Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch, 1304-1374) is universally regarded as one of the greatest Italian poets and considered to be the "Father of Renaissance Humanism." Petrarch is best known for his poetry, and especially for his sonnets, composed in the vernacular Italian dialect of his homeland. But Petrarch was also the author of an extraordinary body of prose works in Latin, including numerous books, essays, and volumes of his letters, which, with Cicero as his model, he collected, edited, and preserved for posterity. ...
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Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch, 1304-1374) is universally regarded as one of the greatest Italian poets and considered to be the "Father of Renaissance Humanism." Petrarch is best known for his poetry, and especially for his sonnets, composed in the vernacular Italian dialect of his homeland. But Petrarch was also the author of an extraordinary body of prose works in Latin, including numerous books, essays, and volumes of his letters, which, with Cicero as his model, he collected, edited, and preserved for posterity. Included among these Latin prose works is The Life of Solitude ( De vita solitaria ), which Petrarch began during Lent of 1346, and then sent in 1366--after twenty years of reflection, addition, and correction--to its dedicatee. Book I contains an argument for why a life of solitude and contemplation is superior to a busy life of civic obligation and commerce. Book II contains a long enumeration of exemplars of the solitary life drawn from history and literature (and occasionally mythology). Included in Book II are provocative digressions on whether one has an obligation to serve a tyrant and on the failures of contemporary monarchs to recover the holy sites in the East. Petrarch's solitary life is not an apology for monastic solitude. On the contrary, it contains a strong defense of friendship, the pursuit of virtue, and the roles that both secular and religious literature and philosophy play in human flourishing. This updated edition of Jacob Zeitlin's 1924 English translation restructures and numbers the text to make it consistent with the best available scholarly editions of De vita solitaria . The volume includes a new introduction by Scott H. Moore, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Great Texts and Assistant Director of the University Scholars Program at Baylor University, which situates Petrarch and the text within the larger traditions of virtue ethics, renaissance humanism, and reflections on the solitary life.
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"Humanism" was a slang term coined by university students to refer to the study of classic Roman authors for their own intrinsic value. And it was because Petrarca was instrumental in creating this discipline that he can be forgiven for claiming that he started the Renaissance single-handedly, as a personal project. But his work was formative for what could be termed the first wave of the Renaissance. Although he worked tirelessly to promote the study of Classic Roman history and literature, his focus was insistently on their standing with relation to traditional Christian thought. The Life of Solitude reflects this prejudice, and its author's pompous faux humility, in equal degrees. But it is also an enjoyable read on its own. Petrarca's verbosity doesn't get away from him, as it does in his Remedies for Fortune. The cleverness of conception doesn't overwhelm, as it does in his Bucolicum Carmen (eclogues). And while many people find his poems about Laura absolutely exquisite, I find the pose he projects tedious and unconvincing. What's fascinating to me about this edition, currently the only one available, is that the editorial approach to the work itself is curiously similar to Petrarca's own with regard to Classic Roman work. A great deal of space is devoted to explaining the author, what the characteristics of the specific work are and how they fit into the author's other work, and why anyone should care about him or it. My approach is similar to that of Boccaccio, who could be considered an exemplar of the second wave of the Renaissance. If a book is worth reading, it's worth reading even without extensive preparation on the reader's part. And there's a great deal in The Life of Solitude that needs no apology or explanation. Much of it is as valid and pertinent today as it was when it was written -- because human nature and human situations remain the same. Petrarca's observations on differing human temperaments and how they can combine to affect the individual, especially in a big city, would ring true to anyone who reads the book for its content (not its historical importance). When he extols the effect that literature can have on some people, he could be speaking of or to anyone in any time who does respond to it. In fact, this book is an invaluable resource to those who need the refuge of literature while living in a big city. (The only "correction" I'd offer would be the comment by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, approximately "give me the solitude of the deep forest or the anonymity of the city.") It can be difficult to find a reasonably-priced copy of this book -- as of mid-2007, most of them are priced over $100 -- but it's well worth the wait. Keep checking A Libris if you're interested, because it's the only place I found one I could afford.
