Francesco Petrarch

About Francesco Petrarch

Who is it?: Poet, Scholar and Humanist
Birth Day: July 20, 1304
Birth Place: Arezzo, Italian
Died On: July 20, 1374(1374-07-20) (aged 70)\nArquà, Italy
Birth Sign: Leo
Occupation: Scholar, poet
Period: Early Renaissance
Literary movement: Renaissance humanism
Children: Giovanni (1337–1361) Francesca (born in 1343)
Relatives: Eletta Canigiani (mother) Ser Petracco (father)

Francesco Petrarch Net Worth

Francesco Petrarch was born on July 20, 1304 in Arezzo, Italian, is Poet, Scholar and Humanist. The illustrious Italian poet, scholar and humanist, Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch is inarguably one of the most influential poets in the world literature and has been rightly deemed as the father of ‘Renaissance Humanism’. Best celebrated for his anthology of works addressed to Laura, his idealized ladylove, his work is considered as a classic of sorts in the literary world. He perfected the Italian sonnet pattern and founded the Petrarchan sonnet that became the standard verse pattern among his contemporaries and inspired poets like William Shakespeare and William Wordsworth. Deeply influenced by Saint Augustine, Petrarch spent later part of his life in religious contemplation. Petrarch’s attempts to conciliate humanism with Christian faith and his deep admiration for classical philosophy are well evident in his works. He wrote many love poems, which were largely exclamatory than persuasive. Petrarch’s blessed pen gave birth to many romantic poems, sonnets, letters, essays, histories and philosophical essays. Read on to know more about Petrarch and his life.
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💰 Net worth: Under Review

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Famous Quotes:

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.

Biography/Timeline

1991

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.

2003

In November 2003, it was announced that pathological anatomists would be exhuming Petrarch's body from his casket in Arquà Petrarca, in order 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 in order 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, prompting calls for the return of Petrarch's skull.

2013

Petrarch is traditionally called the father of Humanism and considered by many to be the "father of the Renaissance." In his work Secretum meum he points out that secular achievements did not necessarily preclude an authentic relationship with God. Petrarch argued instead that God had given humans their vast intellectual and creative potential to be used to their fullest. 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 – 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.

2014

James Hillman argues that this rediscovery of the inner world is the real significance of the Ventoux event. 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. Arguing against such a singular and hyperbolic periodization, Paul James suggests a different reading: