PETRARCH THE MAN 



asserts that Petrarch's Laura was not Laura de Sade, 

 but an ideahzed type of womanhood — a muse who 

 inspired him, rather than a lady he loved. Franz X. 

 Kraus, in his essays, also adopts the theory of an ideal 

 woman. Canello sees in the name a pseudonym, like 

 those used by the Provencal poets. Bartoli (vol. VII 

 of his Storia della Letteratura italiana) accepts the 

 pseudonym hypothesis because (he says) no poet in 

 those days ever spoke of his lady by her right name; 

 and he mentions Fiammetta and Selvaggia as examples 

 to prove his point. Hauvette believes that Petrarch 

 saw and fell in love with a woman, but that she was not 

 Laura de Noves. Enrico Croce in his La vera Laura 

 e Francesco Petrarca is inclined to conjecture that she 

 was a maiden (not married and a mother) belonging 

 perhaps to the Colonna family, though born in Pro- 

 vence. Again (Minich, Sulla persona della celebre 

 Laura, 1878), Laura is made out to be the daughter of 

 Henri de Chabaud, or the daughter of Paul de Sade, in 

 either case a maiden. The Prince de Valori (Nouvelle 

 Revue, Nov. 15, Dec. i, 1896) thinks she was a maiden, 

 and of the family of Saint-Laurent. The Swedish 

 scholar, Wulff, believes that there were two Lauras, 

 one a lady of noble stock, the other of humble birth, 

 one woman of that name being the mother of Petrarch's 

 son Giovanni. 



The latest views are contained in an article pubHshed 

 in Supplement 12 of the Giornale Storico della Letteratura 

 italiana (1910), entitled Tra Valchiusa ed Avignone — 



60 



