Petrarch's letters to classical authors
Keywords: Familiar Letters
Letters
Renaissance
autobiography
criticism
Classical Authors
Petrarca
Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374) is one of the three most influential writers ('crowns') of Italian literature of the fourteenth century alongside Dante and Boccaccio. He is acclaimed for his poetry in the vernacular, dedicated to the inaccessible love of his life, Laura. This poetry has been translated into many languages and served as an example for other authors of poetry all over the world ('Petrarchism').
Less generally known are his Latin works to which an extensive collection of letters belongs: the Familiar Letters and Letters of Old Age. These letters have a strong autobiographical content and deal with a variety of matters, and at the same time are a constant contemplation on ethical values and the customs of his age. Petrarch put his Familiar Letters in chronological order except for the epistles to nine illustrious ancient authors (Cicero, Seneca, Varro, Quintilian, Livy, Asinius Pollio, Horace, Vergil, and Homer). He brought these together in the same book (24) because they represented a new phenomenon in his view.
Driven by his admiration for the classical world, Petrarch was one of the first scholars who actively looked for manuscripts of ancient books. He also engaged in philological work by comparing, annotating, and editing those manuscripts. In 1345, in Verona, Petrarch made a significant discovery: Cicero's Letters to his Brother Quintus, to Brutus, to Atticus, and an apocryphal letter to Octavian. While reading Cicero's letters, he became disappointed because he felt that Cicero's dubious political activities were not comparable with his status as a celebrated author and philosopher. Therefore, under the influence of anger, Petrarch was not able to restrain himself from writing to this ancient colleague whom he otherwise so appreciated. For the same reason - anger - he addressed Seneca. Petrarch criticised Seneca for his closeness to the tyrant Nero, and for the Octavia, a tragedy which he initially believed was written by him. Afterwards, Petrarch decided to write to the other ancient authors mentioned above.
This thesis contains a translation of, an introduction to, and a detailed commentary on five of these letters to classical authors: Seneca, Varro, Quintilian, Livy and Asinius Pollio.
There is also a general introduction. Here, five main elements which also characterise Cicero's First Letter to his brother Quintus are discussed: friendship, a closeness despite the distance in time and place, praise and criticism, the role of fame, and the sense of loss and criticism of Petrarch’s own times. The introduction also gives an insight into Petrarch's theory of imitation, mostly based on Seneca's ideas at that point. The commentary focusses on what this theory means in the practice of Petrarch's letters to classical authors. It appears that Petrarch borrowed much from a variety of ancient sources, often trying to make them invisible for his readers. He thus developed an eclectic style of his own, although forcefully impregnated by Cicero's words and expressions. Finally, the philological analysis in this thesis has uncovered further particulars on Petrarch's knowledge of ancient literature in this period of rediscovery or has raised doubt about previous conclusions in this field.