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The fifteenth- and sixteenth-century movement which led to a European revaluation of social, political, ethical, literary, artistic and intellectual experience and which we know as the Renaissance was given its decisive early impetus from Italy in the fourteenth by Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374). Petrarch is present, sometimes visibly, sometimes all but invisibly, within all the manifestations of the Renaissance imagination covered by these essays. His presence is most obvious in the first division of this book, Petrarch Illustrated, where a comprehensive survey and a number of specialized studies bring up to date and in other ways augment the great work of the prince d'Essling and Eugene Muntz, published in 1902 and now in need of revision in many respects. In the second section, Petrarch is present by reputation and implication, and through the homage paid to him, directly in pilgrimage to and adornment of places where he lived and the search for personal mementos, or indirectly in the search by generations succeeding him for the authentic image of the classical authors whom he studied, imitated, revered and loved as friends, or in the permeation into Northern Europe of the study of the classics which he saw as the guide to letters and to life and its modification by humanists and Biblical scholars. Erasmus, Thomas More and William Tyndale, widely different in both their Christian faith and their views of the Biblical text in Latin, Greek or English, without consciously being aware of it, owed their preoccupation with the texts ultimately to the example of Petrarch and his Italian successors, particularly the schoolmaster Guarino of Verona and the great philologists Lorenzo Valla and Angelo Poliziano. ... Read more

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Sor priore, l'annacqui!
A masterpiece of prose to the yard; absolutely a must read for the modern Trissotin. Dante and Petrarch lend to this book the refined touch, the "Trecento"; the authors have worked hard to fill the rest with nonsense, solecism and humbug, to make it, in a word, a treat for the lover of involuntary humorism. With the words of Renato Fucini: "Sor priore, l'annacqui!" ... Read more

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petrarca revieuw
Well writen and very understandable not a must read but a very nice read indeed. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1807Original Publisher: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and OrmeSubjects: History / GeneralLiterary Criticism / European / ItalianPoetry / Continental EuropeanNotes: This is an OCR reprint of the original rare book. There may be typos or missing text and there are no illustrations.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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In the early spring of 1358 Francis Petrarch was invited by his friend Giovanni Mandelli, a leading military and political figure of Visconti Milan, to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Pleased at the invitation, Petrarch nevertheless declined to undertake the journey.Fear of the sea, of shipwreck, and of "slow death and nausea worse than death" held him back. While Petrarch would not make the literal journey he offered Mandelli a pilgrimage guide instead of his companionship: "nevertheless, I shall be with you in spirit, and since you have requested it, I will accompany you with this writing, which will be for you like a brief itinerary."

Composed over three days between March and April of 1358, the "Itinerarium ad sepulchrum domini nostri" takes the characteristic Petrarchan form of an epistle to a friend. Delivered to his correspondent in the form of an elegant booklet, the work presents a literary self-portrait that was meant to stand as "the more stable effigy of my soul and intellect" as well as "a description of places." Although the Holy Land is the ostensible destination of the pilgrimage, more than half of this charming guidebook is devoted to Petrarch’s leisurely and loving descriptions of Italy's physical and cultural landscape. Upon reaching the Holy Land, Petrarch transforms himself into one of the greatest ten-cities-in-four-days Baedekers of all time, as Mandelli and the reader race through sacred landmarks and sites and end up, not at the "sepulchrum domini nostri," but at the tomb of Alexander.

Theodore Cachey has prepared the first English-language translation of the "Itinerarium."Based on an authoritative 14th-century manuscript in the Biblioteca Statale of Cremona, which is, according to the explicit declaration of the scribe, a copy of Petrarch’s 1358 autograph, the translation is accompanied by the manuscript reproduced in facsimile and by a transcription of the Latin text.Cachey’s extensive introduction and notes discuss Petrarch’s text within the multiple contexts of travel in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and contemporary political and cultural issues, including Petrarch’s relation to emergent forms of "cartographic writing" and Renaissance "self-fashioning."Petrarch’s little book reveals him to be a man of his time, but one whose voice speaks clearly to us across centuries.The "Itinerarium" is a jewel rediscovered for the modern reader. ... Read more

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weentsy travelogue
This volume is completely gorgeous. The editor, Theodore Cachey, Jr., has written an insightful introduction to the letter of Petrarch, situating both the text and its reception within the tradition of travel writings. The majority of Petrarch's letter describes Italian tours rather than the Holy Land. The letter itself is a marvellous description of a tour, replete with poetic, religious, and mythological citation, that Petrarch was invited to make but opted out of on account of a fear of sea-sickness. Included in the volume on the left side of each page is a reproduction (photographed, I assume) of Latin script of the "Itinerary" from 1358 (not by Petrarch's own hand, however). Below these handsome brown reproductions is a smaller and clearer version of the Latin in the reproductions. Facing, on the right side of each page, is a bright translation of the Latin letter. It is marvellous to behold the careful and thorough nature of a text that is often considered a minor work. Surely, it is small, but delightful too. The final section of the volume includes ample annotation of the text and a list of Petrarch's works. ... Read more

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Still among the best historical biogs of Petrarch,, by greatest scholar of Petrarch in his day. ... Read more

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A collection of 70 of the poems excluded from the Canzoniere in English prose translation with the facing original Italian. Includes an introduction by the editor/translator, a select bibliography, and indexes of both Italian and English first lines. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, O ... Read more

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Although Francesco Petrarca's position as the "father" of Italian Renaissance humanism has long been acknowledged, the specific meanings of his works and his legacy remain matters of controversy. Basic questions about the tension between his devotion to secular pursuits and his respect for religious withdrawal, about the authenticity of his ostensibly autobiographical writings, and about his relationship to scholasticism still provoke sustained debate. Rereading the Renaissance, a study of Petrarch's uses of Augustine, uses methods drawn from history and literary criticism to establish a framework for exploring Petrarch's humanism by approaching it through it central practices of reading and writing.
Carol Quillen argues that the essential role of Augustine's words and authority in the expression of Petrarch's humanism is best grasped through a study of the complex textual practices exemplified in the writings of both men. Petrarch's reliance on Augustine is most evident in his ways of reading and in his strategies of argument. Secondly, she maintains that Petrarch's appropriation of Augustine's words is only intelligible in light of his struggle to legitimate his cultural ideals in the face of compelling opposition. Finally, Quillen shows how Petrarch's uses of Augustine can simultaneously uphold his humanist ideals and challenge the legitimacy of the assumptions on which those ideals were founded.
Interdisciplinary in scope and method, this volume speaks to important debates that span the humanities. Scholars of literary and historical studies, as well as those in the fields of classical studies, patristics, and comparative literature, will find in Rereading the Renaissance a solid contribution to their interests.
Carol Everhart Quillen is Associate Professor of History, Rice University.
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A comprehensive new reading of Petrarch's lyric collection known as the Canzoniere or Rime sparse, the work that stands at the origins of the dominant tradition of European Renaissance poetry. Unlike many other considerations of Petrarch's poetry, this study takes into account through close reading the vast majority of the 366 poems included in the collection. At the same time it adopts a range of intertextual perspectives. It emphasizes the position of the Rime within Petrarch's own varied literary corpus and in relation to his precursors both classical and vernacular. New insights emerge into his transgressions and evasions of the primary Ovidian myth in the collection, into his engagement with Dante, and into his adaptation of the motifs of the romance quest. Sturm-Maddox also explores Petrarch's creation of a personal myth of poetic origins, one centered in Valchiusa as the locus of an amorous epiphany, and in the shade of the laurel as the locus of the production of rime sparse. Ample notes complement the text, and English translations of the Italian poetry are included. Sara Sturm-Maddox is Professor of French and Italian at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and author of several books, including Petrarch's Metamorphoses: Text and Subtext in the Rime Sparse (Missouri, 1985). ... Read more