L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2017 L'Italo-Americano H aving explored the close relationship between the Sommo Poeta Dante Alighieri and his hometown of Florence, our journey in search of the origins of the "beautiful language" – that is, Italian – moves on to the city of Arezzo. As a matter of fact, it was right here in the easternmost part of Tuscany that another one of the so-called "Three Florentine crowns of the Italian language" was born on July 20, 1304: we are talking about none other than the great poet Francesco Petrarca, commonly known in English by the name of Petrarch. When it comes to dealing with the influence of these authors' most celebrated works on the development of la bella lingua, it appears that probably none of them, not even Dante's, have been as influential as Petrarca's greatest masterpiece: it was in the light of the 366 poems, mostly sonnets, included in his Rerum vulgarium fragmen- ta (Fragments of vernacular poet- ry) – also called Il Canzoniere (The Songbook) – that later Renaissance scholars such as Pietro Bembo would create the model for modern Italian lan- guage and literature, especially as it regards poetry. The main reason for this choice was that – even though Dante had lived just a few decades before Petrarch – the times had by then definitely started to change: whereas Dante and his works were still pretty much rooted in the medieval world-view, Petrarch represented in his writings a brand new philosophical perspective which would later have a huge impact on the birth of Humanism, thus laying the foundations for the Renaissance era. Despite the two poets' differ- ent attitudes, we find that Petrarch actually shared much of his origins and early life with Dante's own times. Even though Petrarca was born in Arezzo, his parents Eletta Canigiani and Pietro di Parenzo di Garzo – who was known as Ser Petracco, hence the surname – were in fact Florentine citizens in exile. Most importantly, Petrarch's father – an influential notary public from the little town of Incisa Valdarno – was also a close friend of Dante Alighieri, as they were both important members of the White Guelph faction: eventual- ly, though, the two of them would be banished from Firenze for political reasons as a result of the same sentence, thus forcing the fugitive Ser Petracco to take refuge with his family in Arezzo, where his son Francesco – the future poet Petrarch – was born. The house on Vicolo dell'Orto n. 28 – located in Arezzo's historic center, not far from the Piazza Grande main square and the local cathedral – is said to be the real birthplace of Francesco Petrarca: as it hap- pened with the "casa di Dante," though, there are no certainties, just popular traditions. However it may be, it is a fact that Petrarch – who considered him- self a Florentine nonetheless – wrote in several of his letters that he was born "in the heart of town." Although the original "casa del Petrarca" in Arezzo does not exist anymore, nowa- days we can admire a remark- able post-World War II recon- struction of the 16th century house that had substituted the medieval building in which the poet was supposedly born. To speak the truth, there is not much left of Petrarch's times here, and yet it is nonetheless very inter- esting to see how many different stories lay hidden inside these four walls. In the course of its centuries- long history, this large house has been used either as a private res- idence, as the local questura (police headquarters), or as the seat of the Accademia Petrarca di Lettere, Arte e Scienze (Petrarch Academy of Letters, Arts, and Sciences), a function that it still serves today. The ""casa del Petrarca" regularly hosts different kinds of confer- ences and lectures on the great poet as well as on other issues. Moreover, a small part of the house is open to the public as a museum showcasing priceless art treasures, such as a collection of fine paintings and as much as 500 ancient coins from different eras of the past. Most important- ly however, the building, which used to be a property of Petrarch's family, is now also home to a rich library of more SIMONE SANNIO Searching for the origins of La Bella Lingua (Part II): Petrarch and Arezzo than 15.000 items, including ancient scrolls and manuscripts, as well as the books that had once belonged to the famous 17th century Arezzo-born scien- tist Francesco Redi. If you want to find out more about the traces Petrarch left in his native city, you are probably willing to look somewhere else: for example, at the local Teatro Petrarca, the most important the- ater in Arezzo, or at the 1928 white marble monument stand- ing in the park next to the grand Fortezza Medicea (Medici Fortress). But even that is not enough after all: let's not forget that Petrarch was an exile's son and a real "citizen of the world," so that ultimately one has to look for his origins well beyond the borders of his hometown, in the rest of Tuscany and throughout Italy and Europe. It appears that Petrarca's family left Arezzo just a few months after his birth: first they moved to Incisa, where another family possession was (you can actually still find the "casa Petrarca" on the local Piazza Benassai in the Castello neighborhood), then they lived for a while in Pisa, where Ser Petracco was doing business and where – as Petrarch himself would later tell in a letter to Giovanni Boccaccio – young Francesco got to meet his father's friend Dante for the one and only time in his life. After a lifetime made of jour- neys and poetry above all, Petrarch would eventually settle down in a little town by the name of Arquà, nowadays locat- ed in the Veneto region, on the Euganean Hills (Colli Euganei) surrounding Padua. Here, in the town which is now called Arquà Petrarca in his honor, you can find and visit yet another "casa del Petrarca" on the Via Valleselle n. 4: it is the house in which Italy's great poet laureate spent his last days, leaving us with the "most beautiful of lan- guages" to inherit. Arezzo, the hometown of Petrarca ALL AROUND ITALY TRAVEL TIPS DESTINATIONS ACTIVITIES Petrarca, just like Dante, is considered one of the fathers of the Italian lan- guage

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