Petrarch Meets Laura
"Petrarch Meets Laura" refers to a pivotal moment in literary history that occurred on April 6, 1327, when Italian scholar Francesco Petrarch first saw Laura, believed to be Laura de Noves, in a church in Avignon, France. This encounter ignited a profound and lifelong passion that inspired Petrarch to write over 300 sonnets, songs, and lyrics, primarily in Italian. His poetry not only celebrates Laura but also delves into the complexities of unrequited love, reflecting his emotional depth and psychological insight. Some scholars argue that Laura may be a fictional or symbolic figure rather than a historical person, yet Petrarch’s vivid portrayals have made her an enduring symbol of idealized love.
As a key figure of the Renaissance and a distinguished humanist, Petrarch is often credited with pioneering the sonnet form, which significantly influenced later poets. His literary contributions also include works in Latin, such as biographies and philosophical dialogues. Petrarch's legacy is marked by his ability to blend personal emotion with classical ideals, showcasing the transformative power of love in art and literature. He was named poet laureate in 1341 and continued to write until his death in 1374, leaving an indelible mark on European literature.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Petrarch Meets Laura
Petrarch Meets Laura
On April 6, 1327, at a church in Avignon, Provence, a young Italian scholar caught a glimpse of the woman he would adore for the rest of his life. His name was Francesco Petrarca, known today as Petrarch, and her name was Laura, possibly Laura de Noves, a young French matron of quality.
According to Petrarch, it was love for Laura that inspired him to poetry, which he wrote in the Italian language, praising the lady, analyzing his hopeless passion, and mourning her death (from plague, in 1348) in the more than 300 sonnets, songs, and lyrics he composed over the course of his life. Some scholars believe that “Laura” was not an actual person but rather a literary construct or perhaps another name for the Muse. If so, Petrarch made her real by writing of her with unusual specificity and by describing his own feelings with candor and psychological insight. The conventions of medieval courtly love, which often involved the worship of an idealized lady, had never acquired such personal warmth and color.
Generally considered the first true Renaissance poet and a humanist of distinction, Petrarch was born in Arezzo, Italy, on July 20, 1304. When he was eight, his family moved to Avignon, where the papacy had temporarily established its headquarters. As a young man Petrarch studied law in Italy, but he returned to Avignon after his father's death to take a position with the Roman Catholic Church. He was probably working for Cardinal Colonna when he first saw Laura at the Church of St. Claire, and he soon made her famous throughout Europe.
Petrarch traveled widely in his younger days, sometimes on diplomatic missions, sometimes in search of classical manuscripts, but in 1353 he returned to Italy for good and lived in various Italian cities for the remainder of his life. He wrote to his Rime, sonnets and odes to Laura, in Italian. His other literary works include a set of biographies of famous men; an epic poem about the Roman general Scipio Africanus; an imaginary dialogue with St. Augustine, in which the poet discloses his conflicting desires for love, fame, and holiness; and a treatise on the solitary life—all in classical Latin, which Petrarch, like most humanists, considered the noblest of languages, as ancient Rome had been the greatest of states. (If only, he argued, Italy were unified, that greatness might be revived.) However, it was his writings in vernacular Italian, and especially his development of the sonnet as a serious poetic form, that made him famous and influenced later authors. In 1341 he was declared a poet laureate by the senate of the city of Rome, in a ceremony copied from antiquity. He died in Arquà on or about July 18, 1374.