WorkPetrarch (Francesco Petrarca)

Il Canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta)

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) (1304–1374) · Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, c. 1374

InferredPetrarch is named alongside Dante and Michelangelo. Fuller’s reading of Petrarch is mediated through Ugo Foscolo’s Essays on Petrarch (R01), which she references in a postscript: "I looked all through the life of Petrarch for your pencil-marks." Fuller analyzes Petrarch primarily as a love poet.

TranslatedExcerptedAnalyzedReadMentioned

Documented 1836–1846

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Books • Journals • Notebooks • Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist3records

V. New York

VI. Europe2records

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1836—

Notebook: Bouquet, 1836–1837

p194

excerpted · readManuscript page

“Tu sai ben che 'n altrui non ho speranza]”

Fuller, Margaret. "Notebook: Bouquet, 1836–1837." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (43); Box 6 (43).

Transcribed [not in SMF hand?] and labeled 'Petrarch Sonnet 86.' The sonnet 'I' vo piangendo i miei passati tempi' is Petrarch's Canzoniere No. CCCLXV (365), the penultimate poem of the collection and last sonnet, in which Petrarch laments wasted years spent in mortal love rather than aspiring to God.

1840—

Journal 1840

p9–p10

analyzed · readManuscript page

“The other is letters from Petrarch to some woman.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1840." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (85); Box 5 (85).

1841—

The Dial

“Klopstock and Meta” · Vol. I, No. 3, January 1841, January 1841 · pp. 309?313

analyzed · read

“Art thou not," I replied, "the love of Petrarch?”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.

Inferred Petrarch is named explicitly, and his muse, Laura, appears as a character in Fuller's vision.

1845—

Papers on Literature and Art

p26

read

“Found in Petrarch's sonnets”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

Inferred Named in Barrett's 'Lady Geraldine's Courtship' (quoted by Fuller). 'Petrarch's sonnets' specifies the Canzoniere.

1845—

Letter to James Nathan

p159

analyzed · read

“But both Dante and Petrarch, though they truly loved, did not keep themselves sacred to the celestial Venus, but turned aside in hours of weakness to a lower love.”

Fuller, Margaret. Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845-1846. With an introduction by Julia Ward Howe. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1903.

Inferred Petrarch is named alongside Dante and Michelangelo. Fuller’s reading of Petrarch is mediated through Ugo Foscolo’s Essays on Petrarch (R01), which she references in a postscript: "I looked all through the life of Petrarch for your pencil-marks." Fuller analyzes Petrarch primarily as a love poet.

1846—

Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson

p248

analyzed

“in this instance it was Petrarch in Laura, the last word pronounced with his ineffable sarcasm of drawl.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

Inferred Fuller writes "it was Petrarch in Laura"—Petrarch is named explicitly, and "Laura" identifies his beloved muse and the subject of his Canzoniere (also called Rime Sparse).

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Journal 1833–1842

p10–p11

readManuscript page

“Art Thou not, I replied, The love of Petrarch?”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1833–1842." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (83); Box 5 (83).

Inferred Fuller names Petrarch only through the character of Laura ('Art Thou not, I replied, The love of Petrarch?'); the canonical work containing Laura is the Canzoniere. Fuller explicitly identifies her as 'The love of Petrarch' and as 'Laura.' The Laura of Petrarch's Canzoniere (also called Rime sparse or Il Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta) is the defining reference; Fuller mentions having 'seen the portraiture of thy mortal lineaments' — i.e., she has seen portraits of Laura. Title inferred because Fuller names only the figure ('love of Petrarch') without citing the Canzoniere by name; however, Laura is unique to that work.

Fuller explicitly identifies her as 'The love of Petrarch' and as 'Laura.' The Laura of Petrarch's Canzoniere (also called Rime sparse or Il Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta) is the defining reference; Fuller mentions having 'seen the portraiture of thy mortal lineaments' — i.e., she has seen portraits of Laura.

n.d.—

Meta in Elysium

p1–p2

analyzedManuscript page

“The love of Petrarch, whose soul grew up in golden fetters, whose strongest emotions, whose most natural actions were through a long life, constantly / respected by the dictates of duty and honor.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Meta in Elysium." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Inferred Meta explicitly invokes Petrarch as a comparison: 'The love of Petrarch, whose soul grew up in golden fetters, whose strongest emotions, whose most natural actions were through a long life, constantly [respected by the dictates of duty and honor].' This is a critical-comparative mention. No specific Petrarch work is named, but the Canzoniere / Rime Sparse (his love poetry for Laura) is the implicit referent.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p137

excerpted · analyzed · read

“I have added three sonnets of Petrarca, all written after the death of Laura. They are among his noblest, all pertinent to the subject, and giving three aspects of that one mood.”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.

Inferred Margaret Fuller engages with Francesco Petrarca's Canzoniere, selecting three sonnets composed after the death of Laura, which she deems "among his noblest." Fuller's analysis highlights Petrarch's spiritual evolution, noting how his muse "puts on celestial plumage" only after Laura's passing, suggesting her editorial choice to identify the work with the in morte di Madonna Laura section.