Happy 700th to Petrarch

Roderick Conway Morris's article (Petrarch, the first humanist, May 29) in the International Herald Tribune has gotten me onto another Petrarch kick. (The last time this happened, it was because of researchers digging up the poor man's tomb yet again. It turned out that the skull and some other bones were actually those of an unknown woman.) Petrarch was born 700 years ago this year, and the Civic Museums in Padua, including the one in his house in Arquà Petrarca, are putting on some new exhibits. So we may now add 1304–2004 Celebrazioni Petrarchesche to the growing list of cultural celebrations this year. (See also Petrarca e il suo tempo [Petrarch and his time], April 30, from PadovaCultura.)

I have also just found Peter Sadlon's excellent Web site, Francesco Petrarch and Laura de Noves, as well as Rex Pay's Petrarch page for Humanistic Texts, Seth Jerchower's Petrarchan Grotto, this e-text version of an English translation of Petrarch's Familiar Letters from the illustrious Hanover Historical Texts Project, and this English translation of Petrarch's Canzoniere from A. S. Kline.