Petrarch - The World's First Influencer - Father Of The Renaissance - Creator Of The Sonnet - And The World's First Tourist! - a podcast by Christy and Garry Shriver

Petrarch - Father Of The Renaissance - Creator Of The Sonnet - And The World's First Tourist!

 

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver.  We’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.

 

I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This week is our poetry supplement that we like to do between books.  Next week we’re going to begin our discussion of Arthur Miller and his allegorical work “The Crucible”, but before we leave the Renaissance, we felt we needed to take at least one week to discuss the man who is credited for starting the Renaissance= at least in part- the humanist part of it-- Francesco Petrarca or as we say in English Petrarch.  Christy, this is one man that is so differently studied in the field of history versus your field or the study of literature- a testimony to his incredible influence, no doubt.

 

So true, although everything intersects in the Renaissance- they were all renaissance men, of course!!  But I neglected to point out and it was something worth mentioning that Machiavelli ends the prince quoting Petrarch’s famous poem, Canzone 128- a beautiful poem where Petrarch calls Italy to unity-

 

The lines- 

 Virtue against fury
Shall take up arms; and the fight be short; 
For ancient valour
Is not dead in Italian hearts.

 

 It’s somewhat strange concept in the 1300s – which is when Petrarch lived two hundred years BEFORE Machiavelli- maybe even strange for the 1500s and Machiavelli’s day but a dream Machiavelli shared with Petrarch for their homeland- as they viewed it not just as Tuscany but as Italy. 

 

There is so much strangeness involving with Francesco Petrarch, I really don’t know where to start.  First of all 700 years is so long ago- for an American- we can’t even think of history being that old.  On our land, the inhabitants were different than those of Europe.  The world was so different.  Our history locks up that far back because of lack of information really.    My colleague and dear friend Bill Bivens who teaches AP European History talks of Petrarch and his important influence on humanistic thought- which as we remember from the intro to Machiavelli episode- is this idea that Italians were going to revive the works of the Greeks and Latins- and Petrarch did this.  Petrarch firmly believed that believing in Jesus Christ was not at odds with ancient classical thought and through his work he sought to make this important connection between the two ways of looking at the world- a way that for many during the previous era seemed to be at odds or heretical.  People thought that if you were a Christian you didn’t accept anything secular and the ideas of the ancient thinkers were invalid BECAUSE they were not Christian- even today for some- religion and secular thought are at odds but in his day that was a crazy proposition.  In an European history class you will likely read  of Petrarch’s ascent up Mt. Vintoux.  You may even read his famous letter supposedly written to a priest he used to confess his sins to,  documenting this climb up the mountain that he claimed he did just to see the view.  

 

Christy, explain why do you say supposedly- 

 

Good question and one that looms over everything Petrarch- Petrarch addressed the letter to his confessor like it was a private meditation of sorts, but then he circulated it all over the place making it the very public piece of writing that we read to this day.  So, there you go- the reason for that-id something I want to talk about.  But as far as climbing Mt Vintoux goes,  Petrarch’s climb up the mountain is extremely famous, Petrarch is even considered to be the informal patron saint of mountaineering.   

 

I know it’s a tangent, but for those of us who have never been to Southern France, I think it’s worth mentioning that Mont Ventoux is a famous mountain in the South of France that we know better today because part of the Tour de France- the bike ride.  Geographically it stands out kind of by itself, so you can see it from all around.  It’s also unique because the peak covered in limestone making it look like it’s covered in snow all year, even though it’s not.  It’s considered one of the most grueling parts of the race,  Today of course, most people drive to the top.  Regardless, Petrarch’s climb to the top, is the first of thousands of pilgrimages up this famous mountain with the purpose of going up there just to see the view.  

 

As he likely intended, I believe.  Petrarch is considered to be the first tourist- not necessarily because he climbed Mt. Ventoux, but because he’s the first person to document traveling solely for pleasure- so there you go- that’s a even bigger trend that caught on,  But of course, most of his time was spent doing a lot of scholarly work primarily in Latin much of which nobody but scholars ever reads anymore but his ideas have disseminated through a lot of writers who read him- for example, Machiavelli.  A good example of this is the phrase- “The Dark Ages”- he coined that phrase and people use it to this day to refer to the Middle Ages.

 

It’s a terribly condescending term really, of course it doesn’t offend the people of the middle ages because they’re obviously dead- but Middle Age scholars will  tell you it was definitely NOT a dark period at all.  Lots of great things were done; great thinking, great art, etc.  But Petrarch thought that because it was age right before his- the term itself is a great illustration of this idea I hammer down all the time and that is that we all must guard ourselves against the arrogance of the present – it’s not just something we do only in the 21st century- everyone of every era always thinks their understanding or their view of the world is always the most enlightened, the most progressive and the final say on all things moral and scientific- we like to think of ourselves as superior to our immediate predecessors- and, we still use the technique of renaming things as a means to assert this kind of thinking.  I call this the “arrogance of the present”. 

 

Well, Petrarch, if he saw himself as nothing else, he saw himself as enlightened and progressive- and really and truly- there is no doubt that he was. He absolutely has made a name for himself in the realm of history and philosophy and not to forget moutaineering- but for us English sorts- we view his most lasting legacy to be in the form of a tiny little literary convention we call the sonnet- which is a tad ironic- and something I’m not sure he would even like.  He wrote this meandering epic poem called Africa in Latin and dedicated it to Robert of Naples.  It seems to me he thought it was going to be a triumphal expression of a lasting legacy but it’s  unreadable to almost everyone.  Not so with the sonnet-which is so much simpler and accessible   The word sonnet itself- is, in simple terms- is Italian for little song.  It’s a small 14 line exercise really- a literary game- in some ways- if you want to look at it that way- where language meets math.  Honestly, almost anyone that has been subjected to an English literature class was introduced to the sonnet- and lots of us had that teachers who made you write your own- and that can be really rough.  Most students like reading them better than other things- if for nothing else but that they are short.  They are way better received than the epic poems.  Garry, do you remember reading sonnets in school?  Did you by any chance write one?  Perhaps to a true love.  

 

I’ll let you make up whatever you want here.

 

The sonnet is a form of literary sodoku- if you ask me, although that’s not a scientific or scholarly description.  Petrarch picked up the form from his home country in Tuscany, maybe even a guy from Arezzo named Friar Guittane – although, in case you were wondering, a different man, a man from Sicily by the name of Giacomo Lentini gets credit for inventing the sonnet- anyway– Petrarch made them famous by blasting out hundreds of them in praise of a woman named Laura- and that is what strikes me as strange about him.   No one knows anything about Paura, we aren’t even entirely sure she ever existed.

 

So you’re saying the object of his love in hundreds of poems – the muse that gave birth to the poetic form of expressing true love for the last 700 years was potentially made up.  

That’s whaty I’m saying.  It’s a mystery.   He claimed he loved this mysterious woman named Laura until her death, but according to Petrarch, she never loved him back- it was the ultimate expression of an unrequited love of a lifetime.  But I’ll be honest- the identity of Laura is just one of the many mysteries of this man who documented his own life 700 years ago better than I’m documenting the lives of my children in the age of cameras and cellphones.  In fact, Earnest Wilkins in his book Life of Petrarch has gone so far to say that we “know far more about his experiences in life than about the experiences of any human being who had lived before his time.”  Except- although that’s true in the sense that he documented himself constantly- maybe we do or maybe we don’t really know him.  For me. Petrarch’s story  is worth revisiting in our modern world- not just because he’s had an important influence on modern thought in terms of humanistic thinking and all that- but there’s an even more relevant reason and very modern reason to give him some thought…let me take a small detour to tell you where I’m going with this-.In 2017, the College Board asked almost 500,000 high school juniors from American and international schools around the world to consider a quote from the book Empire of Illusions by Chris Hedges/. They had 40 mins to write an essay about it- one of three they had to write to get a semester of college credit on the AP exam.  Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, a presbyterian minister, and extremely interesting lecturer- worth checking out on youtube, if you’re so inclined, but he makes this claim that students were asked to write about.  He says this…

The most essential skill in political theater and a consumer culture is artifice. Political leaders, who use the tools of mass propaganda to create a sense of faux intimacy with citizens, no longer need to be competent, sincere, or honest. They need only to appear to have these qualities. Most
of all they need a story, a personal narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts. The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount. Those who are best at deception succeed. Those who have not mastered the art of entertainment, who fail to create a narrative or do not have one fashioned for them by their handlers, are ignored. They become “unreal.” 

An image-based culture communicates through narratives, pictures, and pseudo-drama. 

Before Chris Hedges introduced that term to me, I had never in my life heard the word ‘artifice’- now I can’t help but see it everywhere- and if you read his book or listen to his lectures on youtube, you’ll walk away frightened as to many of the conclusions he draws from our modern use of artifice.  Although I’m not sure Hedges would disagree with Petrarch’s use of it and I’m sure Machiavelli would TOTALLY agree with it.   I bring  up Hedges because Petrarch, from my vantage points is one of the first people to masterfully use artifice not only to become one of the most celebrated and influential men of his time- this guy was so celebrated he was asked to be the Poet Laureate of both France and Rome- and his artifice has carried him 700 years into history- into Gloria to use Machiavelli’s language.  He crafted a narrative about his own life- that was NOT his life.  It was based on his life, but he revised his letters so that our memory of him was a better version than the reality of him- he used an Instagram filter…before Instram.  And just like 16 year old Charlie Demelio  with her 100 million plus subscribers, he did it with no handlers, no corporate promoters or professional image makers-  

 

 Petrarch did it without Tiktok, though.

 

 True, but it took him longer.  He crafted his own personal narrative and revised it over  and over again so his perfectly crafted life to survive for posterity- if you look into it you’ll see that much of what he said about himself lots of scholars will say is likely made up- or at least embellished- Petrarch when it comes to celebrity makes Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton look like amateur artifice makers. Honestly- will there be podcasts about them in 700 years?  He had an extreme amount of ego and ambition and those two things drove him to craft a self-portrait for the ages that was exactly what he wanted it to be.  But now 700 years later, we have to wonder, did he really control his narrative into posterity- is that possible- and if it is, why bother doing it?  Is there something to be gained by giving his any attention in today’s world?  These are the thoughts I’ve had this week as I’ve thought about what I wanted to say about this man who most of us know because of the mystifying woman he called Laaauuuura….

 

Oh yes- I think her name is definitely worth repeating many times – Laauuurrraaaa…..

 

 Garry, let’s go back and see where Lauuurraaaa came from- drop us into Petrarch’s 14th century world and let’s build our case that Petrarch is the original influencer!!

 

Okay- well, it starts rather undramatically- and of course, from Florence.  His father was a lawyer but was exiled- sound familiar- they moved to a town called Arezzo not too far down the road still in Tuscany- and as you like to recall- still in the wine country.

 

I have to interject- Arezzo, the shoe brand, is one of my personal favorites.  

 

Of course, and not to take away from the Brazilian shoe company because nothing can detract from outstanding leather fashion, but I did want to say that Dante- the guy who wrote Dante’s Inferno also is one of those who can claim being exiled from Florence.  Anyway, Francesco was born on July 20, 1304.  His parents, not too long after moved to Avignon, France.  Now, they didn’t just move to France for the wine and cheese- although that’s been a draw for millions since.  But, there’s a specific reason people were moving to Avignon at this time.  The Papal state had been exiled out of Rome, if you can believe it, and the Pope was taking residence and leading the church from Avignon.  Petrarch’s father was a lawyer in need of work, so he headed there to try to get a job.  Avignon at the time was really too small for the number of people that were trying to move there, so the family really lived in a place about 15 miles away called Carpentras- but in the general area.   Now the reason we even bother with knowing all that is two-fold- first of all- it is in Avignon that Petrarch is going to fall in love with Laura- and it is with Laurrra that we will end our discussion today.  But secondly, it’s here Petrarch found his first love- and one he would pursue well beyond Laura’s lifetime- his love of Latin. Petrarch wanted and would eventually spend his entire life devoted to studying, transcribing, hunting down manuscripts in Latin, thinking about and reviving interest in the classics that were written in Latin.  He was especially enamoured with Virgil.   Petrarch because his father insisted went to law school in the town of Montpellier which also is in Southern France but he didn’t stay there- not too long after that he transferred to a school in Bologna, which is in Italy…but he didn’t stay there either.  In reality, Petrarch never stayed anywhere for too long.  But in the cawe of law school, as soon as his father died in 1326, his career in law immediately went away.  He famously said, and I quote, “I couldn’t face making a merchandise of my mind.”  

 

Oh yes- and I have to take over from here because we have gotten to that sacred moment- the moment that has changed the lives of lovers for the last 700 years- the moment where life and art meet to immortalize the sonnet, to immortalitalize unrequited love- it’s the moment that will leave Olympic laurel leaves on the heads of students forevermore following in Petrarch’s footsteps….drumrole the date that will live not in infamy- but in sacred nobility- the date- April 6, 1327- for it is on this date-  that the flames of love are ignited, let me quote Petrarch here as he recalls this moment: “As a young man I was afflicted by a single love that was both fiery and pure, it would have lasted longer had it not been extinguished when the flames had already begun to burn low, by a death that was bitter but a lesson to me.”

 

So, let’s be clear, he’s claiming that he fell in love with a woman on April 6 1327 and stayed madly in love with her until she died.

 

That is his claim.  Let me further quote him, “Laura, so renowned for her own virtues and so much celebrated in my poetry, was first manifested to my eyes when I was a young man, in the church of Ste Claire in Avignon, at prime on 6 April 1327.  In the same city, this world was deprived of her radiance at that same first hour, 6 April 1348. I happened at the time to be in Verona, unaware of my sorrowful fate.”  So, here’s the deal- Petrarch is claiming to have been in love with this woman for 21 years.  Laura is the inspiration for 366 love poems- 317 of them sonnets.  These sonnets, as we are going to understand, will define love poetry, some would argue for almost 700 years.  They discuss pure love, idealized love, unrequited love.  Some would argue, and in fact, it’s almost uncontested that Petrarch’s lyric poetry codified the Italian language- and they are all centered around this woman- who is NOT the mother of his children (although he has some and we don’t know who their mother is)- but that aside.  The beauty of the lyrics are almost unsurpassed- this also is almost uncontested.  And I want to add- this is something English speakers really can’t weigh in on- because when you translate a lyric poem- we lose all the beauty of the language- obviously the rhymes are messed up, the euphony of the sounds isn’t the same- but here’s my point- there is absolutely no question that Petrarch wrote over 300 of Italy’s most beautiful poems to a woman named laura. But it’s strange. We don’t  knows for sure if Laura is actually a human or if he just made her up- and either way- why do it?  

 

 It’s historically very ambiguous.  In truth we basically only have Petrarch’s word for her.  We don’t know her family name, although a French scholar in 1533 named Maurice Sceve made a very legitimate claim that Laura was from a little town called Vaucluse and even excavated  remains from a grave that gives some credence to this possibility.  

 

Another theory is that she’s this woman named Laura de Noves who was the wife of Count Hugues de Sade.  Boccacio, the writer of the Decameron but a close friend of Petrarch, thought maybe Laura was an allegory of the crown of bay which is a symbol of triumph- think Olympics remember if you win you get to win a crown of leaves- well that’s called a laurel- - it’s interesting that one of his closest friends would see it that way.  Petrarch had just won the laurel the year before.  

 

Well, it IS weird, there’s no denying the strangeness of having the most self-documenting men in Western history document everything except not that woman he’s in love with that no one can find who is not the mother of his children- and let me say- he was close to his  children.  His daughter Francesca and her husband were very important figures in his life.  But I will say, by the 1440s, historically, people have just accepted that there was a woman named Laura- and we have just kind of gone with it from there.  There were a couple of places that were identified as possible birth places and the myth has kind of taken a life of it’s own.  By the 1600s people were saying that she was a virgin and there were people starting to make portraits of her..and the story has just gone on from there.  In some sense, it really doesn’t matter now, if it ever did.  If she existed, it was only as a muse.  They never had a real relationship.  If she didn’t, she was still an idea.  And it’s the idea of the pains and torments that he’s expressed in the sonnets that has taken off.  

 

That’s certainly true, there was a guy name Thomas Wyatt, who lived in the 1500s.  He, like Petrarch was well-traveled.  He is credited for bringing sonnets from Italy to the UK.  He not only translated many of Petrarch’s sonnets, but he wrote a lot of his own modeling his work after Petrarch- another fun fact about Wyatt is that he may have had his own Laauurraa .

 

Exactly- If you’ve heard that name, you may recognize it from a movie or two about Henry  VIII because Wyatt was rumored to have had romantic connections with Anne Bolyne and almost got himself killed over it, but that’s another mystery for another day.  

 

Anyway, the broader point is this- Petrach had an incredibly important impact on the way people began to think in terms of science, history and the way it merges with faith.  He thought deeply about the world- he believed that God created man with a mind and it was not unscientific and un-honoring to God NOT to use it. 

 

 He merged science and religion that changed so much about the world.  His mind was logical; it was powerful; and he thought very very deeply and because of that He had a message to get out to the world-- And yet, in order to ensure that people heard him he found it important to create a narrative- to use artifice- to use Chris Hedges language- and the story of Petrarch and Laura, is a part of that effort.  And the love narrative of Petrarch and Laura has taken on a life of its own.  There have been hundreds of paintings of the untouchable Laura.  Liszt, the composer composed beautiful music, google it, inspired by Petrarch’s poetry for Laura. 

Petrarch, the father of Humanism, the original tourist, the patron saint of mountaineering, the poet laurente of Rome- wrote an imaginary love story- took an old troubadour troupe stuffed it in 14 lines of rhyming iambic pentameter and it has propelled him and his ideas into a part of the the history of the world- almost every educated person on planet earth knows about this little diddly do…it sounds like I’m grandizing his legacy but really I’m truly amazed by it- so here’s the first Petrarchean sonnet I ever read- after that we’ll read a second one- the first one is about Petrarch loving Laura and the pain of knowing he can never have her.  In the second one, Laura’s dead.  Garry, will you read it for us, after you read it, I’ll explain a little bit about the math behind the words- I won’t get too much into the theme because we just don’t have time for everything and for once the technique is more interesting to me than the ideas.  

Sure- this is sonnet 104 

 

I find no peace and bear no arms for war,

  I fear, I hope; I burn yet shake with chill;

  I fly the Heavens, huddle to earth’s floor,

   Embrace the world, yet all I grasp is nil.

  Love opens not nor shuts my prison’s door

   Nor claims me his nor leaves me to my will;

  He slays me not yet holds me evermore,

   Would have me lifeless yet bound to my ill. (END OF OCTAVE)

  Eyeless I see and tongueless I protest.

  And long to perish while I succor seek;

Myself I hate and would another woo.

  I feed on grief, I laugh with sob-racked breast

 And death and life alike to me are bleak:

  My lady, thus I am because of you.

(END OF SESTET)

 

So, this is the way Petrarchean sonnets work: like all sonnets – well I say all sonnets- but that’s so not true- I should say- like most sonnets- it has 14 lines. The lines are divided into two parts- the first part is called the octave and the second part is called the sestet- 8 and 6- and yes- I have to use my fingers to do the math.  

 

But then you get into the rhmning part- each line ends with a rhyme- and this is where English and Italian part ways.  English isn’t a very good language for rhyming- Italian words rhyme better-  But for this one we have line one which ends with war- so we’ll call that rhyme a- the second line doesn’t rhyme with war- so we’ll call it rhyme b- but then the third line rhymes with the first line and we have what we call a rhyme scheme.  So the rhyme scheme for the English translation of this poem is ababababcdecde.    

 

There are a couple of variations- sometimes the rhyme sequence is abba abba – sometimes it ends with cdc cdc.  The second one we’re reading does the rhymes that way- so you can see the difference- or at least hear the difference.  Of course, even though the rules are kind of strict- you can always break any rule you want.  The main thing to look for is the shifte between the first 8 lines and the second six- this shift is called the volta- which means the turn in Italian.

It’s A turn of thought or argument, a rhetorical shift if you look at the poem as making a position- which id does. It’s a dramatic change in emotions or thoughts that the poet is expressing in the poem. The first part asks a question; the second part gives the answer.  

 

Let’s read this second one.  

 

O lovely little bird, I watch you fly,     A

 And grieving for the past I hear you sing. B

 I see the night and winter hastening,          B

 I see the day and happy summer die.          A

If you could hear my heart in answer cry. A

 Its pain to your sad tune, you’d swiftly wing. B

 Into my bosom, comfort you would bring   B

And we would weep together, you and I.        A

 

‘Tis no equality of woe I fear;                   C

Perhaps she lives whom you bewail; from me.  D

 Have greedy death and heaven snatched my dear,   C

But the dark autumn evening hour sets free     D

The memory of many a banished year.    C

 So that let us talk of the past then, tenderly.  D

You see- this second one divides up the poem differently.  It has the ABBA, ABBA, CDCDCD thing going on.  But in both cases, and this is what makes the Petrachean sonnets different from the Shakespearean ones- you’ll see the clear break between the first 8 and the last six where you create tension in the first half and you relieve it in the second half.  

 

I know I’m focusing on form way more than what he meant by the poems.  But sonnets are interesting because of their form.  The other thing I want to point out, and this is what makes them harder for us to write in English, although I will say, rhyming is quite a quick. But the beat of the words.  They are all in what we call iambic pentameter- and as we’ve talked about with Ozymndias and other poems and even with Romeo and Juliet- it’s the beat of the language that really stands out.  And it’s something we don’t hear often in our own language, we don’t notice it- but if we change languages we do.  Now, I don’t speak Italian, I’d love to, but I do speak Portuguese which is also a romance language, and I think the beats are much more evident in Romance languages- we’re at least more aware of them to point that in Portuguese we physically put accent marks on accented words.  Let me illustrate- Quando eu Ensino essa ideia na minha sala de aula eu sempre falo em portugues porque os alunos nunca entendem o que estou falando e quando nao entendem da para ourvir com mais clareza os acentos das palavras.  Could you hear that?  Garry, what did that sound like to you.

 

Whatever you want to say here.

 

Yes-  It’s the sound of the words- the beat, the rhythm the way the words sound together- it’s what makes it pretty. And really, that’s what Petrarch is really known for in Italian- he makes the sound of the words pretty.  It has to do with the beat of the words.  Now back to Iambic pentameter- I want to go back to the first sonnet because just because it’s famous and we haven’t talked about it.  

 

I find no peace and bear no arms for war,

 

Listen to the beat- every other word is accented- listen again to this one

 

  I fear, I hope; I burn yet shake with chill;  (sound this out)

This is why I say sonnets are where English becomes a math game- kind of like scrabble is a math game but deceptively with words.  Sonnets are strictly constructed to confirm to specific rules, and it’s the confinement of the form that makes them fun to write.  Try to make something meaningful- and make it rhyme just like that and make it have that same beat.  It’s definitely not impossible, almost anyone can do it.  In fact, I would say every English speaker can do it. Today there’s even an app for that- but that is cheating.  The fun is in the mental gymnatistics and when you finish you come out with something beautiful.  Years that I teach poetry, which is not every year, but when I do, I make my students write sonnets.  One year, my kids just grumbled and grumbled more than usual- and said I was aksing them to do something I was incapable of doing- so I sat down and wrote one for them.  I found it the other day- if you wan’t I’ll share my Petrarchean sonnet on the web page.  I wrote it about my lost love for the stork.  If you’re interested.

 

Well, of course I’m interested, how could I, as your husband not be interested in any love of yours- and I’m sorry to say, I did’t know you had feelings for the stork.

 

Oh yes- it’s a thing that really happened.  

 

Ha- well, before we get to that fine ending.  We do need to circle back to Petrarch- and I want to kind of go back to our discussion about Mt. Vintoux- because like you were saying about the sonnet, Petrarch’s influence on the way we think is so embedded into our culture that we don’t often see it.  By linking pagan learning in the classics to Christianity he links the issue of the relationship to that of the importance of the intellect with the will of knowing compared to loving.  This has played out in so many in our Western ways of thinking- he discusses issues of morality with issues of pursing truth, wisdom and love.  His genius really left him isolated in many ways in fact he advocated for a scholar to live in solitude.  And yet, I can tell, it really disturbs you that so much of what he said about himself wasn’t really technically true.  

 

It kind of does disturb me.  Why rewrite your life in your letters?  Why create a romantic fantasy for a woman that may or may not have existed but either way you certainly didn’t know her?  Why climb a mountain and write about it in a way that is likely to challenge your credibility as to whether you even did the thing you say you did?

 

Yes- and I think the term you used was artifice. He created a narrative.  But here is where I say, it’s possible to look at Petrarch differently than we look at modern day influencers like Jake Paul or any number of the youtubers that are influencers for fame’s sake.  First of all, the idea of making metaphors out of life experiences is something artists do this all the time- and both in the case of Mt Vintoux as well as in the case of Laura that’s what he’s done.  He’s made the real things symbols of very deep ideas that were swimming in his head.  Here’s a simple but modern example from our very own hills of Tennessee.  Think about Dolly Parton- the songs that she writes are about her life- in part- but not all- take the song, “I will Always Love You”- she wrote it about a platonic relationship with her business partner, but Whitney  sang it about a romantic partner- words are crafted by the artist- but a smart artist knows they words become someone else’s story immediately when they read it.    

 

However, that doesn’t answer the question as to why he rewrote the accounts of his life, his letters, even the ascent to Mt Ventoux- there’s obviously only a part of it. 

 

  Let’s look at the sonnet he wrote about Laura- the first one we read was about the torture of feeling a love that you don’t want to feel and know you can’t have- there is pain in that.  Most of us on planet earth have felt that.  The Laura metaphor whether she lived or didn’t- speaks for us all and he wanted to speak for us all.  The second sonnet is about the loss of death- does the same thing.  But let’s look at what he’s done by climbing Mt Vintoux.  The metaphor is the mountain- what is that about- his determination to climb the mountain is an expression of humanism- the movement he’s credited for starting.  He climbed it for the sake of knowing- how nice- and what a nice thing to aspire to in life- for all of us.  We can climb for the sake of knowing- he found happiness there- it’s a physical and a spiritual and an intellectual experience.  Petrarch wanted to not just be the man who knows- but the happy man who is skilled enough and daring enough to live purposefully, understanding the pains and joys of life but finding enough beauty to sustain these hits.

 

And it is the art of artifice- crafting thee narrative that gave longevity and emotion to the ideas he had inside- a truly complicated man.  Well, before we end- there is one final mystery we should bring.  In 1981, a professor by the name of Professor Terribile Wiel Marin in honor of Petrarch’s 700th bday opened Petrarch’s tomb.  The idea was to excavate his body so they could through modern technology recreate what he actually looked like.  Now here’s the crazy part, when they dug up the body what they found was that the body was definitely his, but his head had been decapitated and a head from a different body was in the grave.  The head from the grave- even more strangely, is the head of a woman.  Any thoughts on that?  I KNOW Petrarch couldn’t possibly couldn’t have created that!!!

Ha!- well, maybe he didn’t or maybe he did…..how could we ever know!!!!  Maybe it’s LAAAUUURRAA.  

 

 

 

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