Although PETRARCH assumed that his great lasting
fame would come from his works in Latin, in particular his epic Africa on the exploits of his favorite
hero, Scipio Africanus, his reputation today rests
chiefly on his lyric poetry in the vernacular, a collection of short poems he referred to as “trifles” in
a letter two years before his death. Petrarch never
gave this collection of 366 Italian lyrics a proper
title, referring to them as Rerum vulgarium frag-
menta (Fragments of things in the vernacular), but
they have become known to modern readers by the
name Rime sparse (Scattered verse), or more often
by the title Canzoniere (Song book). The chief
theme of the collection is Petrarch’s love for the
beautiful Laura, though the real subject of the
poems is Petrarch’s own psyche: his emotions and
aspirations as revealed in his expressions of love—
in particular the inner conflict between his desire
for worldly greatness and fame and his desire for
heavenly reward.
Of the 366 poems in the standard edition of
the Canzoniere, 317 are SONNETS. Petrarch also includes 29 longer canzoni, as well as three more
elaborate forms—nine sestinas, seven ballatas,
and four madrigals. Of these poems, the vast majority are essentially love poems to the lady Laura,
the paragon of beauty and excellence. Some 37
poems take other subjects, including the virtue
of fame, religious and moral issues, political
themes including Petrarch’s love of Italy and desire to resurrect the glory of the city of Rome, and
matters concerning his friends or patrons. Other
themes run through all of the poems, as Petrarch
muses on the transience of earthly things, the
ravages of time, and the virtues of peace and
tranquillity.
Petrarch underscores this transience by relating
the death of his beloved Laura. He first met her, he
tells us, on Good Friday, April 6, 1327, and she died
on Easter Sunday, the same date 21 years later, probably during the BLACK DEATH. Manuscript tradition
as old as the 16th century divides the Canzoniere
into the first 263 poems, referred to as In vita di
Madonna Laura (The Lady Laura in Life) and the
last 103, called In morte di Madonna Laura (The
Lady Laura after Death). While the titles and specific
divisions were not made by Petrarch, they do reflect
his own careful ordering of the poems.
Despite Petrarch’s protestations to the contrary,
he seems to have been keenly interested in the texts
of his “trifles,” as evidenced by his own manuscript
copy of the poems, still extant in the Vatican library.
This manuscript contains a significant number of
notes and corrections to the poems, as well as marginal annotations that reflect a meticulous concern
for the precise ordering of the 366 lyrics. Scholars
have determined that the text of the Canzoniere
went through at least nine revisions over a 30-year
period, indicating that each poem in the collection
has been placed where it is in the final ordering
with a particular purpose in mind. The poems of
the first part concern the poet’s love for the living
Laura, epitome of all that is admirable. They focus,
however, not on her but on the poet’s reactions to
her—the paradoxical effects of a love that is both
pleasurable and painful at the same time:
. . . blessed be the first sweet agony
I felt when I found myself bound to Love,
the bow and all the arrows that have
pierced me;
the wounds that reach the bottom of my
heart.
(Petrarch 1985, 35, ll. 5–8)
In poem 264, the canzone that begins the second
part of the text, Petrarch wonders how after Laura’s
death he can go on with his own life, drawn to the
eternal reward of Christian love but still earthbound through his love of Laura:
for with death at my side
I seek new rules by which to lead my life,
and see the best, but still cling to the worst.
(Petrarch 1985, 63, ll. 134–136)
As the collection ends (poem 365), the poet asks
God to forgive his soul for straying from the eternal good to the mortal, earthly good that was
Laura:
I go my way regretting those past times
I spent in loving something which was
mortal
instead of soaring high, since I had wings
that might have taken me to higher levels.
(Petrarch 1985, 77, ll. 1–4)
Just what Laura represents in the text is a matter of some debate. Since few details of Laura’s life
are ever revealed, some critics have suggested that
she is purely a symbol, specifically of the laurel, the
tree whose branches served as the symbol of fame
and glory. A number of early poems in the collection use the imagery of Apollo and Daphne, whom
the god turned into a laurel tree, suggesting that
this connection was intended. Whether she existed
or not, love for Laura is, in the text, a love for
worldly glory, and Petrarch’s poems to her are the
means by which that glory can be achieved. The
reader finds, even in the second part of the collection, self-conscious references to the act of writing,
expressing the paradox that Laura’s death has rendered him unable to write, but his love forces him
to write; ultimately writing of his love causes him
suffering, but also soothes his pain. The poems
also preserve his love, and in doing so preserve the
poet’s worldly reputation, gaining fame for both
the poet and his inspiration.
Throughout his Italian poems, Petrarch reveals
the influence of DANTE as well as other vernacular
poets like CAVALCANTI and CINO DA PISTOIA. One
can also see echoes of classical poets like Ovid, Virgil, and Catullus, as well as TROUBADOURS like ARNAUT DANIEL and BERNART DE VENTADORN. But
Petrarch’s own influence on subsequent centuries
was more profound than that of any of these poets.
Although ultimately the poet of the Canzoniere rejects worldly endeavors in favor of Christian salvation, the tension between the two desires and the
paradoxes caused by his attempt to reconcile
worldly and heavenly love struck a responsive
chord in the Renaissance and led to Petrarch’s huge
popularity throughout Europe during that time.
Bibliography
Bloom, Harold, ed. Petrarch. Introduction by Harold
Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1989.
Mann, Nicholas. Petrarch. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1984.
Petrarch, Francis. The Canzoniere, or, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta. Translated with notes and commentary by Mark Musa. Introduction by Mark
Musa with Barbara Manfredi. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
———. Selections from the Canzoniere and Other
Works. Translated with an introduction and notes
by Mark Musa. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1985.
Roche, Thomas P., Jr. Petrarch and the English Sonnet
Sequences. New York: AMS Press, 1989.
Trinkaus, Charles. The Poet as Philosopher: Petrarch
and the Formation of Renaissance Consciousness.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979.