Eckhard Kessler, Ludwig Maximilians Universität

Description
Francesco Petrarca, who was born on July 20, 1304 in Arezzo as the son of a banished Florentine notary, is going to celebrate in 2004 the 700th anniversary of his birthday.
Although during the last 500 years his fame and authority was based primarily on the impact, which the Italian poems of his Canzoniere had on the development of love poetry all over Europe, during the first two centuries nobody would have doubted, that Petrarch’s fortune and importance was the result of his Latin writings, and though recent research in the nature and origin of Renaissance Humanism tends to trace the very roots of Renaissance Humanism back to Late and High Medieval efforts to imitate ancient Latin style, leading representatives of early Renaissance Humanism inside and outside Italy regarded themselves as successors to Petrarch and refered to him as the initiator of their own humanist thinking and acting. He thus has become one of the most influential personalities in the generation of modern European understanding of man and his world.
It is the intention of the Seminar to introduce to the biography and spiritual development of Petrarch, to his concept of philosophy, to his anthropology, tohis moral philosophy, to his theory of history and historiography and thus to open an understanding of what might be called Petrarch’s Humanism.
In the course of the seminar a selection of basic texts from Petrarch’s Latin writings shall be read, interpreted and discussed. The texts shall be available in the original language, accompanied by an English translation. Knowledge of Latin is not obligatory, but highly welcome.

Introductory Literature
Ernest Hatch Wilkins: Life of Petrarch, Chicago, Chicago UP, 1961
Hans Baron: „The Evolution of Petrarch’s Thought: Reflections on the Stateof Petrarch Studies“, in: H. B.: From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni. Studies in Humanistic and Political Literature, Chicago, Chicago UP, 1968, p. 7-50
Paul Oskar Kristeller: „Petrarch“, in: P.O.K.: Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance, Stanford, Stanford UP, 1964, p. 1-18
Charles Trinkaus: The Poet as Philosopher: Petrarch and the Formation of Renaissance Conciousness, New Haven 1979
K. Foster: Petrarch: Poet and Humanist, Edingburgh, Edinburgh UP, 1984
Nicolas Mann: Francesco Petrarca – Criticism and Interpretation, Oxford, Oxford UP, 1984