The Cambridge Companion to Petrarch

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304–74), best known for his influential collection of Italian lyric poetry dedicated to his beloved Laura, was also a remarkable classical scholar, a deeply religious thinker and a philosopher of secular ethics. In this wide-ranging study, chapters by leading scholars view Petrarch's life through his works, from the epic Africa to the Letter to Posterity, from the Canzoniere to the vernacular epic Triumphi. Petrarch is revealed as the heir to the converging influences of classical cultural and medieval Christianity, but also to his great vernacular precursor, Dante, and his friend, collaborator and sly critic, Boccaccio. Particular attention is given to Petrach's profound influence on the Humanist movement and on the courtly cult of vernacular love poetry, while raising important questions as to the validity of the distinction between medieval and modern and what is lost in attempting to classify this elusive figure.

Chronology; Introduction Albert Russell Ascoli and Unn Falkeid; Part I. Lives of Petrarch: 1. Poetry in motion Theodore J. Cachey, Jr; 2. Petrarch and his friends Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski; Part II. Petrarch's Works: Italian: 3. Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta: structure and narrative Peter Hainsworth; 4. Making the Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta Luca Marcozzi; 5. Petrarch's Singular Love Lyric Ullrich Langer; 6. The Triumphi Zygmunt G. Baranski; Part III. Petrarch's Works: Latin: 7. The Latin hexameter works Ronald L. Martinez; 8. The defense of poetry in the Secretum Victoria Kahn; 9. De Vita Solitaria and De Otio Religioso: the perspective of the guest Unn Falkeid; 10. Epistolary Petrarch Albert Russell Ascoli; Part IV. Petrarch's Interlocutors: 11. Petrarch and the Ancients Gur Zak; 12. Petrarch and the vernacular Lyric past Olivia Holmes; 13. Petrarch's adversaries: the Invectives David Marsh; Part V. Petrarch's Afterlife: 14. Petrarch and the Humanists Timothy Kircher; 15. Bembo and Italian Petrarchism Stefano Jossa; 16. Female Petrarchists Ann Rosalind Jones; 17. Spanish, French, and English Petrarchism William J. Kennedy; Part VI. Conclusion: 18. Petrarch's confrontation with modernity Giuseppe Mazzotta; Guide to further reading.

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304-74) was a scholar and poet who helped shape the literature of his time and influenced the development of Renaissance humanism. This Companion offers an account of his life and works, gathering the great themes and problems of the age around this charismatic, symptomatic and influential figure.

Albert Russell Ascoli is Gladyce Arata Terrill Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His publications include Ariosto's Bitter Harmony: Crisis and Evasion in the Italian Renaissance (1987), Making and Remaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity around the Risorgimento (co-edited with Krystyna von Henneberg, 2001), Dante and the Making of a Modern Author (Cambridge, 2008) and A Local Habitation, and a Name: Imagining Histories in the Italian Renaissance (2011). He is co-founder and volume editor of the electronic journal, California Italian Studies.
Unn Falkeid is Research Fellow at the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, affiliated to the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University. She is the author of Petrarca og det moderne selvet (Petrarch and the Modern Self, 2007), the editor of Dante. A Critical Reappraisal (2008) and the co-editor of Rethinking Gaspara Stampa in the Canon of Renaissance Poetry (with Aileen A. Feng, 2015).