Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca, known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian poet and scholar born in Arezzo to a family exiled from Florence. Raised near the papal court at Avignon, he studied law at Montpellier and Bologna before turning to literature and classical learning. He is credited with helping recover Latin manuscripts and is widely regarded as an early figure of Renaissance humanism. His vernacular love lyrics, the "Canzoniere" addressed to a woman he called Laura, popularized the sonnet form later associated with his name. He undertook diplomatic missions and moved among Avignon, Vaucluse, Parma, Milan, Venice, and Padua, dying at Arquà.