Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), one of the greatest of Italian poets, was also the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive ancient Roman language and literature. Just as Petrarch's Latin epic Africa imitated Virgil and his compendium On Illustrious Men was inspired by Livy, so Petrarch's four Invectives were intended to revive the eloquence of the great Roman orator Cicero. The Invectives are directed against the cultural idols of the Middle Ages--against scholastic philosophy and medicine and the dominance of French culture in general. They defend the...
Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), one of the greatest of Italian poets, was also the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive ancient Roman ...
In 1350, the Italian humanist and poet Francesco Petrarca decided to form a collection of all his correspondence. The letters deal with multifarious topics, switch between narration and instruction, the personal and the general, and are addressed to various of his learned friends and contemporaries. They constitute a treasure trove for the history of ideas.
This is the first complete German-language edition of the famous 24 books of the Epistolae familiares; they have been translated from the Latin by Prof. Berthe Widmer, an acknowledged authority on Petrarch. The...
In 1350, the Italian humanist and poet Francesco Petrarca decided to form a collection of all his correspondence. The letters deal with multifariou...
