Portrait of Francesco Petrarch

Francesco Petrarch

1304 – 1374

Francesco Petrarca was an Italian scholar and poet who is regarded by many scholars as being among the first humanists. He contributed to the Renaissance flowering of lyric poetry and literature through his poems addressed to Laura, his idealized beloved.

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Petrarch’s love of classical authors and learning inspired him to visit men of learning and search monastic libraries for classical texts. His discovery of several of Cicero’s letters encouraged the revival of the Ciceronian style that characterized Renaissance humanistic education.

Petrarch featured as the July 2022 OLL Birthday. Read it here

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