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Petrarch's Secret; or the Soul's Conflict with Passion

By Francesco Petrarca

2020-03-10 19:59:01

Three Dialogues Between Petrarch and St. Augustine. The dialogue opens with Augustine chastising Petrarch for ignoring his own mortality and his fate in the afterlife by not devoting himself fully to God. Petrarch concedes that this lack of piety is ... Read more
Three Dialogues Between Petrarch and St. Augustine. The dialogue opens with Augustine chastising Petrarch for ignoring his own mortality and his fate in the afterlife by not devoting himself fully to God. Petrarch concedes that this lack of piety is the source of his unhappiness, but he insists that he cannot overcome it. The dialogue then turns to the question of Petrarch's seeming lack of free will, and Augustine explains that it is his love for temporal things (specifically Laura), and his pursuit of fame through poetry that "bind his will in adamantine chains." Petrarch's turn towards religion in his later life was inspired in part by Augustine's Confessions, and Petrarch imitates Augustine's style of self-examination and harsh self-criticism in Secretum. The ideas expressed in the dialogues are taken mostly from Augustine, particularly the importance of free will in achieving faith. Other notable influences include Cicero and other Pre-Christian thinkers. Less

Book Details

File size366.123 KB
Print pages122
PublisherPublic Domain Books
LanguageEnglish
ISBN978-1515135579
autor-image
Francesco Petrarca
Author
Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 18/19, 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar and poet during the early Italian Renaissance, and one of the earliest humanists. Pe...

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