Petrarch is often considered the founder of Humanism. Petrarch was born in the Tuscan city of Arezzo in Petrarch spent his early childhood in the village of 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 to begin the Avignon Papacy. Petrarch studied law at the University of Montpellier — and the University of Bologna —23 ; because his father was in the profession of law he insisted that Petrarch and his brother study law also.
Petrarch, however, was primarily interested in writing and Latin literature, and considered these seven years wasted. With his family, he moved to Avignon, France, as a child. In France, Petrarch studied law, as his father had wished. However, his passion was for literature, particularly that of ancient Greece and Rome. After his father's death in , Petrarch left law to focus on the classics. Petrarch became a cleric, making him eligible for ecclesiastical postings, which supported him as he pursued his interest in ancient literature.
Traveling as a diplomatic envoy for the Church, he was also able to search for forgotten classical texts. Throughout his lifetime, Petrarch amassed an impressive collection of such texts, which he later bequeathed to Venice in exchange for a house, refuge from the plague. As Petrarch learned more about the classical period, he began to venerate that era and rail against the limitations of his own time.
Though he felt that he lived "amid varied and confusing storms," Petrarch believed that humanity could once more reach the heights of past accomplishments. The doctrine he espoused became known as humanism, and formed a bridge from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Petrarch's other passion was writing.
His first pieces were poems that he composed after the death of his mother. He would go on to write sonnets, letters, histories and more.
Petrarch's writing was greatly admired during his lifetime, and he was crowned Rome's poet laureate in This meant that while he was a cleric, he was able to live and work in society. The young Italian was in financially straitened circumstances after his father's death, and he began to serve the powerful Cardinal Colonna. Petrarch was a diplomat, and he had a very cosmopolitan outlook, which was very rare in the 14th century. One day while attending mass in , he saw a lady at mass called Laura, whom he fell in love with at first sight, and she became his muse and inspired most of his greatest poetry.
During his travels on diplomatic missions, he would write poetry in praise of Laura. Some have argued that Laura was fictional, a poetic device, but most believe she was a real historical figure.
She was probably the wife of a local count and died in Petrarch became famous throughout Europe after the circulation of his Epic in Latin, Africa, based on a Roman general's life.
In , he was invited to Rome and was crowned as Poet Laureate, only the second poet to be honored in this way since the fall of the Empire. The Italian was a great letter-writer and was in correspondence with the leading thinkers of his time. Sometime in , it seems that Petrarch had a spiritual crisis, and he became more religious.
But he did not abandon his love of the classics and the classical world. His fame continued to grow, and he was sent on a more diplomatic mission by the Church. The Italian was an early supporter of Cola Rienzi, who failed to resurrect the Roman Republic and restore a popular government in Rome. This made him very unpopular with some of the leading Church figures of the day and possibly harmed his diplomatic career. After he traveled less and began to dedicate himself more to poetry.
He revised many of his earlier lyrics, especially Italian, and he collected these in his famous Il Canzoniere Song Book. Despite taking orders, as a cleric, Petrarch, fathered two children outside of marriage and legitimized both a son and a daughter. He had a deep interest in education and became involved in some polemics against those who championed the traditional approach to education, which was largely influenced by the Church's teachings.
In he returned to Padua and remained there until he died in While Petrarch wrote in both Latin and Italian, it is arguably his works, especially his poetry in his native tongue, that was most influential.
Vernacular poetry had begun to flourish in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the works of Dante and the Sicilian School are still considered masterpieces of European literature. The writer had a major impact on the development of poetry in the Renaissance.
Petrarch is often credited as the sonnet's inventor, one of the most popular poetic forms in the western tradition. This is a fourteen-line poem in the meter known as iambic pentameter.
However, he really only perfected the form, and he introduced innovations that allowed poets to use language in a very expressive way. Petrarch also developed new literary devices such as the extended metaphor. He was not the first to write about love in a very romantic way and about an idealized beloved.
However, his poems dedicated to his love of Laura were very influential popularized the writing of love poetry in Italy and beyond. His use of sonnets to express his inner life and emotions was revolutionary and original.
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