to continue his legal studies, and although he excelled
academically, he came to realize that the legal profession
was not for him. Nevertheless, the years in Bologna were
important in his literary and cultural development, for
he befriended a number of other Students and became
familiar with the Italian lyric tradition. On the death of
his father in April 1326, he returned to Avignon.
On Good Friday, 6 April 1327, in the Church of Saint
Clare in Avignon, Petrarch fi rst saw and immediately
fell in love with the woman whom he would call Laura.
This passion would provide inspiration for his poetic
imagination for his entire life. Many poems contained in
the evolving collection known as the Rerum vulgarium
fragmenta or Canzoniere celebrate his love for her, as
well as her symbolic meaning. Her name, Laura—like
that of Dante’s Beatrice (“one who gives blessedness
or salvation”)—was signifi cant in that it suggested the
evergreen laurel tree, sacred to Apollo, and thus the
laurel crown of poetic glory. Throughout the Canzo-
niere, Petrarch engages in elaborate wordplay based on
“Laura,” using such puns as l’aura (“the breeze”) and
aureola (“golden”) to reiterate her importance.
In 1330, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo had al-
most dissipated their inheritance. Refusing to follow law
or medicine as a profession, Petrarch had to fi nd other
employment. Fortunately, he had befriended the bishop
of Lombez, Giacomo Colonna, who recommended Pe-
trarch to his brother Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, who in
turn offered Petrarch a position as personal chaplain in
his household. At Giacomo Colonna’s residence in the
summer of 1330, Petrarch met and became friends with
two other young men: Lello di Pietro Stefano dei Tosetti
from Rome (whom Petrarch nicknamed “Lelius”) and
Ludwig van Kempen (“Socrates”) from Flanders, who
served as chanter in Cardinal Colonna’s chapel. These
and other close friends would be very important to
Petrarch throughout the course of his life.
As a member of the cardinal’s staff, Petrarch was able
to travel and meet many people. In 1333, he traveled to
Paris and, from there, to Ghent, Liège, Aix-la-Chapelle,
Cologne, and Lyon. During these travels he began his
lifelong pursuit of manuscripts containing works by
classical authors, discovering at Liège, for example,
some of Cicero’s orations (Pro Archia). Also in 1333, in
Avignon, Petrarch met the Augustinian monk Dionigi da
Borgo San Sepolcro, who introduced him to the works of
early Christian writers, especially Saint Augustine, and
who gave Petrarch his copy of the Confessions. In a letter
to Dionigi (Familiares, 4.1, dated 26 April 1336), Pe-
trarch gives an account of his and his brother Gherardo’s
ascent of Mont Ventoux. In it he relates, in thinly veiled
allegorical language, how rapidly Gherardo arrives at
the summit (signifying the benefi ts of his monastic
vocation) but how diffi cult his own climb is (signifying
the attraction of earthly things). Finally, arriving at the
summit and overwhelmed by the majesty of the view,
Petrarch opens his copy of Augustine’s Confessions and
reads the following morally oriented monitory sentence:
“And men go about wondering at mountain heights and
the mighty waves of the sea and broad fl owing streams
and the circuit of the sea and the wheeling of the stars:
and to themselves they give no heed” (10.8.15). The
relevance of these words to Petrarch’s own situation
and their call to introspection are obvious: it is always
more diffi cult to ascend the steep path to the good than
it is to wander around in the valleys looking for an easy
route to happiness. This intensely Augustinian moment
demonstrates the great infl uence that the saint had on
Petrarch, not only in literature but also in life.
In January 1335, thanks to a recommendation by
Cardinal Colonna, Petrarch was named by Pope Bene-
dict XII to a canonry in the cathedral of Lombez, an
appointment that supported him fi nancially but did not
require his residence. Sometime before this appoint-
ment, Petrarch had written a long letter in Latin verse
to Pope Benedict XII encouraging Benedict to return to
Rome. This is the fi rst indication we have of Petrarch’s
fi rm belief in the preeminence of Rome as the rightful
seat of both the papacy and the empire. Petrarch fi rst
journeyed to Rome, as a guest of the Colonna family,
late in 1336, and that visit determined his attitude to-
ward the classical past. In a letter to Cardinal Giovanni
Colonna, dated 15 March 1337 (Familiares, 2.14), hePETRARCA, FRANCESCOAltichiero da Zevio (1330–1385). Francesco Petrarca, poet.
Detail from the Burial of Saint Lucia. Fresco (1479–1381).
© Erick Lessing/Art Resource, New York.