser Petracco]] <small>(father)</small> <br /> Eletta Canigiani <small>(mother)</small>
| relatives        = Gherardo Petracco <small>(brother)</small> <br /> [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] <small>(friend)</small>
}}

[[File:Arezzo Campanile - Santa Maria della Pieve.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Santa Maria della Pieve in [[Arezzo]]]]
[[File:Arezzo-Casa di Francesco Petrarca.JPG|thumb|right|upright|La Casa del Petrarca (birthplace) at Vicolo dell'Orto, 28 in [[Arezzo]]]]

'''Francis Petrarch''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɛ|t|r|ɑr|k|,_|ˈ|p|iː|t|-}}; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; {{langx|la|Franciscus Petrarcha}}; modern {{langx|it|Francesco Petrarca}} {{IPA|it|franˈtʃesko peˈtrarka|}}), born '''Francesco di Petracco''', was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early [[Italian Renaissance]], as well as one of the earliest [[Renaissance humanism|humanists]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/francesco-petrarca_(Dizionario-Biografico)/|title=Petrarca, Francesco|encyclopedia=Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani|publisher=Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana |first1=Francisco|last1=Rico|first2=Luca|last2=Marcozzi|volume=82|year=2015|language=it}}</ref>

Petrarch's rediscovery of [[Cicero]]'s letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Italian [[Renaissance]] and the founding of [[Renaissance humanism]].<ref>This designation appears, for instance, in a recent [http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=15299 review] of Carol Quillen's ''Rereading the Renaissance''.</ref> In the 16th century, [[Pietro Bembo]] created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of [[Giovanni Boccaccio]], and, to a lesser extent, [[Dante Alighieri]].<ref>In the [http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Prose_della_volgar_lingua/Libro_primo/XIX Prose della volgar lingua], Bembo proposes Petrarch and Boccaccio as models of Italian style, while expressing reservations about emulating Dante's usage.</ref> Petrarch was later endorsed as a model for Italian style by the {{Lang|it|[[Accademia della Crusca]]|italic=no}}.

Petrarch's sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for [[lyrical poetry]]. He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the "[[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]]".<ref name="DarkAges">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2707236 Renaissance or Prenaissance], ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 4, No. 1. (Jan. 1943), pp. 69–74; [[Theodor Ernst Mommsen|Theodore E. Mommsen]], "Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'" ''Speculum'' '''17'''.2 (April 1942: 226–242); [[JSTOR]] link to a collection of several letters in the same issue.</ref>

==Biography==

===Youth and early career===
Petrarch was born in the [[Tuscany|Tuscan]] city [[Arezzo]] on 20 July 1304. He was the son of [[Ser Petracco]] (a diminutive nickname for ''Pietro'') and his wife Eletta Canigiani. Petrarch's birth name was ''Francesco di Petracco'' ("Francesco [son] of Petracco"), which he [[Latinized name|Latinized]] to ''Franciscus Petrarcha''. His younger brother Gherardo (Gerard Petrarch) was born in [[Incisa in Val d'Arno]] in 1307. [[Dante Alighieri]] was a friend of his father.<ref name="Bishop">[[J.H. Plumb]], ''The Italian Renaissance'', 1961; Chapter XI by Morris Bishop "Petrarch", pp. 161–175; New York, [[American Heritage Publishing]], {{ISBN|0-618-12738-0}}</ref>

Petrarch spent his early childhood in the village of [[Incisa in Val d'Arno|Incisa]], near [[Florence]]. He spent much of his early life at [[Avignon]] and nearby [[Carpentras]], where his family moved to follow [[Pope Clement V]], who moved there in 1309 to begin the [[Avignon Papacy]]. Petrarch studied law at the [[University of Montpellier]] (1316–20) and [[University of Bologna|Bologna]] (1320–26) with a lifelong friend and schoolmate, [[Guido Sette]], future archbishop of Genoa. Because his father was in the legal profession (a [[Civil law notary|notary]]), he insisted that Petrarch and his brother also study law. Petrarch, however, was primarily interested in writing and studying [[Latin literature]] and considered these seven years wasted. Petrarch became so distracted by his non-legal interests that his father once threw his books into a fire, which he later lamented.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bishop |first1=Morris |title=Petrarch and His World |orig-date=1963 | date=2002|publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-34122-8 |pages=27}}</ref> Additionally, he proclaimed that through legal manipulation his guardians robbed him of his small property inheritance in Florence, which only reinforced his dislike for the legal system. He protested, "I couldn't face making a merchandise of my mind", since he viewed the legal system as the art of selling justice.<ref name="Bishop" />

Petrarch was a prolific letter writer and counted [[Boccaccio]] among the notable friends with whom he regularly corresponded. After the death of their parents, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo went back to Avignon in 1326, where he worked in numerous clerical offices. This work gave him much time to devote to his writing. With his first large-scale work, ''[[Africa (Petrarch)|Africa]]'', an [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] in [[Latin]] about the great [[Roman Republic|Roman]] general [[Scipio Africanus]], Petrarch emerged as a European celebrity. On 8 April 1341, he became the second<ref>after [[Albertino Mussato]] who was the first to be so crowned according to Robert Weiss, The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity (Oxford, 1973)</ref> [[poet laureate]] since [[classical antiquity]] and was crowned by Roman ''Senatori'' [[Giordano Orsini (Senatore 1341)|Giordano Orsini]] and Orso dell'Anguillara on the holy grounds of Rome's [[Capitoline hill]].<ref>Plumb, p. 164</ref><ref name=pie32>Pietrangeli (1981), p. 32</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kirkham|first1=Victoria|title=Petrarch: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works|date=2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|page=9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iGDdF667hosC&q=giordano+orsini+1341&pg=PA9|isbn=978-0226437439}}</ref>

He traveled widely in Europe, served as an ambassador, and has been called "the first [[Tourist#History|tourist]]"<ref>NSA Family Encyclopedia, ''Petrarch, Francesco'', Vol. 11, p. 240, Standard Education Corp. 1992</ref> because he traveled for pleasure<ref>[[Morris Bishop|Bishop, Morris]] ''Petrarch and his World'', p. 92, Indiana University Press 1963, {{ISBN|0-8046-1730-9}}</ref> such as his [[ascent of Mont Ventoux]]. During his travels, he collected crumbling Latin [[manuscripts]] and was a prime mover in the recovery of knowledge from writers of [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] and [[Ancient Greece|Greece]]. He encouraged and advised [[Leontius Pilatus]]'s translation of [[Homer]] from a manuscript purchased by Boccaccio, although he was severely critical of the result. Petrarch had acquired a copy, which he did not entrust to Leontius,<ref>Vittore Branca, ''Boccaccio; The Man and His Works'', tr. Richard Monges, pp. 113–118</ref> but he knew no [[Greek language|Greek]]; Petrarch said of himself, "Homer was dumb to him, while he was deaf to Homer".<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.tuttotempolibero.altervista.org//poesia/trecento/francescopetrarca/epistolefamiliares.html| title = ''Ep. Fam.'' 18.2 §9| access-date = 2018-11-12| archive-date = 2016-02-20| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160220021531/http://tuttotempolibero.altervista.org//poesia/trecento/francescopetrarca/epistolefamiliares.html| url-status = dead}}</ref> In 1345 he personally discovered a collection of [[Cicero]]'s letters not previously known to have existed, the collection ''[[Epistulae ad Atticum]]'', in the [[Chapter Library of Verona|Chapter Library]] (''Biblioteca Capitolare'') of [[Verona Cathedral]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bibliotecacapitolare.it/en/history/|title=History – Biblioteca Capitolare Verona|website=Bibliotecacapitolare.it|access-date=23 February 2022|archive-date=20 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420090857/http://www.bibliotecacapitolare.it/en/history/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Disdaining what he believed to be the ignorance of [[Middle Ages|the era]] in which he lived, Petrarch is credited with creating the concept of a historical "[[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]]",<ref name="DarkAges"/> which most modern scholars now find inaccurate and misleading.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Snyder|first=Christopher A.|author-link=Christopher Snyder (historian)|year=1998|title=An Age of Tyrants: Britain and the Britons A.D. 400&ndash;600|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|publication-date=1998|location=University Park|pages=xiii&ndash;xiv|isbn=0-271-01780-5}}. In explaining his approach to writing the work, Snyder refers to the "so-called Dark Ages", noting that "Historians and archaeologists have never liked the label Dark Ages ... there are numerous indicators that these centuries were neither 'dark' nor 'barbarous' in comparison with other eras."</ref><ref name=dmas>{{cite book |title=[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]] |volume=Supplement 1 |publisher=Charles Scribner |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmidd0000unse_y1k9_supp1/page/388 |chapter=Medievalism |pages=389–397 |year=2004 |first=Kathleen |last=Verdun |isbn=9780684806426 |editor-first=Chester William |editor-last=Jordan |editor-link=William Chester Jordan}}; Same volume, [[Paul Freedman|Freedman, Paul]], [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmidd0000unse_y1k9_supp1/page/383/mode/2up "Medieval Studies"], pp. 383–389.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Raico|first=Ralph|author-link=Ralph Raico|title=The European Miracle|date=30 November 2006 |url=https://mises.org/daily/2404|access-date=14 August 2011}} "The stereotype of the Middle Ages as 'the Dark Ages' fostered by Renaissance humanists and Enlightenment ''philosophes'' has, of course, long since been abandoned by scholars."</ref>

===Mount Ventoux===
{{Main|Ascent of Mont Ventoux}}
[[File:140608 Mont-Ventoux-04.jpg|thumb|left|Summit of [[Mont Ventoux]]]]
Petrarch recounts that on 26 April 1336, with his brother and two servants, he climbed to the top of [[Mont Ventoux]] ({{convert|1912|m|ft|sp=us}}, a feat which he undertook for recreation rather than necessity.<ref>[[Marjorie Hope Nicolson|Nicolson, Marjorie Hope]]; ''Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite'' (1997), p. 49; {{ISBN|0-295-97577-6}}</ref> The exploit is described in a famous letter addressed to his friend and confessor, the monk [[Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro]], composed some time after the fact. In it, Petrarch claimed to have been inspired by [[Philip V of Macedon]]'s ascent of [[Beklemeto Pass|Mount Haemo]] and that an aged peasant had told him that nobody had ascended Ventoux before or after himself, 50 years earlier, and warned him against attempting to do so. The nineteenth-century Swiss historian [[Jacob Burckhardt]] noted that [[Jean Buridan]] had climbed the same mountain a few years before, and ascents accomplished during the [[Middle Ages]] have been recorded, including that of [[Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne]].<ref>Burckhardt, Jacob. ''[https://archive.org/details/civilisationren02middgoog The Civilisation of the Period of the Renaissance in Italy]'' (1860).  Translated by S.G.C. Middlemore.  [[Swan Sonnenschein]] (1904), pp. 301–302.</ref><ref>[[Lynn Thorndike]], [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2707236 Renaissance or Prenaissance], ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 4, No. 1. (Jan. 1943), pp. 69–74. [[JSTOR]] link to a collection of several letters in the same issue.</ref>

Scholars<ref>Such as [[J.H. Plumb]], in his book ''The Italian Renaissance''</ref> note that Petrarch's letter<ref name=AMV>[http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/read_letters.html?s=pet17.html Familiares 4.1] translated by Morris Bishop, quoted in Plumb.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 462985|title = Petrarch at the Peak of Fame|journal = PMLA|volume = 108|issue = 5|pages = 1050–1063|last1 = Asher|first1 = Lyell|year = 1993|doi = 10.2307/462985| s2cid=163476193 }}</ref> to Dionigi displays a strikingly "modern" attitude of aesthetic gratification in the grandeur of the scenery and is still often cited in books and journals devoted to the sport of [[mountaineering]]. In Petrarch, this attitude is coupled with an aspiration for a virtuous Christian life, and on reaching the summit, he took from his pocket a volume by his beloved mentor, Saint Augustine, that he always carried with him.<ref>McLaughlin, Edward Tompkins; ''Studies in Medieval Life and Literature'', p. 6, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1894</ref>

<blockquote>For pleasure alone he climbed Mont Ventoux, which rises to more than six thousand feet, beyond Vaucluse. It was no great feat, of course; but he was the first recorded Alpinist of modern times, the first to climb a mountain merely for the delight of looking from its top. (Or almost the first; for in a high pasture he met an old shepherd, who said that fifty years before he had attained the summit, and had got nothing from it save toil and repentance and torn clothing.) Petrarch was dazed and stirred by the view of the Alps, the mountains around Lyons, the Rhone, the Bay of Marseilles. He took Augustine's ''Confessions'' from his pocket and reflected that his climb was merely an allegory of aspiration toward a better life.<ref>{{cite book |last=Plumb |first=J.H. |date=1961 |title=The Horizon Book of the Renaissance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7FKVBjaLtJsC&q=%22climb+was+merely+an+allegory%22 |location=New York |publisher=American Heritage |page=26 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

As [[Bibliomancy|the book fell open]], Petrarch's eyes were immediately drawn to the following words:

{{quote|And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not.<ref name=AMV/>}}
Petrarch's response was to turn from the outer world of nature to the inner world of "soul":

{{quote|I closed the book, angry with myself that I should still be admiring earthly things who might long ago have learned from even the pagan philosophers that nothing is wonderful but the soul, which, when great itself, finds nothing great outside itself. Then, in truth, I was satisfied that I had seen enough of the mountain; I turned my inward eye upon myself, and from that time not a syllable fell from my lips until we reached the bottom again. ... [W]e look about us for what is to be found only within. ... How many times, think you, did I turn back that day, to glance at the summit of the mountain which seemed scarcely a cubit high compared with the range of human contemplation<ref name=AMV/>}}

[[James Hillman]] argues that this rediscovery of the inner world is the real significance of the Ventoux event.<ref name=RP>{{cite book|first=James|last=Hillman|author-link=James Hillman|year=1977|title=Revisioning Psychology|isbn=978-0-06-090563-7|publisher=Harper & Row|pages=[https://archive.org/details/revisioningpsych00hill/page/197 197]}}</ref> The Renaissance begins not with the ascent of Mont Ventoux but with the subsequent descent—the "return [...] to the valley of soul", as Hillman puts it.

===Later years===
Petrarch spent the later part of his life journeying through northern Italy and southern France as an international scholar and poet-diplomat. His career in [[Catholicism|the Church]] did not allow him to marry, but he is believed to have fathered two children by a woman (or women) unknown to posterity. A son, Giovanni, was born in 1337, and a daughter, Francesca, was born in 1343. He later legitimized both.<ref>Plumb, p. 165</ref>

For a number of years in the 1340s and 1350s he lived in a small house at [[Fontaine-de-Vaucluse]] east of [[Avignon]] in France.

[[File:Arquà Petrarca Punto di vista di un'aquila.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Petrarch's [[Arquà Petrarca|Arquà]] house near [[Padua]] where he retired to spend his last years]]
Giovanni died of the [[bubonic plague|plague]] in 1361. In the same year Petrarch was named [[canon (priest)|canon]] in [[Monselice]] near [[Padua]]. Francesca married [[Francescuolo da Brossano]] (who was later named executor of Petrarch's [[Will and testament|will]]) that same year. In 1362, shortly after the birth of a daughter, Eletta (the same name as Petrarch's mother), they joined Petrarch in [[Venice]] to flee the plague then ravaging parts of Europe. A second grandchild, Francesco, was born in 1366, but died before his second birthday. Francesca and her family lived with Petrarch in Venice for five years from 1362 to 1367 at [[Palazzo Molina]]; although Petrarch continued to travel in those years. Between 1361 and 1369 the younger Boccaccio paid the older Petrarch two visits. The first was in Venice, the second was in Padua.

About 1368 Petrarch and Francesca (with her family) moved to the small town of [[Arquà Petrarca|Arquà]] in the [[Euganean Hills]] near Padua, where he passed his remaining years in religious contemplation. He died in his house in Arquà on 18/19 July 1374. The house now hosts a permanent exhibition of Petrarch's works and curiosities, including the famous tomb of an embalmed cat long believed to be Petrarch's (although there is no evidence Petrarch actually had a cat).<ref>{{Cite web |title=(Not?) Petrarch's Cat |url=https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2018/12/not-petrarchs-cat.html |access-date=2022-04-02 |website=blogs.bl.uk |language=en}}</ref> On the marble slab, there is a Latin inscription written by [[Antonio Quarenghi]]:
{|
! Original Latin
! English translation
|-
|valign="top"|
<poem>Etruscus gemino vates ardebat amore:
Maximus ignis ego; Laura secundus erat.
Quid rides? divinæ illam si gratia formæ,
Me dignam eximio fecit amante fides.
Si numeros geniumque sacris dedit illa libellis
Causa ego ne sævis muribus esca forent.
Arcebam sacro vivens a limine mures,
Ne domini exitio scripta diserta forent;
Incutio trepidis eadem defuncta pavorem,
Et viget exanimi in corpore prisca fides.</poem>

|style="padding-left: 3em;" valign="top"|
<poem>::The Tuscan bard of deathless fame
      Nursed in his breast a double flame,
        Unequally divided;
      And when I say I had his heart,
      While Laura play'd the second part,
        I must not be derided.

      For my fidelity was such,
      It merited regard as much
        As Laura's grace and beauty;
      She first inspired the poet's lay,
      But since I drove the mice away,
        His love repaid my duty.

      Through all my exemplary life,
      So well did I in constant strife
        Employ my claws and curses,
      That even now, though I am dead,
      Those nibbling wretches dare not tread
        On one of Petrarch's verses.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40773/40773-0.txt|title=The Last Lay of Petrarch's Cat|translator=J. O. B.|journal=Notes and Queries|volume=5|issue=121|page=174|date=21 February 1852|access-date=5 June 2022}} Latin text included.</ref></poem>
|}

Petrarch's will (dated 4 April 1370) leaves fifty [[Italian coin florin|florins]] to Boccaccio "to buy a warm winter dressing gown"; various legacies (a horse, a silver cup, a lute, a [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]]) to his brother and his friends; his house in Vaucluse to its caretaker; money for Masses offered for his [[Soul (spirit)|soul]], and money for the poor; and the bulk of his estate to his son-in-law, Francescuolo da Brossano, who is to give half of it to "the person to whom, as he knows, I wish it to go"; presumably his daughter, Francesca, Brossano's wife.  The will mentions neither the property in Arquà nor his library; Petrarch's library of notable manuscripts was already promised to Venice, in exchange for the Palazzo Molina.  This arrangement was probably cancelled when he moved to Padua, the enemy of Venice, in 1368.  The library was seized by the [[da Carrara]] [[lords of Padua]], and his books and manuscripts are now widely scattered over Europe.<ref>Bishop, pp. 360, 366. Francesca and the quotes from there;{{Clarify|date=May 2009}} Bishop adds that the dressing-gown was a piece of tact: "fifty florins would have bought twenty dressing-gowns".</ref> Nevertheless, the [[Biblioteca Marciana]] traditionally claimed this bequest as its founding, although it was in fact founded by [[Cardinal Bessarion]] in 1468.<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Libraries |display=Libraries § Italy |volume=16 |page=573 |first1=Henry Richard |last1=Tedder |first2=James Duff |last2=Brown}}</ref>

==Works==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1985-0819-019, Handschrift, Francesco Petrarca.jpg|thumb|upright|Original lyrics by Petrarch, found in 1985 in Erfurt.]]
[[File:Simone Martini - Frontispice du Virgile.jpg|thumb|upright|''Petrarch's [[Virgil]] (title page)'' ({{Circa|1336}}) <br />Illuminated manuscript by [[Simone Martini]], 29 x 20 cm Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.]]
[[File:The Triumph of Death, or The Three Fates.jpg|thumb|upright|''The Triumph of Death'', or ''The 3 Fates''. Flemish tapestry (probably Brussels, {{Circa|1510–1520}}). Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who spin, draw out and cut the thread of life, represent Death in this tapestry, as they triumph over the fallen body of Chastity. This is the third subject in Petrarch's poem "The [[Triumphs]]". First, Love triumphs; then Love is overcome by Chastity, Chastity by Death, Death by Fame, Fame by Time and Time by Eternity]]

Petrarch is best known for his Italian poetry, notably the ''[[Il Canzoniere|Rerum vulgarium fragmenta]]'' ("Fragments of Vernacular Matters"), a collection of 366 lyric poems in various genres also known as 'canzoniere' ('songbook'), and ''I trionfi'' ("The [[Triumphs]]"), a six-part narrative poem of Dantean inspiration. However, Petrarch was an enthusiastic Latin scholar and did most of his writing in this language. His Latin writings include scholarly works, introspective essays, letters, and more poetry. Among them are ''[[Secretum (book)|Secretum]]'' ("My Secret Book"), an intensely personal, imaginary dialogue with a figure inspired by [[Augustine of Hippo]]; ''[[De Viris Illustribus (Petrarch)|De Viris Illustribus]]'' ("On Famous Men"), a series of moral biographies; ''Rerum Memorandarum Libri'', an incomplete treatise on the [[cardinal virtues]]; ''De Otio Religiosorum'' ("On Religious Leisure")<ref>[http://www.italicapress.com/index186.html Francesco Petrarch, ''On Religious Leisure (De otio religioso),''] edited & translated by Susan S. Schearer, introduction by Ronald G. Witt (New York: Italica Press, 2002).</ref> and ''[[De vita solitaria]]'' ("On the Solitary Life"), which praise the contemplative life; ''[[De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae]]'' ("Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul"), a self-help book which remained popular for hundreds of years; ''[[Itinerarium]]'' ("Petrarch's Guide to the Holy Land"); invectives against opponents such as doctors, scholastics, and [[French people|the French]]; the ''Carmen Bucolicum'', a collection of 12 pastoral poems; and the unfinished epic ''[[Africa (Petrarch)|Africa]]''. He translated seven psalms, a collection known as the ''[[Penitential Psalms]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sturm-Maddox|first=Sara|title=Petrarch's Laurels|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ktO1okPN0fYC&pg=PA153|year=2010|publisher=Pennsylvania State UP|isbn=978-0271040745|page=153}}</ref>

[[File:Thorvaldsen Cicero.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Petrarch revived the work and letters of the ancient [[Roman Senate|Roman Senator]] [[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero]]]]Petrarch also published many volumes of his letters, including a few written to long-dead figures from history such as [[Cicero]] and [[Virgil]]. Cicero, Virgil, and [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] were his literary models. Most of his Latin writings are difficult to find today, but several of his works are available in English translations. Several of his Latin works are scheduled to appear in the Harvard University Press series ''I Tatti''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/itatti/forthcoming.html |title=I Tatti Renaissance Library/Forthcoming and Published Volumes |publisher=Hup.harvard.edu |access-date=July 31, 2009}}</ref> It is difficult to assign any precise dates to his writings because he tended to revise them throughout his life.

Petrarch collected his letters into four major sets of books called 
* ''Familiares'' or ''[[Rerum familiarum liber]]'' ("[http://www.italicapress.com/index260.html Letters on Familiar Matters]") 
* ''Liber sine nomine''
* ''Disperse'' 
* ''[[Seniles]]'' ("[http://www.italicapress.com/index262.html Letters of Old Age]") and 
* ''Metricae''
The first and the fourth are available in English translation.<ref>''[http://www.italicapress.com/index260.html Letters on Familiar Matters] (Rerum familiarium libri)'',  translated by Aldo S. Bernardo, 3 vols.' and ''[http://www.italicapress.com/index262.html Letters of Old Age] (Rerum senilium libri)'', translated by Aldo S. Bernardo, Saul Levin &  Reta A. Bernardo, 2 vols.</ref> The plan for his letters was suggested to him by knowledge of [[Cicero]]'s letters. These were published "without names" to protect the recipients, all of whom had close relationships to Petrarch. The recipients of these letters included [[Philippe de Cabassoles]], [[bishop of Cavaillon]]; [[Ildebrandino Conti]], [[bishop of Padua]]; [[Cola di Rienzo]], [[tribune]] of Rome; [[Francesco Nelli]], priest of the Prior of the Church of the Holy Apostles in [[Florence]]; and [[Niccolò di Capoccia]], a cardinal and priest of [[San Vitale (Rome)|Saint Vitalis]]. His "Letter to Posterity" (the last letter in ''Seniles'')<ref>[http://history.hanover.edu/texts/petrarch/pet01.html Petrarch's Letter to Posterity] (1909 English translation, with notes, by [[James Harvey Robinson]])</ref> gives an [http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/read_letters.html?s=pet01.html autobiography] and a synopsis of his philosophy in life. It was originally written in Latin and was completed in 1371 or 1372—the first such autobiography in a thousand years (since [[Saint Augustine]]).<ref>{{cite journal | author = Wilkins Ernest H | year = 1964| title = On the Evolution of Petrarch's Letter to Posterity | journal = Speculum | volume = 39 | issue = 2| pages = 304–308 | doi = 10.2307/2852733 | jstor = 2852733| s2cid = 164097201}}</ref><ref>Plumb, p. 173</ref>

While Petrarch's poetry was set to music frequently after his death, especially by Italian [[madrigal (music)|madrigal]] composers of the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] in the 16th century, only one musical setting composed during Petrarch's lifetime survives. This is ''Non al suo amante'' by [[Jacopo da Bologna]], written around 1350.

===Laura and poetry===
{{more citations needed section|date=April 2017}}
On 6 April 1327,<ref>6 April 1327 is often thought to be [[Good Friday]] based on poems 3 and 211 of Petrarch's ''Rerum vulgarium fragmenta'', but that date fell on Monday in 1327. The apparent explanation is that Petrarch was not referring to the variable date of Good Friday but to the date fixed by the death of Christ in absolute time, which at the time was thought to be April 6 (Mark Musa, ''Petrarch's Canzoniere'', Indiana University Press, 1996, p. 522).</ref> after Petrarch gave up his vocation as a priest, the sight of a woman called "Laura" in the church of Sainte-Claire d'[[Avignon]] in 1327, awoke in him a lasting passion, celebrated in the ''Rerum vulgarium fragmenta'' ("Fragments of Vernacular Matters"). Laura may have been [[Laura de Noves]], the wife of Count [[Hugues de Sade]] (an ancestor of the [[Marquis de Sade]]). There is little definite information in Petrarch's work concerning Laura, except that she is lovely to look at, fair-haired, with a modest, dignified bearing. Laura and Petrarch had little or no personal contact. According to his "Secretum", she refused him because she was already married. He channeled his feelings into love poems that were exclamatory rather than persuasive, and wrote prose that showed his contempt for men who pursue women.  Upon her death in 1348, the poet found that his [[grief]] was as difficult to live with as was his former despair.  Later, in his "Letter to Posterity", Petrarch wrote: "In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair—my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did".

[[File:Francesco Petrarca01.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Laura de Noves]]]]
While it is possible she was an idealized or pseudonymous character—particularly since the name "Laura" has a [[Linguistics|linguistic]] connection to the poetic "laurels" Petrarch coveted—Petrarch himself always denied it. His frequent use of ''l'aura'' is also remarkable: for example, the line "Erano i capei d'oro a ''l'aura'' sparsi" may mean both "her hair was all over Laura's body" and "the wind (''l'aura'') blew through her hair". There is psychological realism in the description of Laura, although Petrarch draws heavily on conventionalised descriptions of love and lovers from [[troubadour]] songs and other literature of [[courtly love]]. Her presence causes him unspeakable joy, but his unrequited love creates unendurable desires, inner conflicts between the ardent lover and the [[Christian mysticism|mystic Christian]], making it impossible to reconcile the two. Petrarch's quest for love leads to hopelessness and irreconcilable anguish, as he expresses in the series of paradoxes in Rima 134 "Pace non trovo, et non ò da far guerra;/e temo, et spero; et ardo, et son un ghiaccio": "I find no peace, and yet I make no war:/and fear, and hope: and burn, and I am ice".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/PetrarchCanzoniere123-183.htm#_Toc10863123|title=Petrarch (1304–1374). The Complete Canzoniere: 123–183|website=Poetryintranslation.com}}</ref>

Laura is unreachable and evanescent – descriptions of her are evocative yet fragmentary. [[Francesco de Sanctis]] praises the powerful music of his verse in his ''Storia della letteratura italiana''. Gianfranco Contini, in a famous essay ("Preliminari sulla lingua del Petrarca". Petrarca, Canzoniere. Turin, Einaudi, 1964), has described Petrarch's language in terms of "unilinguismo" (contrasted with Dantean "plurilinguismo").

=== Sonnet 227 ===
{|
! Original Italian<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Canzoniere_%28Rerum_vulgarium_fragmenta%29/Aura_che_quelle_chiome_bionde_et_crespe |title = Canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta)/Aura che quelle chiome bionde et crespe |website=It.wikisource.org}}</ref>
! English translation by A.S. Kline<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/PetrarchCanzoniere184-244.htm#_Toc11161988 |title = Petrarch (1304–1374) – the Complete Canzoniere: 184–244|website=Poetryintranslation.com}}</ref>
|-
|valign="top"|
<poem>Aura che quelle chiome bionde et crespe
cercondi et movi, et se’ mossa da loro,
soavemente, et spargi quel dolce oro,
et poi ’l raccogli, e ’n bei nodi il rincrespe,

tu stai nelli occhi ond’amorose vespe
mi pungon sí, che ’nfin qua il sento et ploro,
et vacillando cerco il mio tesoro,
come animal che spesso adombre e ’ncespe:

ch’or me ’l par ritrovar, et or m’accorgo
ch’i’ ne son lunge, or mi sollievo or caggio,
ch’or quel ch’i’ bramo, or quel ch’è vero scorgo.

Aër felice, col bel vivo raggio
rimanti; et tu corrente et chiaro gorgo,
ché non poss’io cangiar teco vïaggio?</poem>
|style="padding-left: 3em;" valign="top"|
<poem>Breeze, blowing that blonde curling hair,
stirring it, and being softly stirred in turn,
scattering that sweet gold about, then
gathering it, in a lovely knot of curls again,

you linger around bright eyes whose loving sting
pierces me so, till I feel it and weep,
and I wander searching for my treasure,
like a creature that often shies and kicks:

now I seem to find her, now I realise
she’s far away, now I’m comforted, now despair,
now longing for her, now truly seeing her.

Happy air, remain here with your
living rays: and you, clear running stream,
why can’t I exchange my path for yours?</poem>
|}

==Dante==
[[File:Dante Luca.jpg|thumb|left|Dante Alighieri, detail from a [[Luca Signorelli]] [[fresco]] in the chapel of [[Orvieto Cathedral#Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio|San Brizio]], Duomo, Orvieto.]]
Petrarch is very different from [[Dante]] and his ''[[Divina Commedia]]''. In spite of the [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] subject, the ''Commedia'' is deeply rooted in the cultural and social milieu of turn-of-the-century [[Florence]]: Dante's rise to power (1300) and exile (1302); his political passions call for a "violent" use of language, where he uses all the registers, from low and trivial to sublime and philosophical. Petrarch confessed to Boccaccio that he had never read the ''Commedia'', remarks Contini, wondering whether this was true or Petrarch wanted to distance himself from Dante. Dante's language evolves as he grows old, from the courtly love of his early [[Dolce Stil Novo|stilnovistic]] ''Rime'' and ''Vita nuova'' to the ''Convivio'' and ''Divina Commedia'', where [[Beatrice Portinari|Beatrice]] is sanctified as the goddess of philosophy—the philosophy announced by the Donna Gentile at the death of Beatrice.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.insulaeuropea.eu/pulsoni/il_metodo_di_lavoro.pdf |title=Il metodo di lavoro di Wilkins e la tradizione manoscritta dei Rerum vulgarium fragmenta - Archived copy |access-date=December 28, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112102335/http://www.insulaeuropea.eu/pulsoni/il_metodo_di_lavoro.pdf |archive-date=November 12, 2013 }}</ref><ref name="Pulsoni">{{cite journal | last=Pulsoni | first=Carlo | title=Il metodo di lavoro di Wilkins e la tradizione manoscritta dei Rerum vulgarium fragmenta | journal=Giornale Italiano di Filologia | volume=61 | issue=1–2 | date=2009 | issn=0017-0461 | doi=10.1484/J.GIF.5.101778 | pages=257–269 | url=https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/10.1484/J.GIF.5.101778 | access-date=2025-05-19| url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In contrast, Petrarch's thought and style are relatively uniform throughout his life—he spent much of it revising the songs and sonnets of the ''[[Il Canzoniere|Canzoniere]]'' rather than moving to new subjects or poetry. Here, poetry alone provides a consolation for personal grief, much less philosophy or politics (as in Dante), for Petrarch fights within himself (sensuality versus [[mysticism]], profane versus [[Christian literature]]), not against anything outside of himself. The strong moral and political convictions which had inspired Dante belong to the Middle Ages and the libertarian spirit of the [[Medieval commune|commune]]; Petrarch's moral dilemmas, his refusal to take a stand in politics, his reclusive life point to a different direction, or time. The free commune, the place that had made Dante an eminent politician and scholar, was being dismantled: the ''signoria'' was taking its place. Humanism and its spirit of empirical inquiry, however, were making progress—but the papacy (especially after Avignon) and the empire ([[Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry VII]], the last hope of the [[Guelphs and Ghibellines|white Guelphs]], died near Siena in 1313) had lost much of their original prestige.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://petrarch.uoregon.edu/|title=The Oregon Petrarch Open Book – "Petrarch is again in sight"|website=petrarch.uoregon.edu}}</ref>

Petrarch polished and perfected the sonnet form inherited from [[Giacomo da Lentini]] and which Dante widely used in his ''[[Vita nuova]]'' to popularise the new courtly love of the ''[[Dolce Stil Novo]]''. The tercet benefits from Dante's [[terza rima]] (compare the ''Divina Commedia''), the [[quatrain]]s prefer the ABBA–ABBA to the ABAB–ABAB scheme of the [[Sicilian School|Sicilians]]. The imperfect rhymes of ''u'' with closed ''o'' and ''i'' with closed ''e'' (inherited from Guittone's mistaken rendering of [[Sicilian School|Sicilian verse]]) are excluded, but the rhyme of open and closed ''o'' is kept. Finally, Petrarch's [[enjambment]] creates longer semantic units by connecting one line to the following. The vast majority (317) of Petrarch's 366 poems collected in the ''Canzoniere'' (dedicated to Laura) were ''sonnets'', and the [[Petrarchan sonnet]] still bears his name.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/home_movements.html|title=Movements : Poetry through the Ages|website=Webexhibits.org}}</ref>

==Philosophy==
[[File:Statue of Francesco Petrarca- Uffizi Gallery.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Petrarch on the Uffizi Palace, in Florence]]Petrarch is often referred to as the father of [[humanism]] and considered by many to be the "father of the [[Renaissance]]".<ref>See for example [[Rudolf Pfeiffer]], ''History of Classical Scholarship 1300–1850'', Oxford University Press, 1976, p. 1; Gilbert Highet, ''The Classical Tradition,'' Oxford University Press, 1949, p. 81–88.</ref> In ''[[Secretum (book)|Secretum meum]]'', he points out that secular achievements do not necessarily preclude an authentic relationship with God, arguing instead that God has given humans their vast intellectual and creative potential to be used to its fullest.<ref>[[Famous First Facts]] International, H.W. Wilson Company, New York 2000, {{ISBN|0-8242-0958-3}}, p. 303, item 4567.</ref> He inspired humanist philosophy, which led to the intellectual flowering of the Renaissance. He believed in the immense moral and practical value of the study of ancient history and literature{{mdash}}that is, the study of human thought and action. Petrarch was a devout Catholic and did not see a conflict between realizing humanity's potential and having [[religious faith]], although many philosophers and scholars have styled him a [[Proto-Protestantism|Proto-Protestant]] who challenged the Pope's dogma.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5VqIeLaN_HYC&dq=%22petrarch%22+%22proto-protestant%22&pg=PA143|title=The Uses of History in Early Modern England|date=2006|editor=Paulina Kewes|page=143|publisher=Huntington Library|isbn=9780873282192}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vww9sIBSG6cC&dq=%22petrarch%22+%22proto-protestant%22&pg=PA3|title=The Site of Petrarchism Early Modern National Sentiment in Italy, France, and England|date=2004|author=William J. Kennedy|page=3|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=9780801881268}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CrL1DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22petrarch%22+%22proto-protestant%22&pg=PA6|title=Petrarch's 'Triumphi' in the British Isles|page=6|editor=Alessandra Petrina|date=2020|publisher=Modern Humanities Research Association|isbn=9781781888827}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aufeDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22petrarch%22+%22proto-protestant%22&pg=PT109|title=The Early Modern English Sonnet|publisher=Manchester University Press|date=2020|editor1=Enrica Zanin|editor2=Rémi Vuillemin|editor3=Laetitia Sansonetti|editor4=Tamsin Badcoe|isbn=9781526144416}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQaOCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22petrarch%22+%22proto-protestant%22&pg=PA10|title=Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation|page=10|author=Abigail Brundin|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=2016|isbn=9781317001065}}</ref>

A highly introspective man, Petrarch helped shape the nascent humanist movement as many of the internal conflicts and musings expressed in his writings were embraced by Renaissance humanist philosophers and argued continually for the next 200 years. For example, he struggled with the proper relation between the active and contemplative life, and tended to emphasize the importance of solitude and study. In a clear disagreement with Dante, in 1346 Petrarch argued in ''[[De vita solitaria]]'' that [[Pope Celestine V]]'s refusal of the papacy in 1294 was a virtuous example of solitary life.<ref>{{Cite book | last= Petrarca | first = Francesco | title = De vita Solitaria | location = Bologna | publisher = Gaetano Romagnoli | year = 1879 | url = https://archive.org/details/lavitasolitaria01petr | language = it}}</ref> Later the politician and thinker [[Leonardo Bruni]] (1370–1444) argued for the active life, or "[[civic humanism]]". As a result, a number of political, military, and religious leaders during the Renaissance were inculcated with the notion that their pursuit of personal fulfillment should be grounded in [[Classical era|classical]] example and philosophical contemplation.<ref>{{Cite web| url = https://edizionighibli.com/francesco-petrarca/ | language = it | title=Edizioni Ghibli, Il Rinascimento e Petrarca| work = Edizionighibli | date = August 18, 2016 |publisher=edizionighibli.com| access-date=September 6, 2019}}</ref>

== Petrarchism ==
Petrarchism was a 16th-century [[literary movement]] of Petrarch's style by Italian, French, Spanish and English followers (partially coincident with [[Mannerism]]), who regarded his collection of poetry ''Il Canzoniere'' as a canonical text.<ref name="Minta">{{cite book |surname=Minta |given=Stephen |year=1980 |title=Petrarch and Petrarchism: the English and French Traditions |place=Manchester; New York |publisher=Manchester University Press; Barnes & Noble |isbn=0-719-00745-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |surname=Dasenbrock |given=Reed Way |title=The Petrarchan Context of Spenser's ''Amoretti'' |journal=PMLA |date=January 1985 |volume=100 |number=1 |pages=}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-surname=Greene |editor-given=Roland |editor-link=Roland Greene |display-editors=etal |entry=Petrarchism |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |edition=4th rev. |year=2012 |url={{Google books|id=uKiC6IeFR2UC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15491-6}}</ref> Among them, the names are listed in order of precedence: [[Pietro Bembo]], [[Michelangelo]], [[Mellin de Saint-Gelais]], [[Vittoria Colonna]], [[Clément Marot]], [[Garcilaso de la Vega (poet)|Garcilaso de la Vega]], [[Giovanni della Casa]], [[Thomas Wyatt (poet)|Thomas Wyatt]], [[Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey|Henry Howard]], [[Joachim du Bellay]], [[Edmund Spenser]], and [[Philip Sidney]]. Thus, in Pietro Bembo's book ''Prose of the Vernacular Tongue'' (1525) Petrarch is the model of verse composition.

==Legacy==
[[File:Petrarca Tomb (Arqua).JPG|thumb|right|Petrarch's tomb at [[Arquà Petrarca]]]]
Petrarch's influence is evident in the works of [[Serafino dell' Aquila|Serafino Ciminelli]] from [[L'Aquila|Aquila]] (1466–1500) and in the works of [[Marin Držić]] (1508–1567) from [[Dubrovnik]].<ref>Encyclopedia of the Renaissance: Class-Furió Ceriol, Vol. 2, p. 106, Paul F. Grendler, Renaissance Society of America, Scribner's published in association with the Renaissance Society of America, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-684-80509-2}}</ref>

The [[Romantic era|Romantic]] composer [[Franz Liszt]] set three of Petrarch's Sonnets (47, 104, and 123) to music for voice, ''Tre sonetti del Petrarca'', which he later would transcribe for solo piano for inclusion in the suite ''[[Années de Pèlerinage]]''. Liszt also set a poem by [[Victor Hugo]], "Oh! quand je dors" in which Petrarch and Laura are invoked as the epitome of erotic love.

While in Avignon in 1991, [[Modernist]] composer [[Elliott Carter]] completed his solo flute piece ''Scrivo in Vento'' which is in part inspired by and structured by Petrarch's Sonnet 212, ''Beato in sogno''. It was premiered on Petrarch's 687th birthday.<ref>[http://www.patriciaspencerflute.com/images/CarterInterviewFQ.pdf Spencer, Patricia (2008) "Regarding ''Scrivo in Vento'': A Conversation with Elliott Carter"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040236/http://www.patriciaspencerflute.com/images/CarterInterviewFQ.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }} ''Flutest Quarterly'' summer.</ref> In 2004, Finnish composer [[Kaija Saariaho]] crafted a miniature for solo piccolo flute titled ''Dolce tormento'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dolce Tormento {{!}} Kaija Saariaho |url=https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/19144/Dolce-Tormento--Kaija-Saariaho/ |access-date=2023-12-18 |website=www.wisemusicclassical.com |language=en}}</ref> in which the flutist whispers fragments of Petrarch's Sonnet 132 into the instrument.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-03-31 |title=Kaija Saariaho's Let the Wind Speak |url=https://www.musicandliterature.org/reviews/2016/3/31/kaija-saariahos-let-the-wind-speak |access-date=2023-12-18 |website=Music & Literature |language=en-US}}</ref>

In November 2003, it was announced that [[pathology|pathological]] [[anatomy|anatomists]] would be exhuming Petrarch's body from his casket in [[Arquà Petrarca]], to verify 19th-century reports that he had stood 1.83 meters (about six feet), which would have been tall for his period. The team from the [[University of Padua]] also hoped to reconstruct his cranium to generate a computerized image of his features to coincide with his 700th birthday. The tomb had been opened previously in 1873 by Professor Giovanni Canestrini, also of Padua University. When the tomb was opened, the skull was discovered in fragments and a [[DNA]] test revealed that the skull was not Petrarch's,<ref>{{cite journal  |vauthors=Caramelli D, Lalueza-Fox C, Capelli C, etal |title=Genetic analysis of the skeletal remains attributed to Francesco Petrarch |journal=Forensic Sci. Int. |volume=173 |issue=1 |pages=36–40 |date=November 2007 |pmid=17320326 |doi=10.1016/j.forsciint.2007.01.020 }}</ref> prompting calls for the return of Petrarch's skull.

The researchers are fairly certain that the body in the tomb is Petrarch's due to the fact that the [[skeleton]] bears evidence of injuries mentioned by Petrarch in his writings, including a kick from a donkey when he was 42.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.upf.edu/bioevo/2007BioEvo/BE2007-Caramelli-FSI.pdf |title=UPF.edu |access-date=March 1, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090306013340/http://www.upf.edu/bioevo/2007BioEvo/BE2007-Caramelli-FSI.pdf |archive-date=March 6, 2009 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

=== Numismatics ===

He is credited with being the first and most famous aficionado of [[numismatics]]. He described visiting Rome and asking peasants to bring him ancient coins they would find in the soil which he would buy from them, and writes of his delight at being able to identify the names and features of Roman emperors.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cunnally |first=John |title=Images of the Illustrious: The Numismatic Presence in the Renaissance |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1999}}</ref>

==Works in English translation==
<!---this list is not necessarily complete; feel free to add to it--->
{{Refbegin}}
* ''Africa'', vol. 1–4, translated by Erik Z. D. Ellis (thesis; Baylor University, 2007).
* ''Bucolicum Carmen'', translated by [[Thomas G. Bergin]] (Yale University Press, 1974). {{ISBN|9780300017243}}
* ''The Canzoniere; or, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta'', translated by [[Mark Musa]] (Indiana University Press, 1996). {{ISBN|9780253213174}}
* ''Invectives'', translated by David Marsh (Harvard University Press, 2008). {{ISBN|9780674030886}}
* ''Itinerarium: A Proposed Route for a Pilgrimage from Genoa to the Holy Land'', translated by H. James Shey (Binghamton, New York: Global Academic Publishers, 2004). {{ISBN|9781586840228}}
* ''Letters on Familiar Matters'' (''Rerum familiarium libri''), vol. 1 (bkk. 1–8), vol. 2 (bkk. 9–16), vol. 3 (bkk. 17–24), translated by Aldo S. Bernardo (New York: Italica Press, 2005). {{ISBN|9781599100005}}
* ''Letters of Old Age'' (''Rerum senilium libri''), vol. 1 (bkk. 1–9), vol. 2 (bkk. 10–18), translated by Aldo S. Bernardo, Saul Levin, & Reta A. Bernardo (New York: Italica Press, 2005). {{ISBN|9781599100043}}
* ''The Life of Solitude'', translated by [[Jacob Zeitlin]] (1924); revised edition by Scott H. Moore (Baylor University Press 2023). {{ISBN|9781481318099}}
* ''My Secret Book'' (''Secretum''), translated by [[Nicholas Mann (academic)| Nicholas Mann]] (Harvard University Press, 2016). {{ISBN|9780674003460}}
* ''On Religious Leisure'' (''De otio religioso''), translated by Susan S. Schearer (New York: Italica Press, 2002). {{ISBN|9780934977111}}
* ''Penitential Psalms and Prayers'', translated by Demetrio S. Yocum (University of Notre Dame Press, 2024). {{ISBN|9780268207847}}
* ''Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul'', translated by Conrad H. Rawski (Indiana University Press, 1991). {{ISBN|9780253348449}}
* ''The Revolution of Cola di Rienzo'', translated by Mario E. Cosenza; 3rd revised edition by Ronald G. Musto (New York: Italica Press, 1996). {{ISBN|9780934977005}}
* ''Selected Letters'', vol. 1 & 2, translated by [[Elaine Fantham]] (Harvard University Press, 2017). {{ISBN|9780674058347}}, {{ISBN|978-0674971622}}
{{Refend}}

== See also ==
* [[Otium]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Bartlett, Kenneth R. (1992). ''The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance; a Source Book''. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company. {{ISBN|0-669-20900-7}}
* [[Morris Bishop|Bishop, Morris]] (1961). "Petrarch." In [[J. H. Plumb]] (Ed.), ''Renaissance Profiles'', pp.&nbsp;1–17. New York: Harper & Row. {{ISBN|0-06-131162-6}} .
* Hanawalt, A. Barbara (1998). ''The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History'' pp.&nbsp;131–132 New York: Oxford University Press {{ISBN?}} 
* {{cite journal | year= 2014 | last1= James| first1= Paul | author-link1= Paul James (academic) | title= Emotional Ambivalence across Times and Spaces: Mapping Petrarch's Intersecting Worlds | url= https://www.academia.edu/9017816 | journal= Exemplaria | volume=  26 | issue=  1  | pages= 81–104 | doi=10.1179/1041257313z.00000000044| s2cid= 191454887}}
* Kallendorf, Craig. "The Historical Petrarch," ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 101, No. 1 (Feb. 1996): 130–141.
* {{cite book |surname=Minta |given=Stephen |year=1980 |title=Petrarch and Petrarchism: the English and French Traditions |place=Manchester; New York |publisher=Manchester University Press; Barnes & Noble |isbn=0-719-00745-3}}

==Further reading==
* Bernardo, Aldo (1983). "Petrarch." In ''[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]]'', volume 9
* Celenza, Christopher S. (2017). ''Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer''. London: Reaktion. {{ISBN|978-1780238388}}
* Hennigfeld, Ursula (2008). ''Der ruinierte Körper. Petrarkistische Sonette in transkultureller Perspektive''. Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 2008, {{ISBN|978-3-8260-3768-9}}
* Hollway-Calthrop, Henry (1907). [https://archive.org/details/petrarchhislife00hollgoog ''Petrarch: His Life and Times''], Methuen. From [[Google Books]]
* Kohl, Benjamin G. (1978). "Francesco Petrarch: Introduction; How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State," in ''The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society'', ed. Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, 25–78. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. {{ISBN|0-8122-1097-2}}
* Nauert, Charles G. (2006). ''Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe: Second Edition''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-54781-4}}
* Rawski, Conrad H. (1991). ''Petrarch's Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul'' A Modern English Translation of ''De remediis utriusque Fortune'', with a Commentary. {{ISBN|0-253-34849-8}}
* [[James Harvey Robinson|Robinson, James Harvey]] (1898). [https://archive.org/details/petrarchfirstmo00petrgoog ''Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters'']. Harvard University.
* {{cite book |author=Kirkham, Victoria and Armando Maggi|title=Petrarch: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-226-43741-5}}
* A. Lee, ''Petrarch and St. Augustine: Classical Scholarship, Christian Theology and the Origins of the Renaissance in Italy'', Brill, Leiden, 2012, {{ISBN|978-9004224032}}
* N. Mann, ''Petrarca'' [Ediz. orig. Oxford University Press (1984)] – Ediz. ital. a cura di G. Alessio e L. Carlo Rossi – Premessa di G. Velli, LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 1993, {{ISBN|88-7916-021-4}}
* ''Il Canzoniere» di Francesco Petrarca. La Critica Contemporanea'', G. Barbarisi e C. Berra (edd.), LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 1992, {{ISBN|88-7916-005-2}}
* G. Baldassari, ''Unum in locum. Strategie macrotestuali nel Petrarca politico'', LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2006, {{ISBN|88-7916-309-4}}
* Francesco Petrarca, ''Rerum vulgarium Fragmenta. Edizione critica di Giuseppe Savoca'', Olschki, Firenze, 2008, {{ISBN|978-88-222-5744-4}}
* Plumb, J. H., ''The Italian Renaissance'', Houghton Mifflin, 2001, {{ISBN|0-618-12738-0}}
* Giuseppe Savoca, ''Il ''Canzoniere'' di Petrarca. Tra codicologia ed ecdotica'', Olschki, Firenze, 2008, {{ISBN|978-88-222-5805-2}}
* Roberta Antognini, ''Il progetto autobiografico delle "Familiares" di Petrarca'', LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2008, {{ISBN|978-88-7916-396-5}}
* Paul Geyer und Kerstin Thorwarth (hg), ''Petrarca und die Herausbildung des modernen Subjekts'' (Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009) (Gründungsmythen Europas in Literatur, Musik und Kunst, 2)
* Massimo Colella, ''«Cantin le ninfe co' soavi accenti». Per una definizione del petrarchismo di Veronica Gambara'', in «Testo», 2022.

==External links==
{{Sister project links|commons=Francesco Petrarca|s=Author:Petrarch|wikt=no|voy=no|b=no|n=no|v=no}}
* [http://www.thegreatcat.org/history-of-the-cat-in-the-middle-ages-part-9/ Petrarch and his Cat Muse]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11778a.htm Petrarch] from the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090129161713/http://humanistictexts.org/petrarch.htm Excerpts from his works and letters]
* [http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304–1374)]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=7519}}
* {{Internet Archive author |name=Francesco Petrarca}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2818}}
* [http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/timeline.html Timeline of life of Petrarch]
* [http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/Italian/Petrarchhome.htm Poems From The Canzoniere], translated by Tony Kline.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070708234319/http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/AuthorBioPage.php?recordID=0202 Francesco Petrarch] at ''The Online Library of Liberty''
* [[s:la:Liber:De remediis utriusque fortunae|''De remediis utriusque fortunae'', Cremonae, B. de Misintis ac Caesaris Parmensis, 1492.]] ([[Wikisource|Vicifons]])
* {{ChoralWiki|prep=of works by}}
* [http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/ Petrarch and Laura] Multi-lingual site including translated works in the public domain and biography, pictures, music.
* [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/apr/06/research.italy Petrarch – the poet who lost his head] April 2004 article in ''The Guardian'' regarding the exhumation of Petrarch's remains
* [http://petrarch.uoregon.edu/ Oregon Petrarch Open Book] – A working database-driven hypertext in and around Francis Petrarch's Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta (''Canzoniere'')
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rosenwald.0050.1 Historia Griseldis] From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division] at the [[Library of Congress]]
* Francesco Petrarch, [http://roderic.uv.es/uv_ms_0026 ''De viris illustribus''], digitized French codex, at [http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/43 Somni]
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2903448 Petrarch's Vision of the Muslim and Byzantine East – Nancy Bisaha, Speculum, University of Chicago Press]

{{Petrarch}}
{{Portal bar|Italy|History|Literature}}
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[[Category:Petrarch| ]]
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