The influential Canzoniere is a collection of 366 outstanding love poems by Petrarch. Their inspiration was the elusive lady Laura, the object of Petrarch’s unrequited passion for nearly forty years, and at times a metaphor for his other obsession, worldly glory.

FRANCESCO DI PETRACCO, born 1304 and better known as Petrarch, was Italy’s greatest lyric poet, a diplomat, classical scholar, and humanist of the early Italian Renaissance. Petrarch is often called the “Father of Humanism” for his emphasis on human potential and achievements, which contrasted with the medieval focus on the divine.