Epistolae familiares

"Epistolae familiares" was originally called by Petrarch "Epistolarum mearum ad diversos liber" ("a book of my letters to different people"), which was shortened later to the current title.

Petrarch discovered the text of Cicero’s letters in 1345, which gave him the idea to collect his own sets of letters. It wasn't until four or five years later however, that he actually got started. He collected his letter correspondence in two different time periods. They are referred to as "Epistolae familiares" and "Sentiles".

"Epistolae familiares" (a.k.a. Familiar Letters) was largely collected during his stay in Provence about 1351 to 1353, however was not ultimately completed until 1359 when he was in Milan. Petrarch had this collection of letters copied onto parchment in 1359 by a certain "ingeniosus homo et amicus" with another complete copy done in 1364. He added letters in 1366, bringing his first collection of letters to 350. He broke these down and sorted them into 24 volumes. This first collection of letters called "Epistolae familiares" were actually written between the years 1325 and 1366. translation into English was done by historian James Harvey Robinson (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1898) in his book "The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters".] In January of 1350 Petrarch wrote a lengthy letter to his dear friend ("Socrates" as Petrarch like to call him) dedicating the collection to him. He requests his friend to keep the letters safely out of sight of the censors and critics. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-7134(196404)39%3A2%3C304%3AOTEOPL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4 JSTOR: "On the Evolution of Petrarch's Letter to Posterity" by Ernest H. Wilkins; Speculum, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr., 1964), pp. 304-308 doi:10.2307/2852733] ]

Letters of Seniles

Petrarch begun a second collection of letters in 1361, also known as "Letters of Old Age". It contains 128 letters written between 1361 and 1373. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-7134(196504)40%3A2%3C323%3AANFOPE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H JSTOR A New Fragment of Petrarch's Epistolae Seniles by K. V. Sinclair; Speculum, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Apr., 1965), pp. 323-325 doi:10.2307/2855561] ] It is also broken down and sorted into volumes (18 books). The final letter, the first and only of the 18th book is his incomplete "Letter to Posterity". Some English translations of this collection of letters that are out of copyright are available [http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/seniles.html here] translation into English were done by historian James Harvey Robinson (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1898) in his book "The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters".]

Letters of interest

*Letter to Posterity
*Ascent of Mont Ventoux

Litterae variae

There are many letters that Petrarch lost or did not keep a copy of. Others he destroyed the originals of for fear they would bring much criticism to his larger collection. There is a collection of 59 of these letters by Giuseppe Fracassetti.

Sine nomine

This special set (Book Without A Name) of letters Petrarch was too fond of to let out of his hands of some nineteen letters was kept out of the main body of "Familiar Letters" to give respect to the papacy and the controversial lavish lifestyle practiced at Avignon. Liber sine nomine is an epitome of this same work in one "volume without a title" (which is 19 letters).

References

External links

* [http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/courses/paperdesc.asp?PaperID=319&CourseID=3092&SubjectID=CML Oxford University reference to "Prose", ed. G.Martillotti, P.G.Ricci, E.Carrara, E.Bianchi, Milano-Napoli, 1955] "The Latin Works of Petrarch."
* [http://www.bibliotecaitaliana.it:6336/dynaweb/bibit/autori/p/petrarca/familiares/ Examples of Petrarch's letters from "Epistolae familiares" in Latin only from Italian institution Biblioteca Italiana]
* [http://www.bibliotecaitaliana.it:6336/dynaweb/bibit/autori/p/petrarca/seniles/ Examples of Petrarch's letters from "Seniles" in Latin only from Italian institution Biblioteca Italiana]
* [http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/letters_list.html Complete list of all the books and the letters within the collection] as titled by [http://www.italicapress.com/index265.html Aldo S. Bernardo] .
* [http://petrarch.freeservers.com/ Medieval Sourcebook: Francesco Petrarch: Letters, c 1372]
* [http://www.todayinliterature.com/biography/francesco.petrarch.asp Francesco Petrarch - Life Stories, Books, and Links]
* [http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/letters.html Familiar Letters with some English translations]
* [http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/berlin/renaissa.html University of Chicago: Renaissance Humanism]
* [http://petrarch.freeservers.com/ Petrarch's preface to his Familiar Letters]
* [http://www.sophiarte.org/ SophiArte on Petrarch's letters]
* [http://www.schoyencollection.com/medieval-renlit.htm#1954 Seniles: Volumes 9 - 17]
* [http://petrarch.freeservers.com/ The Petrarchan Grotto]