Selections from the Canzoniere. And Other Works

Petrarch (1304-74). Italy's greatest lyric poet, was a diplomat, a classical scholar, and poet laureate by the age of 37. His most influential legacy is undoubtedly the Canzoniere, a collection of 366 outstanding love poems. Their inspiration was the elusive lady Laura, the object of Petrarch's unrequited passion for nearly forty years, and at times a metaphor for his other obsession, worldly glory.
It is this other theme, and the conflicts created by the poet's yearning for spirituality, that form the subjects of the two autobiographical prose pieces included here, the Letter to Posterity and The Ascent of Mount Ventoux. The hesitations and choices expressed in these letters illuminate the Canzoniere, whose elegant sophistication belies the strength of its passion.The delicacy of Petrarch's original has been faithfully preserved in this verse translation by Mark Musa.