Letters on Familiar Matters (Rerum Familiarium Libri): Books I-VIII

This translation makes available for the first time to English-speaking readers Petrarch’s earliest and perhaps most important collection of prose letters. They were written for the most part between 1325 and 1366, and were organized into the present collection of twenty-four books between 1345 and 1366. The collection represents a portrait of the artist as a young man seen through the eyes of the mature artist. Whether in the writing of poetry, or being crowned poet laureate, or in confessing his faults, describing the dissolution of the kingdom of Naples, summoning up the grandeur of ancient Rome, or in writing to pope or emperor, Petrarch was always the consummate artist, deeply concerned with creating a desired effect by means of a dignified gracefulness, and always conscious that his private life and thoughts could be the object of high art and public interest.Petrarch, Francesco is the author of 'Letters on Familiar Matters (Rerum Familiarium Libri): Books I-VIII', published 2005 under ISBN 9781599100005 and ISBN 1599100002.