(Francis), a celebrated Italian poet, was born at Arezzo in 1304, and was the son of Petracco di Parenzo. He studied grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, for four years at Carpentras; from whence he went to Montpelier, where he studied the law under John Andreas and Cino of Pittoia, and probably from the latter received a taste for Italian poetry. As Petrarch only studied the law out of complaisance to his father, who on his visiting him at Bologna had thrown into the fire all the Latin poets and orators except Virgil and Cicero, he, at 22 years of age, hearing that his father and mother were dead of the plague at Avignon, returned to that city to settle his domestic affairs, and purchased a country-house in a very solitary but agreeable situation, called Vaulese; where he first knew the beautiful Laura, with whom he fell in love, and whom he has immortalised in his poems. He at length travelled into France, the Netherlands, and Germany; and at his return to Avignon entered into the service of Pope John XXII. who employed him in several important affairs. Petrarch was in hopes of being raised to some considerable posts; but being disappointed, he applied himself entirely to poetry; in which he met with such applause, that in one and the same day he received letters from Rome and the chancellor of the university of Paris, by which they invited him to receive the poetic crown. By the advice of his friends, he preferred Rome to Paris, and received that crown from the senate and people on the 8th of April 1341. His love of solitude at length induced him to return to Vaulese; but, after the death of the beautif Petre tiful Laura, Provence became insupportable to him, and he returned to Italy in 1352; when, being at Milan, Galeas Viceconti made him counsellor of state. Petrarch spent almost all the rest of his life in travelling to and from the different cities in Italy. He was archdeacon of Parma, and canon of Padua; but never received the order of priesthood. All the princes and great men of his time gave him public marks of their esteem; and while he lived at Arcqua, three miles from Padua, the Florentines deputed Boccaccio to go to him with letters, by which they invited him to Florence, and informed him, that they referred to him all the estate of which his father and mother had been deprived during the dissensions between the Guelphs and Gibelines. He died a few years after at Arcqua, in 1374. He wrote many works that have rendered his memory immortal; these have been printed in four volumes folio. His life has been written by several authors.