Francesco Petrarch A poet laureate of Rome, many claim Petrarch's work as kickstarting the Renaissance. Much of his writing was in Latin, but his sequence of poems in the vernacular, triggered by the sight of a young woman named Laura, became a foundation of modern Itaian. Laura did not
return the poet's love, but Petrarch stayed true even after Laura's early death. Laura inspired the 366
poems that make up this world classic, Canzoniere. Petrarch died in his seventies in 1374,
and was writing and revising his sonnets into his last years. Read More Read Less