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From: John van Hezewyk
Date: 9/12/2003
Time: 12:41:55 AM
Remote Name: 67.243.39.114
To understand the man, it is important to understand his times; in that spirit, my question pertains to the history surrounding Petrarch's life. As a youth, he lived in the center of European culture and politics. His father, Ser, was a colleague and friend of Dante Alighieri, and joined the writer in exile. Later, Petrarch's father gained a poisition with the exiled papal court in Avignon. Taking Petrarch's life as a whole, he was a perennial exile, moving from city to city, changing loyalties as though clothing. Friends came and went in his life, as his political associations alternately alienated and endeared him. So here is the thought I submit: having lived so transient a life, could Petrarch really avoid being insecure in his position?