Francesco Petrarca | Solo et pensoso / Alone and thoughtful

Solo et pensoso i piú deserti campi

vo mesurando a passi tardi et lenti,

et gli occhi porto per fuggire intenti

ove vestigio human l’arena stampi.

Giovanni Fattori | Uomo nel bosco, 1880-1885

Altro schermo non trovo che mi scampi

dal manifesto accorger de le genti,

perché negli atti d’alegrezza spenti

di fuor si legge com’io dentro avampi:

sì ch’io mi credo omai che monti et piagge

et fiumi et selve sappian di che tempre

sia la mia vita, ch’è celata altrui.

Ma pur sí aspre vie né sí selvagge

cercar non so ch’Amor non venga sempre

ragionando con meco, et io co’llui.

Alone and thoughtful

Alone and thoughtful, through the most desolate fields,

I go measuring out slow, hesitant paces,

and keep my eyes intent on fleeing

any place where human footsteps mark the sand.

I find no other defence to protect me

from other people’s open notice,

since in my aspect, whose joy is quenched,

they see from outside how I flame within.

So now I believe that mountains and river-banks

and rivers and forests know the quality

of my life, hidden from others.

Yet I find there is no path so wild or harsh

that love will not always come there

speaking with me, and I with him.

Giorgio Vasari | Ritratto del Petrarca | Musée Fesch

Francesco Petrarca (20 July 1304 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch, was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.

Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Italian Renaissance and the founding of Renaissance humanism.

In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio, and, to a lesser extent, Dante Alighieri.

Petrarch was later endorsed as a model for Italian style by the Accademia della Crusca.

Petrarch's sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry.

He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the "Dark Ages".