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<img height='225' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/1290.jpg'> 
Francesco Petrarca 
700th Anniversary of Birth 
Scott 1290 (2004)</center>
 
On November 18, 2004, Vatican City issued the stamp illustrated above to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the birth of the Italian poet, scholar, and humanist Francesco Petrarca, who is more commonly known as Petrarch. Known for his work in reviving interest in classical literature, Petrarch is considered the 'Father of Humanism' and is associated with the rise of the early Renaissance.
 
Francesco Petrarca was born on July 20, 1304, in the city of Arezzo, in central Italy. However, he spent much of his early life in France at Avignon, where his family moved in 1309 to follow Pope Clement V, who had moved there to begin the Avignon Papacy. Initially, Petrarca studied law, but his primary interest was Latin literature and writing. He eventually left the law to pursue work which allowed him to devote time to his writing and literary studies. 
 
Around 1327, Petrarch encountered the woman who would be the focus of his literary works: “Laura”. Sometimes identified as Laura de Noves (the wife of Count Hugues de Sade, an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade), Petrarch would eventually write 366 poems centered on his love for her. His "Rime Sparse" (or “Scattered Rhymes” in English), contains 317 sonnets, the literary form he is credited with developing and popularizing (also known as the “Italian sonnet” or “Petrarchan sonnet”).
 
As Petrarch’s fame as a scholar and poet grew, in 1340, he was invited to be crowned the poet laureate by both the University of Paris and the Senate of Rome. He chose Rome, and, on April 8, 1341 (Easter Sunday), he accepted his title during a ceremony at the Capitol.
 
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<img height='375' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Altichiero%2C_ritratto_di_Francesco_Petrarca.jpg'> 
Portrait of Francesco Petrarca by Altichiero (circa 1370–1380) 
From Wikimedia Commons, in the Publice Domain</center>
 
A celebrity throughout Europe, Petrarch traveled widely for pleasure, leading him to be labeled “the first tourist.” His travels led him to visit men of learning and to search monastic libraries for Classical manuscripts. While in Verona in 1345, he rediscovered some of the Roman scholar Cicero’s letters. This is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Italian Renaissance and the founding of Renaissance humanism.
 
Above all, Petrarch was regarded as the greatest scholar of his age. He died in 1374, at age 69, in Padua.
 
REFERENCES: 
<li>Wikipedia.com, <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrarch'>Petrarch</a> 
<li>Poets.org, <a href='https://poets.org/poet/petrarch'>Petrarch</a> 
<li>Britannica.com, <a href='https://www.britannica.com/biography/Petrarch'>Petrarch</a> 
<li>UFN, November 18, 2004, <a href='https://vaticanstamps.org/UFN/images/2004-2-09-1.jpg'>VII Centenary of the Birth of Francesco Petrarca</a> 
<li>Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search

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