- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Petrarch and the ‘barbari Britanni’
- 2 Petrarch <i>solitarius</i>
- 3 The Ethics of Ignorance: Petrarch’s Epicurus and Averroës and the Structures of the <i>De Sui Ipsius et Multorum Ignorantia</i>
- 4 Petrarch’s Second (and Third) Death
- 5 Poets and Heroes in Petrarch’s <i>Africa:</i> Classical and Medieval Sources
- 6 Petrarch Reading Dante: The Ascent of Mont Ventoux (<i>Familiares</i> 4. 1)
- 7 Petrarch and Cino da Pistoia: A Moment in the Pre-history of the <i>Canzoniere</i>
- 8 Petrarch and the Italian Reformation
- 9 Petrarch, Sidney, Bruno
- 10 Renaissance Misogyny and the Rejection of Petrarch
- 11 Impersonations of Laura in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century Italy
- 12 Other Petrarchs in Early Modern England
- 13 Thomas Watson’s <i>Hekatompathia</i> and European Petrarchism
- 14 The Comedy of Astrophil: Petrarchan Motifs in Sidney’s <i>Astrophil and Stella</i>
- 15 Sidney, Spenser, and Political Petrarchism
- 16 Petrarch and the Scottish Renaissance Sonnet
- 17 Leopardi and Petrarch
- 18 Between Tradition and Transgression: Amelia Rosselli’s Petrarch
- 19 Nineteenth-century British Biographies of Petrarch
- 20 Translating Petrarch
- Index
Poets and Heroes in Petrarch’s Africa: Classical and Medieval Sources
Poets and Heroes in Petrarch’s Africa: Classical and Medieval Sources
- Chapter:
- (p.84) (p.85) 5 Poets and Heroes in Petrarch’s Africa: Classical and Medieval Sources
- Source:
- Petrarch in Britain
- Author(s):
Francesca Galligan
- Publisher:
- British Academy
This chapter examines the classical and medieval sources of Petrarch in writing his epic poem Africa. It brings to the fore the role of Dante's epic in Petrarch's poem and suggests that the prominence of poet characters such as Ennius and Homer, and the link between poet and hero parallel the role of poet characters such as Virgil and Statius in the Divina Commedia. It also provides evidence that Africa was influenced by Virgil's work.
Keywords: Petrarch, Africa, Dante, epic poem, Ennius, Homer, Divina Commedia, Virgil
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Petrarch and the ‘barbari Britanni’
- 2 Petrarch <i>solitarius</i>
- 3 The Ethics of Ignorance: Petrarch’s Epicurus and Averroës and the Structures of the <i>De Sui Ipsius et Multorum Ignorantia</i>
- 4 Petrarch’s Second (and Third) Death
- 5 Poets and Heroes in Petrarch’s <i>Africa:</i> Classical and Medieval Sources
- 6 Petrarch Reading Dante: The Ascent of Mont Ventoux (<i>Familiares</i> 4. 1)
- 7 Petrarch and Cino da Pistoia: A Moment in the Pre-history of the <i>Canzoniere</i>
- 8 Petrarch and the Italian Reformation
- 9 Petrarch, Sidney, Bruno
- 10 Renaissance Misogyny and the Rejection of Petrarch
- 11 Impersonations of Laura in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century Italy
- 12 Other Petrarchs in Early Modern England
- 13 Thomas Watson’s <i>Hekatompathia</i> and European Petrarchism
- 14 The Comedy of Astrophil: Petrarchan Motifs in Sidney’s <i>Astrophil and Stella</i>
- 15 Sidney, Spenser, and Political Petrarchism
- 16 Petrarch and the Scottish Renaissance Sonnet
- 17 Leopardi and Petrarch
- 18 Between Tradition and Transgression: Amelia Rosselli’s Petrarch
- 19 Nineteenth-century British Biographies of Petrarch
- 20 Translating Petrarch
- Index