Petrarch's 'Fragmenta': The Narrative and Theological Unity of 'Rerum vulgarium fragmenta'

by Thomas E Peterson

Overview

Petrarch's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, a collection of lyric  poems on sacred and profane love and other subjects, has traditionally been viewed as reflecting the conflicted nature of its author. However, award winning author Thomas E. Peterson argues that Petrarch’s  Fragmenta is an ordered and coherent work unified by narrative and theological structures.

By concentrating on the poem’s reliance on Christian tenets and distinguishing between author, narrator and character, Peterson exposes the underlying narrative and theological unity of the work. Building on recent Petrarch scholarship and broader studies of medieval poetics, poetic narrativity, and biblical intertextuality, Peterson conducts a rigorous examination of the Fragmenta’s poetic language. This combination of stylistic and philological analysis recasts Petrarch’s poetry in a new light revealing its radically innovative and liberating character.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487500023
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	05/06/2016
Series:	Toronto Italian Studies
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.06(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Thomas E. Peterson serves on the Scientific Committee of the Centro Studi Franco Fortini at the University of Siena and is Professor of Italian at the University of Georgia.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Petrarch Today: A Focus on Narrativity
2. Humanism and Poetic Theology
3. A History of Return

Chapter 1: Historical Context and PoeticForm

1. The Poetry of the Tradition
2. Style, Genre,Structure
3. The Proem of the Fragmenta (Rvf 1–10)

Chapter 2: Temporality andDesire

1. Entering the Selva of the FirstCentenary
2. The Dimension of Fable in the ‘Raccolta of 1342’
3. Further Consequences ofFable

Chapter 3: The Language of Tears (Rvf 92–122)

1. A Parable of Return
2. Nature, Landscape, Solitude
3. The Secretum and Canzone

Chapter 4: In fresca riva: Landscape and History(Rvf 125–183)

1. Canzoni 125–129
2. Saint Peter and the AvignonChurch
3. Antithesis and Parallelism

Chapter5: The Penitent Lover (Rvf 184–263)

1. The Fading Myth of Daphne
2. Out of the Labyrinth, Away From the World
3. APoetics of Quietude

Chapter 6: Songs of Grief and Lamentation (Rvf 264–317)

1. “Quelle pietosebraccia” (264, 14)
2. “Come va ’l mondo!” (290, 1)
3. Augustinian Time and the Process ofGrieving

Chapter 7: Songs of Consecration (Rvf 319–366)

1. The In Between Time of Parable
2. Friendship and Dialogue,Memory and Solitude
3. Seeds of Grace

Conclusion

1. Historical Reception and the Figure of Petrarch
2. “Altr’uom” (Narrative, Style, Theology)
3. An Autopoietic Unity

Notes

Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Alison Cornish

“Peterson shows us how Petrarch's collection of lyric poems is a narrative: it is the story of how the single enamored individual becomes the exemplary "bearer of a collective cultural message." Under the sweet surface of its scarce lyrical lexicon and the architecture of its numerical, calendric, and metrical forms there is an energy of political invective, historical agency and authentic religious devotion.”

Paul Colilli

“Thomas E. Peterson provides detailed and meticulous readings of many of the poems from the Canzoniere and does so from the perspective of themes that are central to Petrarch and to the Medieval mind in general.”

Editorial Reviews

"Peterson’s stimulating book has the merit of inducing the reader to revisit the complexity of the Canzoniere as a work in which, in an innovative way, a story of transformation is narrated."

—Susanna Barsella, Fordham University, Speculum, Vol 94 no 3, July 2019

"Peterson shows us how Petrarch's collection of lyric poems is a narrative: it is the story of how the single enamored individual becomes the exemplary "bearer of a collective cultural message." Under the sweet surface of its scarce lyrical lexicon and the architecture of its numerical, calendric, and metrical forms there is an energy of political invective, historical agency and authentic religious devotion."

—Alison Cornish, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan

"Thomas E. Peterson provides detailed and meticulous readings of many of the poems from the Canzoniere and does so from the perspective of themes that are central to Petrarch and to the Medieval mind in general."

—Paul Colilli, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Laurentian University

From the Publisher

"Peterson's stimulating book has the merit of inducing the reader to revisit the complexity of the Canzoniere as a work in which, in an innovative way, a story of transformation is narrated."

Speculum, Vol 94 no 3, July 2019 - Susanna Barsella