by Francesco Petrarca
edited and translated by Nicholas Mann
Harvard University Press, 2016
Cloth: 978-0-674-00346-0
Library of Congress Classification PQ4496.E29S33 2016
Dewey Decimal Classification 853.1

ABOUT THIS BOOK | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), one of the greatest of Italian poets, was also the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive literary Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, and Greco-Roman culture in general. My Secret Book (Secretum) records “the private conflict of my thoughts,” in the form of a dialogue between Franciscus and Augustinus in the presence of a beautiful woman, Truth personified. The discussion reveals remarkable self-awareness as Petrarca probes and evaluates the springs of his own morally dubious addictions to Fame and Love.