Francesco Petrarca

1 9.9

An Italian poet and scholar of the early Renaissance who wrote famous love poems about Laura

proper noun
/frænˈtʃɛskoʊ pɛˈtrɑrkə/

: Francesco Petrarca

Many of Francesco Petrarca's poems express his intense admiration for Laura, his muse.

Examples

Francesco Petrarca is often credited as the 'father of Humanism' due to his revival of classical literature.
Students of literature still study the profound influence of Francesco Petrarca on Renaissance poetry.
Francesco Petrarca was a poet.
What about Francesco Petrarca?
Francesco Petrarca is celebrated for his contributions to Renaissance literature, especially his love sonnets.
The works of Francesco Petrarca continue to inspire poets and scholars around the world.
In the 14th century, Francesco Petrarca played a key role in shaping the humanist movement.

Surface Forms

Francesco Petrarca main

Morphology

Francesco + Petrarca

This is a proper name (a person) whose meaning is referential rather than compositional: knowing the constituent tokens 'Francesco' and 'Petrarca' does not let a B1 learner infer that the phrase refers to an Italian poet and humanist. Proper names are arbitrary labels and do not transparently encode biographical information, so the meaning cannot be derived from the parts.

Etymology

Francesco Petrarca was an Italian poet from the 1300s who loved old Roman and Greek books and collected and praised them. That's why he helped people in Europe read those ancient ideas again, and he is often called the 'father of Humanism'.