Petrarch's Literary Activities in the 1350s

Timeline

1. 1351–1353Florence · TuscanyIn 1351 Petrarch and Boccaccio met for the first time in Florence; the two became close friends, with Petrarch encouraging Boccaccio to turn to classical learning and abandon his mercantile career, and they corresponded frequently on Dante, Virgil, and Cicero, jointly founding the Italian humanist literary alliance.
2. 1354–1360Padua · VenetoPetrarch continued revising the Canzoniere at his retreat near Vaucluse and elsewhere in Italy, while tirelessly searching for lost manuscripts of classical authors such as Cicero and Livy; his Latin letters and moral essay De vita solitaria spread humanist ideals throughout European scholarship.