{"id":1302,"date":"2026-06-23T08:27:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/?page_id=1302"},"modified":"2026-08-19T07:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:35:26","slug":"francesco-petrarca","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/francesco-petrarca\/","title":{"rendered":"Francesco Petrarca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p>Francesco Petrarca (Arezzo, July 20, 1304 \u2013 Arqu\u00e0, July 19, 1374) was an Italian writer, poet, philosopher, and\nphilologist, considered the forerunner of Humanism for his rediscovery of the Latin classics and his search\nfor a complex inner consciousness that transcends the medieval vision. He is also one of the cornerstones of\nItalian literature, especially thanks to his most famous work, the Canzoniere (1336), in which he celebrates his\nlove for Laura\u2014perhaps Laura de Noves, wife of the aristocrat Hugh de Sade\u2014a beloved and idealized woman,\na symbol of beauty and earthly desire, at the center of a tormented inner conflict. His work, in the vernacular\nand Latin, profoundly influenced European literature, championed as a model of stylistic excellence by Pietro\nBembo in the early sixteenth century.<br \/>\nAnother significant work of his is the Triumphs, an allegorical poem in\nvernacular Italian, written in tercets, divided into twelve chapters grouped into six Triumphs, each dedicated\nto a vision seen in a dream.<br \/>\nIt features a succession of six triumphs, in which each allegory defeats the previous: in order, Love, Modesty,\nDeath, Fame, Time, and Eternity. The work analyzes man\u2019s ideal journey from sin to redemption. At the same\ntime, the Triumphs fit coherently into Petrarch\u2019s literary journey: it is precisely here that the poet develops\nsome key themes of the Canzoniere, such as the spiritualization of his love for Laura. In the Triumphus Cupidinis\n(Triumph of Love), it is told how, one day, the poet falls asleep in Vaucluseand has a dream in which the\npersonification of Love passes by on a triumphal chariot, followed by a host of love\u2019s vanquished.Having joined\nthe group, the poet recognizes numerous illustrious figures\u2014literary, mythological, and biblical\u2014as well as ancient\npoets, and is finally led to Cyprus, the island where Venus was born.<br \/>\nHere, drawing on classical tradition,\nhe offers us a transposition of one of the legends connected to the founding myth of the city of Scylla, narrated\nby Ovid in the Metamorphoses and linked to the unrequited love of Glaucus, therefore one of those vanquished\nby love, for the nymph Scylla.\nRejected because of the appearance he assumed following the ingestion of a magical herb, which transformed\nhalf of his body into a fish, Glaucus turns to the sorceress Circe to prepare a potion capable of changing the\nnymph\u2019s feelings.\nBut Circe, herself in love with Glaucus and hurt by his rejection, transforms the spell into revenge.\nBlinded by jealousy, she causes Scylla\u2019s tragic metamorphosis, transforming her into a monstrous form and\nthus inscribing the myth into the symbolic origin of the place that takes her name.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cAmong these fabulous and vain loves<br \/>\nI saw Acis and Galalea, who was in his lap<br \/>\nAnd Polyphemus making a great noise about it;<br \/>\nGlaucus swaying through that crowd,<br \/>\nWithout her whom he seems to prize alone,<br \/>\nNaming another lover, bitter and wild:<br \/>\nCarmente and Picus, once one of our kings,<br \/>\nNow a lovely bird; and whoever moved him,<br \/>\nLet him have his name and his royal mantle and his insignia.<br \/>\nI saw Egeria weep; and instead of bones,<br \/>\nScylla harden into rough and alpine stone,<br \/>\nWhich would be the infamy of the Sicilian sea;\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Thus he describes Glaucus, who, <i>\u201cwaving through that crowd,\u201d<\/i>wanders in the procession <i>\u201cwithout the one he\nseems to prize alone,\u201d<\/i>that is, without the one he seems to esteem most of all, Scylla, while he calls for <i>\u201canother\nlover\u201d<\/i>Circe,whom he describes as <i>\u201cbitter and wild\u201d.<\/i>Scylla appears immediately afterward and is the tragic result\nof that chain of passions: <i>\u201cand instead of bones \/ Scylla hardens into rough, alpine stone\u201d;<\/i>she is no longer\nmade of bones, she no longer has human features, but has assumed those of a rugged, high rock,<i> \u201cthat was the\ninfamy of the Sicilian sea,\u201d<\/i>the same rock that still bears her name today.<br \/>\nof a rugged, high rock, \u201cthat was the\ninfamy of the Sicilian sea,\u201d the same rock that still bears her name today. Thus Petrarch contrasts the restless\nmotion of Glaucus with the monstrous fixity of Scylla: a rock guarding the sea of the Strait of Messina, a visible\nand permanent sign of the ruin wrought by vain loves, directly tying their amorous torment to the place where\nthey are located. Petrarch uses this story to show how love generates vain passions, envy, and painful transformations,\nconfirming that passionate love does not elevate, but overwhelms and destroys.<br \/>\nThe second triumph\nis the Triumphus Pudicitie (Triumph of Modesty): the protagonist is Laura, who, with the help of Modesty and\nafter a fierce battle, defeats Love and snatches many illustrious ancient and medieval women from his chariot.\nThis second procession ends in Rome, in the Temple of Patrician Modesty. In this passage, Petrarch, through\nprecise geographical references to the brutal forces of nature that act around the Strait of Messina, embodied\nin ancient classical myths, gives us a sense of the intensity of the conflict that unfolds between Laura and Love.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cWith no other noise of the chest are given<br \/>\nTwo fierce lions, or two burning lightning bolts,<br \/>\nThat make way for heaven and earth and sea,<br \/>\nFor I saw Love with all his arguments<br \/>\nMove against her of whom I speak,<br \/>\nAnd she far swifter than flame or wind.<br \/>\nThey do not make so great and so terrible a sound<br \/>\nEtna when most shaken by Enceladus,<br \/>\nScylla and Charybdis when they are angry,<br \/>\nThat on the first move there was no greater way<br \/>\nOf the doubtful and grave assault,<br \/>\nWhich I do not believe I know nor can repeat.<br \/>\nEach one withdrew upward,<br \/>\nTo see better; and the horror of the enterprise<br \/>\nhad made their hearts and eyes enamel.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Not even Mount Etna, when shaken by the giant Enceladus, or the roar of <i>\u201cScylla and Charybdis when they are\nangry,\u201d<\/i>that is, at the height of the turbulence of the sea currents they generate in the Strait of Messina\u2014beyond the\nsymbolic value of mythological figures, synonymous with brutal force\u2014produce a sound as terrifying as the\n\u201cdubious and grave assault\u201d (the harsh combat) brought by Laura on Cupid, which he witnesses. In short, the\npassage allegorically represents the victory of Laura\u2019s virtue over the temptations of passionatelove, described\nin an epic language that underscores the grandeur of the event.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-2\"><p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Giuseppe Ribuffo<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-2 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div ><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-custom fusion-button-default button-1 fusion-button-default-span\" style=\"--button_accent_color:#f20800;--button_border_color:#2038b2;--button_accent_hover_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_border_hover_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_top_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_bottom_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_top_color_hover:var(--awb-color4);--button_gradient_bottom_color_hover:var(--awb-color4);--button_text_transform:none;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/athanasius-kircher\/\"><i class=\"fa-angle-double-right fas awb-button__icon awb-button__icon--default button-icon-left\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><span class=\"fusion-button-text awb-button__text awb-button__text--default\">Next page: 48. Athanasius Kircher, Mundus subterraneus, 1665<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1832,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1302","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Francesco Petrarca - Discover Scilla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/francesco-petrarca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Francesco Petrarca - Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/francesco-petrarca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T07:35:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/47-L.-Ducros1778.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1791\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/francesco-petrarca\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/francesco-petrarca\\\/\",\"name\":\"Francesco Petrarca - 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