In What Ways Does Petrarch Embody the Spirit of the Renaissance

Petrarch(1304-1374), was a very well known person during the Renaissance; he was a scholar, poet, and was also one of the earliest humanist’s. Through what scholars and historians have gathered about him, it is pretty clear that Petrarch embodies the spirit of the Renaissance. So in what ways did he embody the spirit of the Renaissance?

The first way that Petrarch embodied the spirit of the renaissance, is by his emphasis of “self.” For example he wrote a series of “love,”poems about a woman named Laura. But in these poems he described a lot about how he felt. In one of these poems he mentioned himself more than twenty times, and Laura only twice. Another way that Petrarch embodies this spirit is how he was into “worldly fame.” Also he climbed an entire mountain just for fun, which was rather unheard of at the time.

In short, the ways that Petrarch embodied the spirit of the renaissance was by his emphasis of “self,” and his desire of “worldly fame.”