The Father of Humanism In Love With Laura

Miniature from Petrarca's songbook "Canzoniere" depicting Laura de Noves
crowning the poet (15th c.).Florence. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana

I attended an online presentation "Of glorious and generous fame : The lasting influence of Francesco Petrarca" which was one of the the Wednesday Lectures from the British Institute of Florence Library,

The 14th-century poet and man of letters, Francesco Petrarca (better known as Petrarch) is often referred to as the "Father of Humanism."

Petrarch’s work anticipated many themes of the Renaissance, including a sensitivity to nature, the desire for earthly fame, and a close rapport with classical literature. Renaissance Humanism was an intellectual movement typified by a revived interest in the classical world and studies that focussed not on religion but on what it is to be human.

Its origins went back to 14th-century Italy and such authors as Petrarch (1304-1374) who searched out 'lost' ancient manuscripts. By the 15th century, humanism had spread across Europe. Humanists believed in the importance of an education in classical literature

The trio of Italian authors who lived before the Renaissance period had even begun were Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, and Giovanni Boccaccio. All three would receive new interest in their work during the Renaissance when they were recognized as its founding fathers.

I never studied Petrarch from that perspective. I was introduced to him through the story of him meeting in 1327 at a mass in Avignon where he saw Laura de Noves, for the first time. Laura, though her true identity has yet to be confirmed, would become the primary subject of his poetry for the rest of his life.

I learned about his love and his sonnets. His poem “If no love is, O God, what fele I so?” is here translated by Geoffrey Chaucer.

If no love is, O God, what fele I so?
And if love is, what thing and which is he?
If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo?
If it be wikke, a wonder thynketh me,
When every torment and adversite
That cometh of hym, may to me savory thinke,
For ay thurst I, the more that ich it drynke.
And if that at myn owen lust I brenne,
From whennes cometh my waillynge and my pleynte?
If harm agree me, whereto pleyne I thenne?
I noot, ne whi unwery that I feynte.
O quike deth, O swete harm so queynte,
How may of the in me swich quantite,
But if that I consente that it be?
And if that I consente, I wrongfully
Compleyne, iwis. Thus possed to and fro,
Al sterelees withinne a boot am I
Amydde the see, betwixen wyndes two,
That in contrarie stonden evere mo.
Allas! what is this wondre maladie?
For hete of cold, for cold of hete, I dye.