Francesco Petrarch and Laura: analysis of the “Book of Songs. Ekaterina Ostaninalove stories The love story of Petrarch and Laura in brief

It would seem that what should the muse of the great Italian do in the gallery of French ladies.... but it was in Avignon. Laura was the daughter of the knight Oudebert de Nove, born and lived in Avignon, at the age of 18 she married Count Hugo II de Sade, bore him 11 children and died early. And there would have been nothing remarkable in the fate of this woman if Francesco Petrarca had not seen her in the church one spring day. This happened on April 6, 1327, Good Friday, in the small village of St. Clare in the vicinity of Avignon. This meeting did not change anything in the fate of Donna Laura, but was of great importance in the fate of world poetry, through the mouth of Petrarch, laying the foundations of the Renaissance.

"The First Meeting of Petrarch and Laura" by Mary Spaltari Stillman

Petrarch was 23 years old at that time; he was a young, but already recognized poet at the papal court. Laura was a married woman who by that time already had two children. But for Petrarch she appeared as the embodiment of eternal femininity, golden-haired, beautiful as an angel. Petrarch remembered that sunny April day when the poet first saw his beloved for the rest of his life. Fascinated by her, he writes:
Blessed is the day, month, summer, hour
And the moment when my gaze met those eyes!
Blessed is that land, and that valley is bright,
Where I became a prisoner of beautiful eyes!

Laura, drawing from the 15th century.

Since then, Laura has been Francesco's constant muse, his sublime and unattainable dream. And even when age and numerous births distorted her beautiful face and figure, Petrarch continued to love her just as on the day of their first meeting. He endowed her not only with physical beauty, but also with high spirituality, morality, and nobility of soul. They met on the streets of Avignon, in churches, at services, and Francesco, in love, not daring to take his eyes off his muse, looked at her until she left arm in arm with her husband. Every time, noticing Laura’s tender, warm gaze turned towards him, the happy poet returned home and wrote sonnets dedicated to her until the morning. Did Laura know about his feelings? Could she have known that she was forever connected with one of the world's greatest poets? That centuries later descendants will call her name as a symbol of a man’s undivided love for a woman? No one knows if she spoke to him at least once.

Petrarch looks at Laura passing by.

However, Petrarch, who loved Laura with great platonic love, did not disdain earthly, physical love. He was ordained and could not marry, but he dated other women. In 1337, the poet had a son, Giovanni, and six years later, in 1343, his beloved daughter Francesca was born, who lived with her father and looked after him until the end. his days.

Laura died on April 6, 1348, exactly 21 years after meeting Petrarch, possibly from the plague that was raging in Avignon at that time, or perhaps from tuberculosis. Petrarch remained inconsolable. Locking himself in his room at night, in the dim light of a candle, he sang of the beautiful Laura in sonnets:
I fell at her feet in verse,
Filling the sounds with heartfelt heat,
And he was separated from himself:
He himself is on the ground, but his thoughts are in the clouds.
I sang about her golden curls,
I sang of her eyes and hands.
Honoring torment as heavenly bliss,
And now she is cold dust.
And I am without a lighthouse, in an orphan shell
Through a storm that's not new to me
I'm floating through life, ruling at random.
Francesco Petrarca outlived his beloved by twenty-six years. But even after her death, he still loved Laura just as enthusiastically and reverently, dedicating beautiful sonnets to her, who had already left this world. Until 1356, he would annually celebrate the anniversary of their acquaintance by writing a sonnet. After Laura's death, he sang her praises for another 10 years. The collection of sonnets and canzones dedicated to her (usually called “Canzoniere”, Songs) is divided by the publishers into 2 parts:
“On the Life of Madonna Laura” (Rime in vita Laura), 263 sonnets;
“On the death of Madonna Laura” (Rime in morte Laura), sonnet 103.
But Petrarch himself does not have such a division; even after death, he turns to her as another, but alive and real. Both parts carry two different leitmotifs: “in the first - the theme of Laura-Daphne (the laurel nymph), in the second - Laura is the poet’s guide in the heavenly spheres, Laura is a guardian angel directing the poet’s thoughts to higher goals.”

Laura and Petrarch

Regarding his life, Petrarch wrote that he had two main desires - Laura and laurel, that is, love and glory. And on the eve of his death, which followed many years later, Petrarch wrote: “I no longer think about anything except her.”

And one of the descendants of the beautiful Laura was the well-known Marquis de Sade :) To whom Laura appeared in a dream while imprisoned.
And in general, the de Sade family did a lot to study the image of Laura and her fate.

And in conclusion, there are a few literary associations that bring their skepticism down from the sublime heavens of courtly poetry to the sinful earth.
“Do you really think that if Laura had been Petrarch’s wife, he would have been writing sonnets all his life?”
George Gordon Byron.

“And Byron is right in noticing gloomily,
What the world owes, like a gift,
Because there is no time for Laura
She didn’t marry Petrarch.”
Igor Guberman

On April 6, 1327, the first meeting of Francesco Petrarch with Laura took place. A married woman became a permanent muse for the great poet, a sublime and unattainable dream. At the same time, it is unknown whether Laura herself knew about his feelings or not.

366 sonnets

I bless the day, the minute, the shares
Minutes, time of year, month, year,
Both the place and the chapel are wonderful,
Where a bright look doomed me to captivity

This is how Petrarch recalled his first meeting with the fair-haired beauty Laura, who once and for all stole his peace. We know that the fateful meeting took place at the Easter service on April 6 from the words of the poet himself, who left not only poetic lines about this day, but also detailed memories: “Laura, known for her virtues and long glorified by my songs, first appeared to me eyes at the dawn of my youth, in the year of the Lord 1327, on the morning of April 6, in the Cathedral of St. Clare, in Avignon."

She was twenty years old, he was twenty-three. Their meeting could not be the beginning of a happy love story: Laura was already married, and Petrarch was under a vow of celibacy. The lover could only cast languid glances at the Beautiful Lady and sing her praises in his sonnets, canzones, sextinas, ballads, madrigals...

The poet combined 366 sonnets dedicated to Laura into the “Book of Songs,” which glorified not only his feelings, but also poetry itself - glorifying the love of a man for a woman, and not a slave for God, Petrarch marked the beginning of the Proto-Renaissance era (a stage in the history of Italian culture, preceding the Renaissance).

Angel in the flesh

The poet, who preferred to lead a wandering life, spent another three years after the fateful meeting in Avignon. Researchers do not know the answer to the question: did they exchange at least one word during this time? Did Laura know about the passionate feelings of the great Italian? But there is no doubt that Petrarch’s Muse was a worthy wife, and in the eyes of a lover she is a real angel:

Among thousands of women there was only one,
Invisibly struck my heart.
Only with the appearance of a good seraphim
She could match her beauty.

Historians are inclined to believe that Petrarch's Muse was Laura De Nov - the golden-haired daughter of the syndic of Avignon, Audibert de Nov, mother of 11 children. However, Petrarch's love is in many ways similar to the story of Dante Alighieri and Beatrice - in both cases, skeptics doubt the real existence of the Muses. In their opinion, the Beautiful Ladies were just a figment of the imagination of romantic poets.

Laura's name is not mentioned in any of Petrarch's letters (with the exception of a letter to descendants, where he talks about his past love, and a letter where he refutes accusations that she is not real). Basic information about Laura can be gleaned from Petrarch’s handwritten notes and his poetic lines, where her name is usually found in a play on words - golden, laurel, air. But the credibility of the image of the Muse is given by the fact that the poet once ordered a cameo with her portrait from an artist from the Avignon Curia:

This beautiful face tells us,
That on Earth - she is a resident of heaven,
Those best places where the spirit is not hidden by flesh,
And that such a portrait could not be born,
When the Artist from unearthly orbits
I came here to marvel at mortal wives

Petrarch justified his fanatical platonic love by the fact that it was she who helped him get rid of earthly weaknesses, it was she who elevated him. But even this noble feeling did not prevent the famous poet from having two illegitimate children from different women (history is silent about their names).

Mary Spartali Stillman. "The first meeting of Petrarch and Laura."

He was considered a real magician, although he himself was very reserved about his poetic success, considering his translations from ancient times and works in Latin to be much more significant. He outlived his beloved by 26 years...
They, most likely, did not even know each other, but went down in history as one of the most inspired unions...

She…

The reality of the great poet's love will most likely never be resolved. But most historians are inclined to believe that Petrarch’s muse was Laura De Neuve, the golden-haired daughter of the syndic of Avignon, Audibert de Neuve, and his wife Ermessade. In addition to Laura, the family had two more children - son Jean and youngest daughter Margarita.

Laura received a decent fortune as a dowry, which allowed her to choose from suitors for her hand. And the choice was made in favor of Hugo de Sade, nicknamed le Vieu. On January 16, 1325, in the presence of the notary Guillaume Jaobi, they signed a marriage contract.

She was a faithful wife and bore her husband 11 children. There were legends about her virtue; unfortunately, she died quite early - at the age of 38...
He…

He was born on July 20, 1304 in the town of Arezzo in Tuscany in the family of the notary Pietro di Ser Parenzo (nicknamed Petracco). And he owes his completed legal education to his father. He even tried to work “in his specialty” after graduating from university. But with much greater pleasure, Petrarch spent time studying ancient literary works, reading fluently in Latin.

After his father's death, Francesco's only inheritance was the manuscript of Virgil's works. He chose the rank of clergy as a source of income - at the age of 22 he became a member of the Franciscan monastic order. But it is unlikely that he ever performed divine services himself. In addition, he rejected the offer to head the department in Florence...
He traveled a lot around Europe - he visited Italy, Prague, France. He is known for the first officially recorded ascent (with his brother) to the summit of Mont Ventoux, on April 26, 1336 (although it is known that Jean Buridan and the ancient inhabitants of the area visited the summit before him).
Petrarch's letters and literary works made him a celebrity. Almost simultaneously he received an invitation from Paris, Naples and Rome to be crowned with a laurel wreath. Petrarch chose Rome and was solemnly crowned with a laurel wreath on the Capitol.
They…
The day of their meeting was Good Friday - July 6, 1327, the place was the Church of St. Clare. The exact date and place were written down by Petrarch himself in the margins of the already mentioned Virgil manuscript: “Laura, known for her virtues and long glorified by my songs, first appeared to my eyes at the dawn of my youth, in the year of the Lord 1327, on the morning of April 6, in the Cathedral of St. Clare, in Avignon..."

And there, in the margins, he noted the date of death of the object of his platonic love: “...And in the same city, also in April and also on the sixth day of the same month, in the same morning hours in the year 1348, this ray of light left the world when I I was in Verona by chance, alas! not knowing about my fate..."

Laura became his muse - after all, it was thanks to the poems dedicated to her that Petrarch became famous. He wrote about their first meeting:
There was a day on which, according to the Creator of the universe
Grieving, the Sun darkened... A ray of fire
From your eyes took me by surprise:
Oh, lady, I have become their prisoner...
Throughout his life, Petrarch saw Laura only a few times. Many of his friends even considered her a figment of the poet’s imagination - the only place where Laura’s name was heard were sonnets, canzones, sextins, ballads, madrigals... But it was not in any letters. Her image was given a little more credibility by the fact that at one point Petrarch ordered a cameo with a portrait of Laura, but... Again, this cannot be called a document.

He sang her image for many years, among other things, observing a ritual he himself invented - every year he celebrated the day of their meeting with a new sonnet.

I’m silent about your beauty in poetry
And, feeling deeply embarrassed,
I want to correct this omission
And I fly to the memory of the first meeting.

But I see that the burden is too much for me,
All my skill will not help here,
And he knows that inspiration is powerless,
And I hate him in vain.

More than once I was filled with courage,
But no sounds came out of my chest.
Who am I to soar to such heights?

More than once I put pen to paper,
But both my hand and my mind gave up
On the first word. And they gave up again.

The one who dreams of delighting hearts
And longs to glorify himself with wisdom
And with gentleness, I want to set an example
My love - there is no better example.

How to live with dignity, how to love the Creator, -
Without imitating her, it is impossible to imagine
You can’t set yourself on the right path,
You can't hold on to it until the end.

It is possible to adopt the dialect that sounds
So tenderly, and silence, and movements,
Having an ideal in front of you.

And only her blinding beauty
Do not learn, because from birth
It is given or not given by fate.

On April 6, 1327, the first meeting took place Francesco Petrarch With Laura. A married woman became a permanent muse for the great poet, a sublime and unattainable dream. At the same time, it is unknown whether Laura herself knew about his feelings or not.

366 sonnets

I bless the day, the minute, the shares
Minutes, time of year, month, year,
Both the place and the chapel are wonderful,
Where a bright look doomed me to captivity

The poet combined 366 sonnets dedicated to Laura into the “Book of Songs”, which glorified not only his feelings, but also poetry itself - glorifying the love of a man for a woman, and not a slave for God, Petrarch marked the beginning of the Proto-Renaissance era (a stage in the history of Italian culture, preceding the Renaissance).

Altichiero da Zevio, portrait of Petrarch. Source: Public Domain

Angel in the flesh

Among thousands of women there was only one,
Invisibly struck my heart.
Only with the appearance of a good seraphim
She could match her beauty.

Historians are inclined to believe that Petrarch's Muse was Laura De Nov - the golden-haired daughter of the Syndic of Avignon Audiberta de Nov, mother of 11 children. However, Petrarch's love is in many ways like history Dante Alighieri And Beatrice- in both cases, skeptics doubt the real existence of the Muses. In their opinion, the Beautiful Ladies were just a figment of the imagination of romantic poets.

Laura, drawing from the 15th century (?) Laurentian Library. Source: Public Domain

This beautiful face tells us,
That on Earth she is a dweller of heaven,
Those best places where the spirit is not hidden by flesh,
And that such a portrait could not be born,
When the Artist from unearthly orbits
I came here to marvel at mortal wives

Mary Spartali Stillman. "The first meeting of Petrarch and Laura."

Love stories. Middle Ages

The great poet of the European Middle Ages, one of those who stood at the beginning and laid the foundations of the Renaissance, the incomparable Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), owes his fame largely to the beautiful muse - Laura de Noves (1301-1348). This woman won the poet’s heart and inspired him to create inimitable sonnets, which are still considered a model of the genre to this day.

Francesco Petrarca. Portrait by Eustace van Ghent

Francesco Petrarca was born on July 20, 1304 in the Italian city of Arezzo in the family of notary Pietro Parenzo dell Incesi, who was expelled from Florence even before the birth of his son. In 1311, the notary's family moved to Avignon, the residence of the popes in French captivity. Here Parenzo changed his surname to Petrarch. It was later that the poet glorified her. In Avignon, Francesco studied Latin, became acquainted with the works of Cicero, and developed his own style in poetry.

In 1326, Petrarch's father died, and Francesco, who left jurisprudence forever, was ordained to the junior rank of the church. This gave him the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits of the rank and at the same time not perform church duties.

Petrarch remembered that sunny April day when the poet first saw his beloved for the rest of his life. They met on April 6, 1327, Good Friday, in the small church of St. Clare on the outskirts of Avignon. He is a young, but already recognized at the papal court, a twenty-three-year-old poet who has made several long journeys, she is a married twenty-six-year-old woman who by that time had several children (in total, Laura gave birth to her husband eleven children). Blonde, with huge and kind eyes, she seemed the embodiment of femininity and spiritual purity. Fascinated by her, Petrarch would write:

Blessed is the day, month, summer, hour
And the moment when my gaze met those eyes!
Blessed is that land, and that valley is bright,
Where I became a prisoner of beautiful eyes!

F. PETRARCA

Josef Manes. Petrarch meeting Laura at Avignon in 1327, ca. 1845 (PetrarchfirstsawLaura)

Joseph Manes. Painting detail

The beautiful woman became the muse, the poet’s dream in eternity. And even when worries and age distorted her beautiful face with deep wrinkles (due to the fact that in the Middle Ages girls got married and were actively sexually active from the age of 10-11, they grew old very quickly, barely turning 30 years old), the gray hair was lost beauty, but her figure deteriorated after many births, Francesco Petrarch loved his Laura even then. The more she aged, the more he admired her femininity and charm. She was beautiful to him even in her old age. Petrarch recalled that Laura had exceptional beauty, but, in addition, he, of his own free will, endowed her with high spirituality and morality.

Laura, drawing from the 15th century (?). Laurentian Library

The ideal spiritual traits of the heroine of Petrarch's poetry became the soil on which a fierce dispute between literary scholars studying the life of the poet fertilely grew. Some argue that Laura is just an ideal image formed in the imagination of the great hermit, a woman-myth, so to speak, and Laura de Noves is a witty camouflage of fiction? Others have no doubt that Laura is real and Petrarch was in fact passionately in love with her all his life. It is possible that Laura de Noves was the wife of local knight Hugh de Sade, an ancestor of the famous French novelist Marquis de Sade.

They met on the streets of Avignon, in churches, at services, and Francesco, in love, not daring to take his eyes off his muse, looked at her until she left arm in arm with her husband. In all the years of meeting, they did not say a single word. But every time, noticing Laura’s tender, warm gaze turned towards him, the happy poet returned home and wrote sonnets dedicated to her until the morning. Did Laura know about his feelings? Could she have known that she was forever connected with one of the world's greatest poets? That centuries later descendants will call her name as a symbol of a man’s undivided love for a woman?

Text: Anna Sardaryan

Laura and Petrarch. Miniature from the "Book of Songs". XV century

Altichiero da Zevio, portrait of Petrarch

Petrarch looks at Laura passing by

Portrait of Petrarch by Andrea del Castagno, frescoes of Villa Carduccio

Petrarch, fragment of Altichiero painting in Padua

Petrarch and Laura in a 14th century fresco

Laura and Petrarch

Pastiglione. Laura and Petrarch.

GiorgioVasari. Boccaccio, Dante, Petrarca etc.

Admiration for Laura

Oh Laura! I'm floating above the world
I am illuminated by the heavenly ether:
Then you looked into my eyes.
I revel in the aroma of heaven, -
It was your gaze that flashed, reflecting
My features are in bright turquoise.

I listen to the singing of the lyres above the stars,
To the hymn of the spheres spinning in the abysses,
I combine with the muse in oblivion, -
This, hesitating, as if in blissful torment,
Sounds are reluctant to leave
Your voluptuous lips.

Now the cupids have taken flight above you,
Intoxicated by the song, the spruce trees dance,
It was as if Orpheus had breathed their soul into them.
The poles rotate faster -
It's you, like a light fairy,
She captivated them with her dance.

You smiled with involuntary affection, -
And in granite, in marble I woke up
A warm stream of life.
My cherished dream became a wondrous reality:
This is Laura's response to me
He said: “I’m yours!”

Friedrich Schiller
1781

Francesco Petrarch and Laura: analysis of the “Book of Songs. Ekaterina Ostaninalove stories The love story of Petrarch and Laura in brief

366 sonnets

Angel in the flesh

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