Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), better known in English as Francis Petrarch, was a Tuscan scholar, poet and initiate of the early Italian Renaissance and one of the fathers of Humanism. His rediscovery of Cicero’s letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Italian Renaissance and the founding of Renaissance humanism. In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarca’s works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio, and, to a lesser extent, Dante Alighieri.
Petrarca’s sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the ‘Dark Ages’.
He traveled extensively in Europe, served as an ambassador and was called ‘the first tourist’ because he used to travel for pleasure and for historical and cultural interest, as in the case of his famous ascent to Mont Ventoux in Provence.
Petrarca wrote about his ascent of Mont Ventoux (a high mountain in Provence, France) on April 26, 1336, in a well-known letter published as one of his
Epistolae Familiares. In this letter, written around 1350, Petrarca claimed to be the first person since antiquity to have climbed a mountain for the view. Although the historical accuracy of his account has been questioned by modern scholars, it is often cited in discussions of the new spirit of the Renaissance.
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