Abondoning the 'Valley of Your Own Sinfulness': Francesco Petrarca as a Moral Philosopher

Abstract

This essay examines specific Latin works by Francesco Petrarca; The Mont Ventoux Letter, On Religious Leisure, Secretum, Letter III, 12 “To Marco Genovese,” and The Triumph of Eternity. By reading these works, this paper aims to reconstruct Petrarca’s position on salvation and the role that literature and poetry have in the pursuit of it. This essay also questions the traditional interpretation of the poet as torn between his responsibilities as good Christian and his love of poetry. Through a textual analysis of the works, especially Secretum, this essay finds that his Latin works contain a strategy for salvation that is based on specific guidelines for self-reflection. Additionally, Petrarca’s debt to the discussion on fourteenth century theology and moral philosophy is explored.