Petrarch's Humanism and Care of Self, by Gur Zak. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2010. x, 179 pp. $80.00 US (cloth). The fourteenth-century Italian poet and philosopher Francesco Petrarca is figure of paradox and contradiction. It is surprising, therefore, that he has come to be seen as the embodiment of postmodern (p. 9). But such characterization of Petrarch is entirely accurate, as very notion of self in his writings differs remarkably from that of any theoretician of postmodernism. The self for Petrarch--if he were ever to use that term (and title of Zak's book apparently refers to Petrarch's notion of animi cura, care of mind or soul, which latter takes up in one of his letters and which is informed by, but limited to, Christian pastoral practice of cura animarum, although Zak does explore this connection)--is more or less interchangeable with ego, nor is it quasi public and political identity to be constructed or performed; rather, it is for him psycho-spiritual wholeness from which we are exiled and to which we must strive, however haltingly and incompletely, to return. Zak offers succinct and insightful articulation of Petrarchan dilemma and of Petrarch's attempt--sometimes successful and other times less so--at finding his way out of his own spiritual morass and existential angst. Zak departs from tendency among scholars to separate Petrarch's Latin writings from his vernacular ones, as if they were opposed to or otherwise at odds with each other, opting instead to treat them as unified whole in order to consider various ways in which Petrarch uses writing and transforms relationship between reader and writer. There emerges from Petrarch's writings then new humanistic spirituality that both draws inspiration from, and goes beyond, monastic forms of spirituality that were normative influences of his time. Zak demonstrates that Petrarch's interest in classical texts is motivated by mere stylistic imitation and idle intellectual curiosity; rather, Petrarch develops a new ethical program, new philosophy of self' that aims not to provide one with knowledge but to affect and transform self' (pp. 10-11). Zak devotes his first two chapters to consideration of problem of time and desire and its role in writing process as expressed in Petrarch's collection of 366 Italian poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (or Canzoniere). In these poems, written and often re-worked throughout Petrarch's life, time is source of suffering and poses threat to self, resulting in fluctuation, fragmentation, forgetfulness of self, and even non-existence. Petrarch looks to writing as way of resurrecting and re-living his desire in order to escape from and transcend time, thereby putting an end to this interior exile. Ultimately, however, such project serves only to thrust Petrarch back into state of subjection to time and its deleterious effects. On this point, Zak's discussion of collection's Anniversary is particularly helpful; these poems are meant to establish poet outside of time, but circularity and repetition they unwittingly advocate in end serve only to defy any kind of transcendence. Trapped in cycle of desire and writing (and therefore in time), Petrarch rejects both notion that desire can lead to redemption, as it did for Dante, and St. Augustine's exhortation in his Confessions that desire be renounced so that true conversion might take place. This rejection of an Augustinian/Dantean solution to problem of time and desire results in failure of any kind of narrative that might give meaning to poet's suffering and anguish. Petrarch turns to Ovid--the poet of Metamorphoses and Poems of Exile--for respite. This recourse to an Ovidian poetics, however, deprives him of an authorial vantage point from which to construct meaningful narrative. …
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Sep 15, 2018
Daping Zhou 
Open Access
