Francesco Petrarca

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), known as Petrarch, was an Italian poet and scholar and the first great figure of Renaissance humanism. Born at Arezzo, he grew up at Avignon, where his family followed the papal court. His father made him study law, but he cared only for writing and the classics.

In 1327 he saw a woman named Laura in the church of Sainte-Claire, beginning a lifelong love celebrated in the Canzoniere, whose sonnets were imitated across Europe. His Latin epic Africa made him a celebrity, and in 1341 he was crowned poet laureate in Rome, only the second since antiquity.

In 1345 at Verona he found Cicero's letters, credited with starting Renaissance humanism. He coined the idea of a “dark age” after antiquity, settled at Arquà about 1368 and died there in 1374. His will left Boccaccio fifty florins for a winter dressing gown.