What made Cicero so fascinating to Petrarch?

Upvote:5

Ancient literature was not widely known and not read before Petrarch's time. He had a luck of discovering Cicero's letters. Apparently he personally discovered them in some storage. He read them and was excited. That this was Cicero, not someone else seems to be an accident. (Perhaps he would be even more excited is he discovered Caesar's works). This started his interest to ancient Latin writings. He also read Virgil and Seneca. The time was ripe for this, and his interest to the ancient literature quickly spread. What exactly so excited him and others? Well, everything. Language, style, topics discussed. After all, classical Greek and Latin literature is widely read by modern people, unlike medieval literature. It is just a higher level of development of civilization.

More post

Search Posts

Related post