PETRARQUE and the Fontaine de Vaucluse

Petrarch, the great scholar of the fourteenth century, lived in Avignon and found refuge at the Fontaine de Vaucluse. Frédéric Mistral sang the Pays d'Arles with his love of Occitan. The surrealist poet René Char, Isle sur la Sorgue, made his city and discover the Vaucluse his surrealist friends. Jean Giono was the writer of the world Provençal peasant and his works regularly inspired the movie successfully.
The fourteenth century, Francesco Petrarch (1304 - 1374), a young Italian exile, has elegance, poise and eloquence that it will open doors prestigious. He began his studies at Carpentras. He ends at Montpellier and Bologna. He became a friend of Giacomo Colonna, son of an illustrious Roman family. Petrarch abandoned the law and devoted himself to literary pursuits while being forced to take orders to meet its needs. From an early age, his mother died, he wrote poems. Back to Avignon, he joined with Cardinal Giovanni Colonna but do not like to Avignon which seems to be her "new Babylon." Throughout his life, he traveled extensively in France, Paris, Flanders, Italy, but he always returns to Avignon.
In 1327, he met Laura de Noves, wife of Hugo Marquis de Sade. Petrarch was the thunderbolt. This love is not shared but under the rules of courtly love, his life, the poet writes poems in praise of this lady of high rank which is inaccessible.
Prolific writer, he wrote in Latin heroic biographies, rich correspondence with Great of his age, poems, stories like his ascent of Mont Ventoux and treaties. His first major book is "Africa"??, the story of the Second Punic War and the exploits of Scipio. It made ??him a writer recognized by his peers in Europe. The second famous work was "Canzonniere" a collection of poems written every year on his sublimated love for Laura.
Through his contacts, he met all the scholars, scientists and scholars visiting the Papal city. In 1338, to find peace and work peacefully, away from Avignon Petrarch and Laura de Noves and settled on the banks of the Sorgue, Fontaine de Vaucluse. He is seduced by the beauty, the tranquility of the place.
In 1348, while Petrarch is received Ambassador of the King of Hungary, a letter he learns the death of Laura de Noves, twenty one year to the day after they met and Avignon is ravaged by the Black Plague.
In contrast with the new Pope, Innocent VI, he decided to leave the Provence for Italy in 1353 where he became Ambassador of the Visconti family in Milan and Padua and Venice. He ended his life Arqua surrounded by his daughter from an unknown connection and his son.