C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Petrarch (1304–1374)
Petrarch, Francesco (pē’trärk). The greatest of Italian lyric poets; born at Arezzo, July 20, 1304; died at Arqua, July 18, 1374. He wrote mostly in Latin; but his fame rests on his lyrics written in the vulgar tongue, and his ‘Rime,’ containing sonnets (227), ballads, songs, etc. In Latin verse he wrote: ‘Africa,’ an epic in hexameters, recounting the feats of Scipio Africanus the Elder; a ‘Bucolic Poem’; a volume of 68 ‘Metrical Epistles.’ His chief writings in Latin prose are: ‘Of Contempt of the World’; ‘Of the Solitary Life’; ‘Of the Remedies for Either Fortune’; ‘Memoranda,’ brief historical and legendary anecdotes; ‘Of Illustrious Men’; ‘Of True Wisdom’; ‘Of his Own and Others’ Ignorance.’ (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).