Editing Module:Petrarch (section)

===Laura and poetry===
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On 6 April 1327,<ref>6 April 1327 is often thought to be [[Good Friday]] based on poems 3 and 211 of Petrarch's ''Rerum vulgarium fragmenta'', but that date fell on Monday in 1327. The apparent explanation is that Petrarch was not referring to the variable date of Good Friday but to the date fixed by the death of Christ in absolute time, which at the time was thought to be April 6 (Mark Musa, ''Petrarch's Canzoniere'', Indiana University Press, 1996, p. 522).</ref> after Petrarch gave up his vocation as a priest, the sight of a woman called "Laura" in the church of Sainte-Claire d'[[Avignon]] awoke in him a lasting passion, celebrated in the ''Rerum vulgarium fragmenta'' ("Fragments of Vernacular Matters"). Laura may have been [[Laura de Noves]], the wife of Count [[Hugues de Sade]] (an ancestor of the [[Marquis de Sade]]). There is little definite information in Petrarch's work concerning Laura, except that she is lovely to look at, fair-haired, with a modest, dignified bearing. Laura and Petrarch had little or no personal contact. According to his "Secretum", she refused him because she was already married. He channeled his feelings into love poems that were exclamatory rather than persuasive, and wrote prose that showed his contempt for men who pursue women.  Upon her death in 1348, the poet found that his [[grief]] was as difficult to live with as was his former despair.  Later, in his "Letter to Posterity", Petrarch wrote: "In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair—my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did".

[[File:Francesco Petrarca01.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Laura de Noves]]]]
While it is possible she was an idealized or pseudonymous character—particularly since the name "Laura" has a [[Linguistics|linguistic]] connection to the poetic "laurels" Petrarch coveted—Petrarch himself always denied it. His frequent use of ''l'aura'' is also remarkable: for example, the line "Erano i capei d'oro a ''l'aura'' sparsi" may mean both "her hair was all over Laura's body" and "the wind (''l'aura'') blew through her hair". There is psychological realism in the description of Laura, although Petrarch draws heavily on conventionalised descriptions of love and lovers from [[troubadour]] songs and other literature of [[courtly love]]. Her presence causes him unspeakable joy, but his unrequited love creates unendurable desires, inner conflicts between the ardent lover and the [[Christian mysticism|mystic Christian]], making it impossible to reconcile the two. Petrarch's quest for love leads to hopelessness and irreconcilable anguish, as he expresses in the series of paradoxes in Rima 134 "Pace non trovo, et non ò da far guerra;/e temo, et spero; et ardo, et son un ghiaccio": "I find no peace, and yet I make no war:/and fear, and hope: and burn, and I am ice".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/PetrarchCanzoniere123-183.htm#_Toc10863123|title=Petrarch (1304–1374). The Complete Canzoniere: 123–183|website=Poetryintranslation.com}}</ref>

Laura is unreachable and evanescent – descriptions of her are evocative yet fragmentary. [[Francesco de Sanctis]] praises the powerful music of his verse in his ''Storia della letteratura italiana''. Gianfranco Contini, in a famous essay ("Preliminari sulla lingua del Petrarca". Petrarca, Canzoniere. Turin, Einaudi, 1964), has described Petrarch's language in terms of "unilinguismo" (contrasted with Dantean "plurilinguismo").