Petrarch in Provence. A Valley, a Town, a Mountain Francesco Petrarch used to define himself as an eternal pilgrim having lived in numerous different places. He spent a significant part of his life in the Provence region in southern...
morePetrarch in Provence. A Valley, a Town, a Mountain
Francesco Petrarch used to define himself as an eternal pilgrim having lived in numerous different places. He spent a significant part of his life in the Provence region in southern France, initially in Carpentras and later in Avignon and Vaucluse. This book is concerned with how Petrarch depicted these locales in Provence. The book asserts that although the poet was not attempting to describe Provence in a systematic manner as a region, one can nevertheless choose three locales which he depicted extremely impressively in his literary works, these being: Vaucluse, Avignon and Mont Ventoux.
Vaucluse is a valley not far from Avignon where Petrarch purchased a house closely adjacent to the source of the Sorgue river in the year 1337. Petrarch lived a simple country life here immersed in reading and writing. This space gradually became embodied with numerous meanings. Petrarch first and foremost placed this locale in polemic fashion against the busy and morally corrupt life of the town, concretely in Avignon. He takes pains to draw attention to his simple meals, clothes, contact with the surrounding nature and his isolation from people. His time spent in Vaucluse is also an attempt at emulating the lives of ancient Roman writers and statesmen who retired to their rural villas for study and repose. Since Petrarch did not have their financial resources, he opted for at least a truly remarkable locale, the valley and the source of the Sorgue, these being not only natural beauties but also having been referred to in classical sources. The valley also has a certain Christian genius loci, since the distinct spring has been from time immemorial (even during pagan times) a revered spot, with St. Veranus having even spent several years in the valley as a hermit. Petrarch’s life here undoubtedly also had spiritual and hermit-like features. Vaucluse has become celebrated by the fact that Petrarch set the plot of his lyrical collection Rerum vulgarium fragmenta and experienced primarily here his long and unfulfilled love for Laura. The nature around Vaucluse served as a means for evoking the fleeting visits by Laura to the valley. The continually changing natural backdrop serves to create the effect of an analogy or contrast to his spiritual states of mind.
Vaucluse is located in a strong polemical tension in relation to Avignon which was home to the Papal Curia in Petrarch’s day and which was a truly lively political and cultural centre at the time. Petrarch constantly attacked the French Papal Curia as a historical anomaly which had broken away from the apostolic beginnings, forsaken Holy Rome and was in his eyes living a life of debauchery. Petrarch’s descriptions of Avignon are extremely expressive and display his profound disgust with the situation. In the descriptions, Petrarch makes use of metaphorical images, comparisons with Babylon, Hell and a labyrinth. He employs almost apocalyptic rhetoric in long impassioned lines and metaphors focused on the sins, vices and debaucheries which reign in Avignon.
The third prominent locale in Provence is Mont Ventoux which Petrarch climbed on 26 April 1336 accompanied by his brother. This was only a short incident in his life and there are even doubts existing as to whether the climb actually even took place. Nevertheless, this letter, with its remarkable depiction of the mountain scenery and masterful transition between the description of the actual ascent and a description of his spiritual states of mind, has become one of Petrarch’s most celebrated texts. The present book is primarily concerned with the autobiographical features of the letter and the poet’s subjectivity linked with a feeling for the natural world. A detailed commentary has been written about the letter.
The book deals with the above-mentioned three locales with the use of all of the relevant criticism. It takes a stance on the various interpretative positions. It is actually the first book ever to place the three locales in Provence into mutual linkages and study their literary depictions in one piece. It focuses attention on the connections with literary tradition (in particular the typologies, locus amoenus, locus horridus, mountains as a point of contact with the deity), on the actual, allegorical and symbolic portrayal of space, the moral connotations of places, Petrarch’s autobiographical exhibitions, the innovative treatment of nature in love discourse and the depiction of literary space from the perspective of literary theory (first and foremost a phenomenological focus). The book also provides a complete translation of the relevant texts with a detailed commentary accompanying them. The majority of these texts have been translated into Czech for the first time.