Petrarch's father, a lawyer in Florence, was expelled from the city and moved to arezzo in 1302 because of disagreement with the leader of the black party. 1July 20th, 304, Petrarch was born here. After several relocations, I finally moved to avignon in the south of France in 13 12, where the Vatican was then located. Therefore, on the one hand, Petrarch is closely related to Florence, on the other hand, he is closely related to the Pope and other elites. This situation is not only related to his growth, but also conducive to his future humanistic activities.
Petrarch liked literature and rhetoric when he was young, especially classical works. Virgil's poems in ancient Rome and Cicero's speeches strongly attracted him. But his father wanted him to be a jurist. So from 13 16, I studied law in Montepoli, France and Bologna, Italy. 1326 after his father died, he was able to give up the law and develop his hobbies freely. In the same year, he returned to avignon and took a position as a middle school teacher. From 1330 to 1347, he served under Cardinal Giovanni Corona, but there were also interruptions.
The work in the church is not busy, which ensures Petrarch's income. While participating in some political and diplomatic activities of the Holy See, he tirelessly studied and wrote poems. As a poet, his fame spread quickly. 1340, Paris and Rome competed to invite poets to accept the laurel. Petrarch chose Rome. 134 1 On April 8th, he accepted the title of "Poet Laureate" in Rome.
Petrarch has been traveling all his life. He has been to famous cities in western Europe, such as Paris, Ghent and Keren. , and woven many scholars and celebrities. At the same time, he spared no expense to collect ancient Latin manuscripts and transcribe classical works himself. He doesn't know Greek, but he still carefully collects ancient Greek works and encourages and sponsors the translation of these works. It was with the help of him and Boccaccio that the Greek Leongu Pilate translated all Homer's epics into Latin. He treasures the relics of ancient Rome, such as coins, inscriptions and statues, and collects them one by one. Petrarch's contribution to the excavation of ancient culture was fruitful among his contemporaries. It was he who first proposed "an ancient learning-the revival of its language, literary style and moral thought".
Petrarch opposed the asceticism advocated by the medieval church and loved life and beautiful nature. He likes to travel, especially to climb mountains and overlook. He often climbed the bathroom ruins of Diocletian, the ancient Roman emperor, with friends, and once climbed Mount Ventoux near avignon to overlook the surrounding scenery. This is not worth mentioning today, but at that time, climbing mountains to enjoy the natural scenery was unheard of. Petrarch likes to engage in creation and research in places with beautiful scenery. A lot of his poems and essays were written in country villas far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. He described the Gulf of spezia, the port of Venice and the city of Naples. Petrarch distinguishes nature as an aesthetic object from nature with practical value. He was one of the first people to discover the beauty of nature.
Petrarch's works are very rich, among which Songs, Africa, Ode to Italy and Biography of Celebrities are particularly famous in the world.
The song collection consists of 366 lyric poems written in Italian, mainly about the poet's love for Laura. Peterak met Laura in a church in avignon on 1327. Although they didn't have more contact, Petrarch had sincere and warm feelings for Laura. He expressed this strong feeling in his poems. 1348, the Black Death claimed Laura's life. Petrarch was deeply saddened and expressed his deep condolences in his poem. Some people suspect that Laura's story is pure fiction. But what is important is that, contrary to the asceticism of the church, Petrarch frankly expressed the inner world of secular people yearning for happiness with exquisite style. He abandoned the unattainable image of aristocratic women in medieval knight literature. Nor did he symbolize love and philosophize it like Dante did. What he describes and praises is a real human woman. He makes love poems closer to life and fully embodies the spirit of humanism. The song collection is mainly in the form of 14 lines. He inherited the "gentle new style" poetry school in Provence, but improved it. Both the content and form of the collection of songs have had a great and lasting impact on European poetry in the future.
Petrarch's Africa (started at 1338 or 1339, but never finished) describes the second Punic War. This long poem, written in Latin, praises the Roman general Scipio Fiyunus. Scipio defeated Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander-in-chief, and his exploits were comparable to those of Pompeii and Caesar. Praise for Africa is actually a praise for the great Italian nation.
Italy in the Middle Ages was divided politically and was often invaded by Germany, France, Spain and other countries, and never formed a unified country. In Ode to Italy, Petrarch expressed his strong desire to oppose feudal separatism and yearn for reunification. The poem reads: "My Italy!
Even if my poem can't be cured
Those bloody wounds that torment your beautiful body,
But my heart seems to be very ill,
My sigh blows from the solemn coast to the Tiber River.
……
Look,
My motherland,
My beloved hometown,
Are fighting for unknown reasons.
And uncontrollable disputes,
How cruel suffering is
Torture and pain! "
The pain of war splitting hurting the motherland is vivid, and there are blood and tears between the lines.
Petrarch's Biography of Celebrities is written in Latin, which contains 265,438+0 biographies of great Romans-from romulo to Caesar. Petrarch tried to provide a history of Rome through biographies of historical celebrities, and compared the powerful Roman Empire with fragmented Italy, so as to carry out moral education of patriotism and love for the people. However, writing history is not Petrarch's specialty, and he failed to critically use historical materials to correctly reflect historical facts and heroes' faces.
It is worth mentioning that as a historian, Petrarch has clearly felt that he is in a new era. This era is similar to the ancient Greek and Roman era, but it is quite different from the era between ancient and modern times. In this way, he formed the theory of three stages of historical development. Ancient times and modern times are the two peaks of historical development, and the Middle Ages (he had the initial germination of the concept of "Middle Ages") are dark and retrogressive times, which should be over. It can be seen that he criticized the Middle Ages from a historical perspective.
However, poetry is Petrarch's main weapon. He used poetry to attack the darkness of the Vatican:
"This is a temple full of countless sadness and barbarism.
This is the temple of pagans, the school that introduces evil methods,
This is the birthplace of tears,
This is a dark prison, a place full of deception,
Here, kindness is stifled,
Fierce but growing,
This is the night and hell before people die,-
Won't God punish you? "
He also used poetry to lash the princes who were keen on civil war:
"alas! Fate changed the regime that ruled the country.
I gave it to you,
You have no sympathy for your country. ...
You insulted your hometown.
This best land,
Killing each other, hostile, ruthless ... "
He used poetry to appeal to Italy to "get rid of the heavy shackles on you" and strive for unity and independence. 100 years later, Machiavelli, an early Italian bourgeois political thinker and historian, also attached a poem by Petrarch to the end of his book The Prince, in order to pray for the early reunification of Italy: "Virtue, in the face of rage, took up arms and stood up. The war will soon end, because in the hearts of the Italian people, the ancient courage has not disappeared. "
1347, Petrarch supported Cora di Rienzo's uprising in Rome and once established a republic. After the failure of the uprising, he also wrote to the Roman people to express sympathy. 135 1 year, in order to carry out some meaningful reforms for the Roman people, he refused the position of the respected papal secretary. He suggested that the monarch should be the father of his subjects, not their master. You mainly govern the country, maintain churches and public buildings, maintain urban public order, dredge swamps, ensure the supply of wine and food, help helpless patients, and oppose cruel knight competitions. All these reflect his more progressive political thoughts.
Petrarch, after all, is a man in the alternation of two eras, and the contradictions of the times are also reflected in him. He boldly pursued worldly happiness and fame, but his criticism of Christian morality was incomplete. In The Secret (written in the autumn of 1342 and the winter of 1343, revised in 1353 and 1358), he confessed his inner struggle in the form of confession to Augustine, and thought that his pursuit of love and honor was evil. But he admits that he can't change, and thinks that people can still find the way to God despite indulging in their personal secular life. This reflects the religious view and moral view of humanism, and the Christian factor has not been completely ruled out. For the Vatican, Petrarch criticized its corruption on the one hand, and served in the Vatican for a long time, and had close ties with many popes on the other. In addition, as a representative of the early bourgeois intellectuals, Petrarch lived a dissolute life for a while. His thoughts and actions are full of individualism.
Petrarch seldom settled in one place for a long time. In the second half of his life, he mainly traveled between some Italian city-states, and stayed in palaces such as Caraccio in Parma, Vescanti in Milan and carrara in Patua, and was once a guest of the Venetian Republic. During this period, the polis often borrowed him to do some diplomatic work. Finally, he bought a house in a small village in Akwa. On the night of July 1374, 18 to 19, Peterak died in this village. When people found his body, his head was still buried in Virgil's manuscript.