Petrarca «en amours le vray maistre» e i poeti francesi del Rinascimento

Abstract

The well known strong influence of Petrarch’s lyric on the French Renaissance poetry withness the key role played by the Italian culture at that time. The rediscovery of the Canzoniere, between 1533 and 1550, can be seen as part of a rich cultural program linked to the wider expansion of the Valois monarchy, which is based on military power and politic influence. In this context, new socio-political dynamics can be observed in conceiving life at court and education, including some linguistic aspects such as lexical borrowings from Italian. The imitation of Petrarch’s love poetry is focused on a class of traditional themes associated to the poet’s persona, like suffering, fidelity, and pure love. Petrarchism implies a peculiar conception of poetry and of poet’s dignity, which allows the Pleiade’s poets to build up their common image as a group.