Essays on Petrarch

The project for a systematic critical work on Petrarch was fed by the desire to continue the articles on Dante published by the “Edinburgh Review” with a contribution on the other great poet of the 14^th century and from the conversations at the salon of Sir Henry Russell where Foscolo read and commented on Petrarch's verses addressing, above all, Caroline Russell. Between February and March 1820 the writer, who was working less with the “Edinburgh Review”, published eight copies of an article on Petrarch that would subsequently be taken up by the “Quarterly Review” in 1821; after another limited edition for the Russells in 1821, the final version of Essays on Petrarch was brought out, in English, in 1823 by the Murray publisher, containing four chapters translated into English by Lady Mary Graham and by Charles Russell, the brother of Caterina: On the Love of Petrarch, On the Poetry of Petrarch, On the Character of Petrarch, A Parallel between Dante and Petrarch. The book was quickly translated into Italian by Camillo Ugoni and published in Lugano in 1824.

The Essays come with a broad, erudite non-original doctrinal apparatus that Foscolo drew from various sources. After a historical and philosophical introduction to the concept of love, in On the love of Petrarch the author retraces the biographical and psychological affairs of the two lovers to which he gives a historic basis and reconstructs (also establishing a link with his love for Caroline) the phases of Petrarch falling in love with Laura, whose psychological profile is outlined from the poet's verses. The essay On the poetry of Petrarch is important; in this the writer deepens analysis of the linguistic, stylistic, rhythmic and phonic aspects of Petrarch's poetry, analysing the sources used by the poet and retracing the creative process of Petrarch's love poetry, almost living them in first person, and linking the role of critic to that of poet. In A parallel between Dante and Petrarch, the critic dwells on the two authors' different linguistic choices, highlighting the innovative spirit and bold choices of the former and the elegant, refined options taken by the latter.