Petrarch's Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul: A Modern English Translation of De Remediis Utriusque Fortune, With a Commentary by Conrad H. Rawski

by Francesco Petrarca

.."". historical lore and tales of virtue, rascality and wonder fromancient and medieval times. Conrad H. Rawski... gives us a translation that ismuscular, graceful and suggestive of Petrarch's Latin style... Anyone who can get toa library that can afford this work will find a great old world filled with humor, folly, failure and glory, all suffused with an eloquent and gentle wisdom."" --New York Times Book Review .."". reveals much about the lifesituation, the external hazards and the inner moral dilemmas of European society...The translation itself is accurate, strong and pungent."" -- CharlesTrinkaus ""This is philology at its scholarship thatenables us to hear the voices of the past."" --Speculum .."". a formidable example of thorough and dedicatedscholarship.... There is little question that it represents the definitive study ofthe De Remediis for all time."" -- RenaissanceQuarterly ""Rawski's achievement is thus not simply to havemade Petrarch's great moral encyclopaedia accessible to the modern reader who has noLatin, but in addition to have made it possible to appreciate the full extent ofPetrarch's learning as it is displayed in the De remediis.... No serious library canafford to be without these elegantly printed volumes... and no serious medieval orRenaissance scholar can afford to ignore them."" -- ItalianStudies .."". an admirable and meticulous work of scholarly.Elegantly produced... it is sure to stimulate a renewal of interest in Petrarch'sLatin treatise both among specialist and non-specialist readers."" -- RomancePhilology ""Petrarch's miraculous achievement was to bring anantique Roman secular mind, with much of its knowledge and sensibility, back to lifein a radically foreign and antipathetic 14th-century world... The translation isengaging idiomatic English, that mirrors Petrarch's thought and rhetoricalregister... "" -- Choice The greatest scholar of his age, Petrarch was far more than an inspired writer of Italian love poetry. At the time ofits publication in 1366, De remediis utriusque Fortune was his most popular andinfluential work. This guide to the resolution of moral and philosophical crisesremains universal and timeless to this day. A Petrarchan Remedyfor Prosperity (Academic Titles):
I am professor of the LiberalArts.
This subject often contains more impudence thanknowledge.

Genres: Philosophy

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Famous Italian poet, scholar, and humanist Francesco Petrarca, known in English as Petrarch, collected love lyrics in Canzoniere .

People often call Petrarch the earliest Renaissance "father of humanism". Based on Petrarch's works, and to a lesser extent those of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio, Pietro Bembo in the 16th century created the model for the modern Italian language, which the Accademia della Crusca later endorsed. People credit Petrarch with developing the sonnet. They admired and imitated his sonnets, a model for lyrical poems throughout Europe during the Renaissance. Petrarch called the Middle Ages the Dark Ages.

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A veritable compendium of proto-humanist moral philosophy interspersed with intriguing snippets of daily life in the late 14th century. Susannah Dobson's 1791 translation is also an antique in its own right. Although Dobson engages in some creative collaging of Petrarch's fragmented question-and-answer dialogue so as to flow more like a single, coherent narrative, the result remains highly readable even after two hundred years. A beautiful parting gift of Petrarch's from this life that aims less to 'delight' in the Boccaccian vein than instruct in its sober critique of social institutions and the passing vanities of life, be it fancy hats, false friends, or the pursuit of earthly glory.

[Catherine Theis]

So I had to return vol. 1 to the library. There are 3 other vols to go, and 1 vol of notes. I need a villa in order to properly get this. Maybe Petrarch will loan me his Padova house.