Francesco Petrarch [1304–1374]
Francesco Petrarch composed over 300 poems to a woman
with whom he never had a relationship. But his innovation on the Italian sonnet
form—usually referred to as the Petrarchan sonnet—immortalized both the poet
and this mysterious woman.
Although Italian writers had written sonnets before
Petrarch, he improved the 14-line poem’s structure and wrote in the vernacular
of the day, more closely reflecting the way people actually spoke. Petrarch’s
success established the sonnet as a major poetic form. Petrarch influenced
poets throughout Europe, including Elizabethan poets like Spenser and
Shakespeare.
From Law Student
to Clergyman
Petrarch was born in Arezzo, Italy, where his father
practiced law. Petrarch’s father insisted that his sons study law, so the poet
and his younger brother complied until their father died in 1326. By then,
Petrarch had developed an interest in classical studies and, as he described
it, “an unquenchable thirst for literature.” After his father’s death, Petrarch
abandoned the study of law and became a Catholic clergyman. Living in Avignon,
France, then the seat of the exiled papal court, Petrarch held a variety of church
positions that provided him with a modest income as well as free time to devote
to literature, classical studies, and extensive traveling.
The Love of His Life
On Good Friday in 1327, when he was 22 years old,
Petrarch saw a woman in the Church of Saint Clare in Avignon and immediately
fell in love with her. For the rest of his life, he wrote and revised sonnets
about his unrequited love for a woman he identified only as Laura. Like
Petrarch’s son and many of his friends, Laura died in the plague that
devastated much of Europe in the mid14th century. Petrarch recorded the date of
her death—April 6, 1348—in a copy of a work by Virgil, a classical Roman poet
whom he revered. After Laura’s death, Petrarch continued to write sonnets
reminiscing about her, including “Sonnet 292.” The Canzoniere, his masterpiece,
is a collection of 366 poems, most of them sonnets that focus on Laura and the
themes of unrequited love, desperate love, eternal love, and tragic love.
Poet Laureate of Rome
By the time Petrarch was in his mid-30s, his poetry
was widely admired in Italy and France. He received invitations from both the
University of Paris and the Senate in Rome to be poet laureate. In 1341, he
became Rome’s first poet laureate since ancient times.