the occasion. He began to enforce a more strict disci-
pline, attended to fi nances, and traveled often to deal
with problems within the order. He was moderate in
demands, conservative in outlook, conciliatory in ap-
proach, and thoughtful in controversy. Peter became
enmeshed in the controversy between Cistercians and
Cluniacs, which was marked by heated exchanges on
both sides. Peter’s Letter 28, a response (if not directly,
at least in effect) to Bernard of Clairvaux’s Apologia ad
Guillelmum as well as the general Cistercian attack on
Cluniac laxity in discipline and departure from the Rule
of St. Benedict, is a carefully reasoned defense of the
Cluniac way of life and offers one of the best sources
for understanding both the confl ict and the Cluniac
point of view. Peter was no idle defender of the status
quo, however; he actively reformed and strengthened
Cluniac discipline.
Peter wrote against both heresy (the Petrobrusians
[Tractatus adversos Petrobrusianos haereticos]) and
non-Christian religions (Judaism [Adversos Judaeorum
inveteratum duritiem] and Islam [Epistola de trans-
latione sua; Summa totius haeresis Saracenorum]),
After a journey to Spain in 1142, he commissioned a
translation of the Qur’an, the fi rst into Latin, and other
Arabic texts, so that he might better understand Islam in
order to refute it with reason rather than force. In writ-
ing against Judaism, he respected the Hebrew version
of Scripture and argued without special pleading from
Christian Scripture, i.e. the New Testament.
In addition to his numerous journeys in France, Pe-
ter traveled to England (1130 and 1155), Spain (1142;
perhaps 1124 and 1127), and Rome (1139 [Lateran
Council], 1144,1145,1147,1151–52,1154). He extended
the hospitality of Cluny to Peter Ab–lard after Ab–lard’s
condemnation at Sens in 1140. Peter the Venerable wrote
to H–lo+ se a sensitive letter giving a detailed account of
Ab–lard’s last days. In addition to the works mentioned
above, his writings include sermons, liturgical texts (in-
cluding an Offi ce of the Transfi guration), hymns, and a
treatise recounting holy lives (De miraculis). He was an
exemplar of the best of the Benedictine tradition.
See also Abélard, Peter; Bernard of Clairvaux;
Héloïse
Further Reading
Peter the Venerable. Opera omnia. PL 189.61–1054.
——. The Letters of Peter the Venerable, ed. Giles Constable. 2
vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Constable, Giles, ed. Petrus Venerabilis, 1156 – 1956: Studies and
Texts Commemorating the Eighth Centenary of His Death.
Rome: Herder, 1956.
Knowles, David. The Historian and Character. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1963, pp. 50–75.
Grover A. Zinn
PETRARCA, FRANCESCO
(20 July 1304–19 July 1374)
It is a critical commonplace to refer to Dante Alighieri
as the “last medieval man” and to Petrarch (Francesco
Petrarca) as the “fi rst modern man,” but this tends to
obscure the many distinctly “medieval” aspects of
Petrarch’s works. To be sure, Petrarch does anticipate
certain characteristics that are central to our (modern)
understanding of the changeover in attitudes in the
passage from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: the
emphasis on the individual and on secular matters; the
minute investigation of the human psyche; the imitation
of classical literary forms, style, and language; the un-
derstanding of discrete periods in history; and the inter-
est in travel undertaken to see and experience the world.
While all these characteristics suggest Petrarch’s desire
to escape the narrow frame of the religiously and morally
proper medieval world, he repeatedly and simultane-
ously gives evidence of his longing to embrace that same
world and its precepts. This constant state of tension
is what defi nes Petarch’s so-called modern sensitivity
and allows us, his readers, to identify with him and his
seemingly contradictory aspirations; and this sentiment
is aptly presented, over and over, in the Canzoniere. We
fi nd it in the poems themselves, as in the fi nal verses of
canzone 264 (I’ vo pensando): ché co la morte a latol
cerco del viver mio novo consiglio, le veggio ’l meglio
et al peggior m’appiglio (verses 136–136), of which the
fi nal verse is a direct and sympathetic translation from
Ovid (Metamorphoses, 7.20–21). Or we note how Pe-
trarch has ordered the poetic universe of the Canzoniere
by juxtaposing poems that praise, alternately, his love of
earthly things and his profound repentance for such an
attitude, as, for example, in the positioning of the two
sonnets Benedetto sia ‘l giorno, e’ l mese, e l’anno (61)
and Padre del ciel, dopo i perduti giorni (62).
In all of Petrarch’s works, we recognize the acute eye
of the intellectual who carefully observes himself and
the world around him and attempts to make some sense
of the fragile human condition and its immediate and
ultimate purpose within the great order of the cosmos.
It is in this unprecedented focus on his own personal
situation that we may observe Petrarch’s genius and
the human drama played out on a small yet universal
stage.
While most of his works are ultimately about him-
self and are thus full of interesting though stylized and
carefully crafted bits of autobiographical information,
Petrarch did write, late in his life, a Letter to Posterity
(the Latin title is Ad posteros or Posteritati), to future
generations who might be curious to learn more about
him and his life. This fragmentary epistle was fi rst
composed in 1367 and was revised in 1370–1371, yet
the latest event recounted is from 1351. In the letter,PETRARCA, FRANCESCO