Petrarch's Canzoniere

The poetry of Petrarch, including the love poems to Laura, brought to the 21st Century ina new, direct and luminous verse translation. 670 years ago Francesco Petrarch settled down to write of his love for young Laura, spied by him on an April day and stolen by the plague exactly a year later. His work is one of civilization's most immaculate achievements, opening out into spirituality and nature and refining the sonnet form. Following his acclaimed translation of Dante's Inferno, which 'immediately joins ranks with the very best available in English' (Richard Lansing), Peter Thornton brings the poetry of Petrarch to the 21st Century in direct and luminous verse. Complete with introduction and explanatory notes. AUTHOR: The Italian poet Petrarch is one of the supreme love poets of world literature. Born in Italy in 1304, he moved with his family to Provence. On April 6, 1327, in a church in Avignon, Petrarch was smitten by the sight of a young woman named Laura. She did not return his love, but the love stayed with Petrarch even after Laura's early death. Love became a spiritual ideal, redolent in the natural world. Laura inspired the 366 poems that make up his Canzoniere, or Rerum vulgarum fragmenta, translated here as Scattered Rhymes. Petrarch lived till 1374, and was writing and revising his sonnets into his last years. Peter Thornton grew up in New York City and attended a Jesuit prep school in Manhattan where the curriculum was still based on Latin and Greek. After graduating from Boston College, he originally set out to be an academic. He took a Ph.D. in English literature at Stanford and taught for several years at Bradley University in Illinois. Then, like his father and his three brothers, he decided to become a lawyer and spent the rest of his career happily practising law in Chicago, where he was recognised as a leading practitioner. The intellectual rigor of the law, however, did not satisfy his hunger for poetry and he spent decades translating Dante and Petrarch into English verse. Peter's translation of Dante's Inferno was acclaimed by Richard Lansing as a work that 'immediately joins ranks with the very best available in English.'

A poet laureate of Rome, many claim Petrarch's work as kickstarting the Renaissance. Much of his writing was in Latin, but his sequence of poems in the vernacular, triggered by the sight of a young woman named Laura, became a foundation of modern Italian. Laura did not return the poet's love, but  Petrarch stayed true even after Laura’s early death. Laura inspired the 366 poems that make up this world classic, Canzoniere. Petrarch died in his seventies in 1374, and was writing and revising his sonnets into his last years. The late Peter Thornton was a supreme 21st century example of a being from earlier centuries: a gentleman scholar. He gained a PhD on Milton’s Paradise Lost and was a professor of English for a while, but eventually shifted careers from academia to the law.  His passion for the poetry of Renaissance Italy never lessened, though, and he worked to translate it for the modern English-speaking world. Leading Dante scholars poured praise on his translation of Dante’s Inferno ­– which “immediately joins ranks with the very best available in English” (Richard Lansing). Peter then took on the intense challenge of presenting Petrarch in English for the modern ear. Battling cancer, he stayed sublimely happy, his last days being in editorial meetings adding the final refinements to this delicious text. It stands as a crowning achievement to a remarkable life.