This entirely new translation includes Petrarch's short autobiographical prose works, The Letter to Posterity and The Ascent of Mount Ventoux, and a selection of twenty-seven poems from the Canzoniere, Petrarch's best-known work in Italian.

Selections from the Canzoniere and Other Works

Literature & Fiction

Petrarch, Francesco

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

One of the great poets of the 14th century, Italian scholar Francesco Petrarch is also regarded as the father of the humanist movement. The Secret, Petrarch€™s autobiographical treatise translated here from the Latin, represents a "humanist manifesto" central to understanding European culture during the early modern period. Carol Quillen€™s introductory essay to this volume illuminates the development of humanist practices, Petrarch€™s role in the dissemination of humanist ideas, the importance of The Secret as a humanist text, and the enduring historical significance of the humanist tradition in Western thought and culture. Also included are several illustrations, a chronology, a selected bibliography, and questions for consideration.

The Secret

Petrarca, Francesco

Quillen, Carol E.

Contemporary

Bedford/St.Martins

In this volume, David R. Slavitt, the distinguished translator and author of more than one hundred works of fiction, poetry, and drama, turns his skills to Il Canzoniere (Songbook) by Petrarch, the most influential poet in the history of the sonnet. In Petrarch’s hands, lyric verse was transformed from an expression of courtly devotion into a way of conversing with one’s own heart and mind. Slavitt renders the sonnets in Il Canzoniere, along with the shorter madrigals and ballate, in a sparkling and engaging idiom and in rhythm and rhyme that do justice to Petrarch’s achievement.At the center of Il Canzoniere (also known as Rime Sparse, or Scattered Rhymes) is Petrarch’s obsessive love for Laura, a woman Petrarch asserts he first saw at Easter Mass on April 6, 1327, in the church of Sainte-Claire d’Avignon when he was twenty-two. Though Laura was already married, the sight of her woke in the poet a passion that would last beyond her premature death on April 6, 1348, exactly twenty-one years after he first encountered her. Unlike Dante’s Beatrice―a savior leading the poet by the hand toward divine love―Petrarch’s Laura elicits more earthbound and erotic feelings. David Slavitt’s deft new translation captures the nuanced tone of Petrarch’s poems―their joy and despair, and eventually their grief over Laura’s death. Readers of poetry and especially those with an interest in the sonnet and its history will welcome this volume.

Sonnets and Shorter Poems

Harvard University Press

Lord Morley's "Tryumphes of Fraunces Petrarcke: The First English Translation of the "Trionfi"

Reference

For teachers and students of Petrarch, Durling's edition of the poems has become the standard one. Readers have praised the translation as both graceful and accurate, conveying a real understanding of what this difficult poet is saying. The literalness of the prose translation makes this beautiful book especially useful to students who lack a full command of Italian. And students reading the verse in the original will find here an authoritative text.

Petrarch’s Lyric Poems: The Rime Sparse and Other Lyrics

For teachers and students of Petrarch, Robert M. Durling’s edition of the poems has become the standard one. Readers have praised the translation as both graceful and accurate, conveying a real understanding of what this difficult poet is saying.
The literalness of the prose translation makes this beautiful book especially useful to students who lack a full command of Italian. And students reading the verse in the original will find here an authoritative text.

Petrarch's Lyric Poems: The Rime Sparse and Other Lyrics

I saw the tracks of angels in the earth,The beauty of heaven walking by itself on the world. The great fourteenth-century poet's lyric and love poems are presented as living poetry in Nicholas Kilmer's powerful and moving versions. His selection convinces us that, as he puts it, "Petrarch deserves to be valued as a real man, a careful thinker, a good poet." Free in form yet holding close to the central impulses of Petrarch's inspiration, Kilmer's "readings" in this bilingual edition present Petrarch as a confessional poet, but one who is a humane moralist of startling honesty. Nicholas Kilmer, former dean of the Swain College of Art and Design in New Bedford, Massachussetts, has made his living as an art dealer and curator since leaving teaching in 1982. He also writes mysteries set in the art world.

Petrarch: Songs and Sonnets (Poetica) (English and Italian Edition)

Poetry

Anvil Press Poetry

Petrarch's Secret: Or, the Soul's Conflict With Passion : Three Dialogues Between Himself and S. Augustine (English and Latin Edition)

Hyperion Pr

Petrarch was an Italian scholar, poet, and early humanist, often popularly called the "father of humanism". Based on his work, and to a lesser extent that of Dante and Boccaccio, Pietro Bembo in the 16th century created the model for modern Italian later endorsed by the Accademia della Crusca. Petrarch is credited for perfecting the sonnet, making it one of the most popular art forms to date. The sight of a woman called Laura in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignon awoke in him a lasting passion, celebrated in the Rime sparse ("Scattered rhymes"). This collection of 366 poems was later renamed Il Canzoniere ("Song Book"). This book contains his two most popular collections, Il Canzoniere and the Triumphs.

The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press): Petrarch Was An Italian Scholar, Poet, And Early Humanist, Often Popularly Called The "Father Of Humanism".

Dodo Press

In these two volumes Aldo Bernardo and his collaborators extend the translation project begun with the Familiares to the letter collection of Petrarch's old age, the Seniles. In these 128 letters, most of which appear for the first time here in English translation, we find Petrarch's mature judgment on the central issues of early Italian humanism. With Boccaccio, to whom he addresses more letters than anyone else, Petrarch shares his ideas about the literary culture of the age. Two entire books on the structure and role of the Church are addressed to Pope Urban V and his secretary, Francesco Bruni, and another large block of letters on statecraft and political virtue are addressed to such powerful rulers as Pandolfo Malatesta, Francesco da Carrara, and [Emperor] Charles IV. More personal themes emerge as well, including Petrarch's thoughts on the passage of time, the meaning of death, and the loss of friends; on faith, providence, and life after death; and on eating, drinking, and fashions in clothing. Petrarch's Latin translation of the patient Griselda story from Boccaccio's Decameron is also found here, and the collection closes with the famous Letter to Posterity, Petrarch's final literary self-portrait." - Neo-Latin News This complete translation has long been out of print and is reproduced here in its entirety in two volumes. Introduction, notes, bibliography. Vol. 1 includes Books I-IX.

Letters on Old Age (Rerum Senilium Libri): Vol. 1: Books I-IX

Levin, Saul

Bernardo, Aldo S.

Bernardo, Reta A.

Essays & Correspondence

Italica Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Petrarch, Francesco. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Petrarch, Francesco