Petrarch

The renaissance (1300-1600) was the time in which loads of people started companies for themselves and artists started to paint non-religious figures.

Petrarch (1304-1374) was a Florentine writer. Petrarch was one of the most important writers of his age. Born to a family in the legal profession, the young Francesco resented his father’s desire to have him become a lawyer. For comfort, he began to read the Roman writers Cicero and Vergil. One story tells us that Petrarch’s father became so frustrated with his son’s stubbornness that he once threw the boy’s books into the fire. The youth cried so much, though, that his father grabbed the books back.
As a devoted son, Petrarch chose to study law at a university. After his father’s death in 1326, however, Petrarch devoted his life to studying classical writers and from this course came a new approach to life. From reading ancient literature, he found that the Romans had believed that this world on earth was indeed important for people.

Petrarch collected as many works of ancient literature as he could. His ideas about these classical-works became popular and before long, scholars and princes alike scrambled to collect ancient manuscripts. They spent huge amounts of money and time trying to find old manuscripts. Monasteries were searched for prized pieces of parchment, and libraries everywhere were ransacked. In addition, humanists sent agents to Constantinople to buy whatever they could here Greek manuscripts became more plenty after 1453, when the Turks conquered Constantinople. At that time, many Greek scholars were able to escape Italy.
In his early years, Petrarch wrote poetry in his native Italian tongue. These sonnets, inspired by his love for a woman named Laura, made him one of the most famous lyric poets of all time.
Although Petrarch believed deeply in the teaching of Christianity, he also thought that the Church was wrong to ignore the real world in which people lived. The education person, said Petrarch, should do as the ancient Romans did and study humankind. They should thus study history, languages, literature and ethics.



Here comes one of Petrarch’s sonnets, it’s one of the canzoniere.

Vergognando talor ch' ancor si taccia,
Donna, per me vostra belleza in rima,
ricorro al tempo ch' i' vi didi prima,
tal che null' altra fia mai che mi piaccia;
ma trovo peso non da le mie braccia,
né ovra da polir coll mia lima;
peró l'ingegno che sua forza estima
ne l'operazion tutto s'agghiaccia.
Piú volte giá per dir le labbra apersí
poi rimase la voce in mezzo 'l petto:
ma qual son poria mai salir tant' alto?
Piú volte incominciai di scriver versi,
ma la penna et la mano et l'intelleto
rimaser vinti nel primier assalto.
At times, ashamed that I do not speak in rhyme, Lady, about your beauty, I recall the time when I first saw you, such that there will never be another who pleases me;

but I find a weight that is not for my arms, a work not to be polished with my file; therefore my wit, judging its strength, becomes all frozen in its workings.
Many times already have I opened my lips to speak, but then my voice has remained within my breast: but what sound could ever rise so high?
Many times have I begun to write verses, but my pen and my hand and my intellect have been vanquished in the first assault.
It is about his great love named Laura, for which he wrote many other sonnets. It is about that Petrarch wants to rhyme and speak but he can’t because he is that much in love.
Petrarch is a Renaissance person because:
1. He had one of the largest collections of writings of writers of writers of his age.
2. He studied law.
3. He spoke Italian, Latin and English.
4. He was the greatest writer and poet of his age.
5. He wrote very famous sonnets about his love for Laura.
Sources:
Websites:
http://members.tripod.com/~kimmel/Petrarch.html
Books:
History and Life Petrarch
The sonnets, triumphs and other poems of Petrarch