A good deal has been written about Petrarch's famous ascent of Mount Ventoux. Körting assuredly exaggerates its significance when he declares it “an epoch-making deed“ which would by itself substantiate Petrarch's title to be called the first modern man.[1] The reader will observe that, however modern may have been the spirit in which the excursion was undertaken, the relapseinto mediaeval perversity was speedy and complete. As we shall find, Petrarch had no sooner reached the top than he bethought himself of his Augustine, before whose stern dictum the wide landscape quickly lost its fascination.
The Ascent of Mount Ventoux.
To Dionisio da Borgo San Sepolcro.[2]
To-day I made the ascent of the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called
- ↑ Op. cit., p. 105.
- ↑ Fam. , iv. , I. This letter, written when Petrarch was about thirtytwo years old, is addressed to an Augustinian monk, professor of divinity and philosophy in the University of Paris, which drew several of its most famous teachers from Italy. It was probably in Paris, during the journey described above, that Petrarch first met him. The poet, we may infer from the present letter, made him his spiritual confidant, confessed to him his sinful love for Laura, whom he had first met six years before, and received from the monk, in addition to the natural spiritual counsels, a copy of St. Augustine's Confessions, to which he refers below. Dionysius was called in 1339 to
