Book 2

Canzoniere

by Francesco Petrarca

Published August 1987
The "Canzoniere" is among Europe's most influential books of lyrics. The focus of this large collection is Petrarch's lifelong love for the mysterious Laura, but the themes he treats are many and various. Although part of the 14th century world, Petrarch expresses perplexities, uncertainties and hesitancies still understandable at the end of the second millennium. This verse translation of the whole of the "Canzoniere" has notes to suggest the many connections between the poems.