#23 - Early Renaissance, and Petrarch's thoughts about Dante.

Two forms of Humanism, both positive, but one with more Humility.

The poets Dante and Petrarch - two different Cosmologies and ideas of Humanism.

In this episode we'll look at what the poet and father of Humanism, Francesco Petrarch, wrote about Dante in a letter to Boccaccio, in the “Familiares XXI - 15”.

Dante and Petrarch in many ways represent the two main reactions to the deep corruption of the Church and the negative antropology that developed after the Schism in 1054: Dante regenerates a positive comprehensive cosmology, while Petrarch limits the focus to the human context and dismisses that which lies beyond.

But it is still an open question, as to why Petrarch refused to see how Dante introduces a positive form of Humanism in the Divine Comedy, and elevates the Classical Tradition and Greek Mythology, while still unifying this within something much bigger.