Petrarch biography

Known in English as Petrarch, Francesco Petrarca was born at dawn on July 20, , in the city of Arezzo, in central Italy, just south of Florence. The son of Ser Petracco, a merchant and notary public, Petrarch studied law with his brother in Montpellier, France, in , and later in Bologna, Italy.

His primary interest, however, was Latin literature and writing.

Francesco petrarch biography

After the death of his father in , Petrarch abandoned law altogether, later asserting, “I couldn’t face making a merchandise of my mind.” Instead, he served in various clerical positions, which granted him adequate time for his writing and literary studies.

In , in Avignon, Petrarch allegedly encountered Laura de Noves, a woman he fixated on for the rest of his life.

From to , Petrarch wrote poems as part of a sequence, centered on the theme of his love for Laura. The sequence—collected in a canzoniere, or song-book, usually called Rime Sparse, or Scattered Rhymes in English—includes sonnets, a form based on