HIST-308 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Petrarch, Il Canzoniere, Roman Republic
14 Mar 2020
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Dually funded by church and nobility, petrarch was free to pursue his intellectual interests. His two classical inspirations were cicero and augustine: cicero and augustine. What those two had in common was that they were master latin stylists. While petrarch would sometimes write in the vernacular, he still preferred the classical tongues: petrarch"s africa. One of his most monumental works was his epic latin poem africa, which dealt with the ancient scipio africanus. Scipio, a hero of the roman republic struck petrarch as a classical figure worthy of rebirth and renewal: petrarch"s canzoniere. Not too many italians were itching to devour a long form epic about long dead scipio. Much more popular were his shorter, vernacular italian love poems: poetry and fame. By the late 1330s, petrarch was well on his way to meeting his goal and becoming a famed poet.
