SULLA LOTTA INTERIORE DEL PETRARCA: UN PERCORSO CRITICO TRA FAMILIARES, SECRETUM, CANZONIERE E TRIONFI.

This dissertation proposes a critical analysis of the theme of the inner struggle in Petrarch's "Familiares", "Secretum", "Canzoniere" and "Trionfi". The first chapter traces the origin of this theme back to the theological discourses of Saint Paul's "Letters" and Augustine's "Confessions". In the second chapter, the analysis of Petrarch's epistolary shows the fluctuating attitude of the author as regard the inner struggle with respect to the theological discourse of the Christian tradition: on one hand, Petrarch moves in the footsteps of Paul and Augustine; on the other, he provides a spiritual interpretation of their theology. This interpretation finds its theoretical framework in classical authors. Along with Augustine, in fact, Cicero becomes a crucial figure in the “Secretum”, when Petrarch describes the inner struggle as the conflict between reason and passions (chapter three). The double reference to Cicero and Augustine leads Petrarch to reflect upon the ambivalent value of passions by combining the stoic understanding of emotions with the Christian’s one both in the “Canzoniere” and in the “Trionfi” (chapters four and five). In conclusion, the theme of the inner struggle allows to delineate Petrarch’s peculiar reception and translation of the tradition, both classical and Christian, and to reflect upon his pivotal role in the light of the passage from the Middle Ages to Humanism.