PETRARCH THE MAN 



La Scena degli Amori del Petrarca, by Flamini, who has 

 no doubt as to the existence of a real Laura, a real 

 passion on Petrarch's part, and also, of course, a real 

 setting. First of all, we need not be troubled by 

 Petrarch's apparently contradictory statements about 

 his first meeting with Laura: one date, Friday, April 

 lo, 1327, is given in Era il giorno ch^al sol si scoloraro; 

 another, Monday, April 6, occurs in three places — 

 in the Trionfi {Uora prima era^l dt sesto d'Aprile), at 

 the close of the sonnet beginning Voglia mi sprona, and 

 in the entry in the Ambrosian Virgil. We need not 

 assume, with Wulff, the existence of two Lauras; it is 

 quite possible that he should have seen the lady in 

 church on Monday of Holy Week in Avignon, and, 

 attracted by her beauty, have sought her (under the 

 pretext of hunting, of which he was always fond), in 

 the country, where he was fortunate enough to meet 

 her again on Good Friday. If this second meeting took 

 place outside Avignon, her real home can hardly have 

 been in that city; and that real home, her birthplace, 

 and the various places where Petrarch saw her, form, 

 with her identity, the subjects of Flamini's study. 

 Petrarch says Laura was born in a "picciol borgo." 

 There are a number of small towns, not far from 

 Avignon, any one of which might have been the place 

 — Graveson, Cabrieres, Thor, and Lagnes. None of 

 these Flamini is willing to accept, nor Bondelon, very 

 close to Vaucluse; nor does he agree with Wulff, who 

 thought she might have visited from time "to time the 



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