View in EDS PDF Full Text

The Life of Solitude

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Life of Solitude
Description: Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch, 1304-1374) is universally regarded as one of the greatest Italian poets and considered to be the'Father of Renaissance Humanism.'Petrarch is best known for his poetry, and especially for his sonnets, composed in the vernacular Italian dialect of his homeland. But Petrarch was also the author of an extraordinary body of prose works in Latin, including numerous books, essays, and volumes of his letters, which, with Cicero as his model, he collected, edited, and preserved for posterity.Included among these Latin prose works is The Life of Solitude ( De vita solitaria), which Petrarch began during Lent of 1346, and then sent in 1366--after twenty years of reflection, addition, and correction--to its dedicatee. Book I contains an argument for why a life of solitude and contemplation is superior to a busy life of civic obligation and commerce. Book II contains a long enumeration of exemplars of the solitary life drawn from history and literature (and occasionally mythology). Included in Book II are provocative digressions on whether one has an obligation to serve a tyrant and on the failures of contemporary monarchs to recover the holy sites in the East. Petrarch's solitary life is not an apology for monastic solitude. On the contrary, it contains a strong defense of friendship, the pursuit of virtue, and the roles that both secular and religious literature and philosophy play in human flourishing.This updated edition of Jacob Zeitlin's 1924 English translation restructures and numbers the text to make it consistent with the best available scholarly editions of De vita solitaria. The volume includes a new introduction by Scott H. Moore, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Great Texts and Assistant Director of the University Scholars Program at Baylor University, which situates Petrarch and the text within the larger traditions of virtue ethics, renaissance humanism, and reflections on the solitary life.
Authors: Francesco Petrarca, Scott H. Moore
Resource Type: eBook.
Subjects: Solitude--Religious aspects, Solitude
Categories: PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Humanism, PHILOSOPHY / Religious, PHILOSOPHY / Individual Philosophers
Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
FullText Links:
  – Type: ebook-pdf
Text:
  Availability: 0
Header DbId: nlebk
DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
An: 3716554
RelevancyScore: 1116
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: eBook
PubTypeId: ebook
PreciseRelevancyScore: 1116.28857421875
IllustrationInfo
ImageInfo – Size: thumb
  Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$3716554$PDF&s=r
– Size: medium
  Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$3716554$PDF&s=d
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: The Life of Solitude
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Description
  Group: Ab
  Data: Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch, 1304-1374) is universally regarded as one of the greatest Italian poets and considered to be the'Father of Renaissance Humanism.'Petrarch is best known for his poetry, and especially for his sonnets, composed in the vernacular Italian dialect of his homeland. But Petrarch was also the author of an extraordinary body of prose works in Latin, including numerous books, essays, and volumes of his letters, which, with Cicero as his model, he collected, edited, and preserved for posterity.Included among these Latin prose works is The Life of Solitude ( De vita solitaria), which Petrarch began during Lent of 1346, and then sent in 1366--after twenty years of reflection, addition, and correction--to its dedicatee. Book I contains an argument for why a life of solitude and contemplation is superior to a busy life of civic obligation and commerce. Book II contains a long enumeration of exemplars of the solitary life drawn from history and literature (and occasionally mythology). Included in Book II are provocative digressions on whether one has an obligation to serve a tyrant and on the failures of contemporary monarchs to recover the holy sites in the East. Petrarch's solitary life is not an apology for monastic solitude. On the contrary, it contains a strong defense of friendship, the pursuit of virtue, and the roles that both secular and religious literature and philosophy play in human flourishing.This updated edition of Jacob Zeitlin's 1924 English translation restructures and numbers the text to make it consistent with the best available scholarly editions of De vita solitaria. The volume includes a new introduction by Scott H. Moore, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Great Texts and Assistant Director of the University Scholars Program at Baylor University, which situates Petrarch and the text within the larger traditions of virtue ethics, renaissance humanism, and reflections on the solitary life.
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Francesco+Petrarca%22">Francesco Petrarca</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Scott+H%2E+Moore%22">Scott H. Moore</searchLink>
– Name: TypePub
  Label: Resource Type
  Group: TypPub
  Data: eBook.
– Name: Subject
  Label: Subjects
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Solitude--Religious+aspects%22">Solitude--Religious aspects</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Solitude%22">Solitude</searchLink>
– Name: SubjectBISAC
  Label: Categories
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22PHILOSOPHY+%2F+Movements+%2F+Humanism%22">PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Humanism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22PHILOSOPHY+%2F+Religious%22">PHILOSOPHY / Religious</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22PHILOSOPHY+%2F+Individual+Philosophers%22">PHILOSOPHY / Individual Philosophers</searchLink>
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=nlebk&AN=3716554
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Classifications:
      – Code: 851.1
        Scheme: ddc
        Type: prePub
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Solitude--Religious aspects
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Solitude
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: The Life of Solitude
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Francesco Petrarca
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Scott H. Moore
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Francesco Petrarca
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Scott H. Moore
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2023
            – D: 07
              M: 10
              Type: profile
              Y: 2024
          Identifiers:
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9781481317122
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9781481318099
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9781481320429
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: The Life of Solitude
              Type: main
ResultId 1