''Epistolae familiares'' is the title of a
collection of letters
A letter collection consists of a publication, usually a book, containing a compilation of letters written by a real person. Unlike an epistolary novel, a letter collection belongs to non-fiction literature. As a publication, a letter collection ...
of
Petrarch
Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists.
Petrarch's redis ...
which he edited during his lifetime. He originally called the collection ''Epistolarum mearum ad diversos liber'' (''"a book of my letters to different people"'') but this was later shortened to the current title.
Petrarch discovered the text of
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
's letters in 1345, which gave him the idea to collect his own sets of letters. It wasn't until four or five years later however, that he actually got started. He collected his letter correspondence in two different time periods. They are referred to as ''Epistolae familiares'' and ''Seniles''.
''Epistolae familiares'' (a.k.a. ''Familiar Letters'') was largely collected during his stay in
Provence
Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...
about 1351 to 1353, however was not ultimately completed until 1359 when he was in
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
. Petrarch had this collection of letters copied onto
parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...
in 1359 by a certain ''ingeniosus homo et amicus'' with another complete copy done in 1364. He added letters in 1366, bringing his first collection of letters to 350. He broke these down and sorted them into 24 volumes. This first collection of letters called ''Epistolae familiares'' were actually written between the years 1325 and 1366 (the first translation into English was done by historian
James Harvey Robinson in 1898 in his book ''The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters'').
In January 1350 Petrarch wrote a lengthy letter to his dear friend ("Socrates" as Petrarch liked to call him) dedicating the collection to him. He requests his friend to keep the letters safely out of sight of the censors and critics.
[ JSTOR: ''On the Evolution of Petrarch's Letter to Posterity'' by Ernest H. Wilkins; Speculum, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr., 1964), pp. 304-308 ]
It has since been discovered that Socrates was the
Flemish Benedictine">Flemish people">Flemish Benedictine monk">Benedictine.html" ;"title="Flemish people">Flemish Benedictine">Flemish people">Flemish Benedictine monk and music theory">music theorist
Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the " rudiments", that ...
Lodewijk Heyligen whose acquaintance Petrarch had made in the circle of Giovanni Colonna (cardinal, 1295-1348), cardinal Giovanni Colonna in Avignon.
is also available in two volumes from Italica Press, translated by Aldo S. Bernardo, formerly Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Italian and Comparative Literature, State University of New York at Binghamton.
*Letter to Posterity
*Birthday of alpinism, Ascent of Mont Ventoux
*Letter VI.2 to Fra Giovanni Colonna (historian), Giovanni Colonna
There are many letters that Petrarch lost or did not keep a copy of. Others he destroyed the originals of for fear they would bring much criticism to his larger collection. There is a collection of 59 of these letters by
'') of letters Petrarch was too fond of to let out of his hands of some nineteen letters was kept out of the main body of ''Familiar Letters'' to give respect to the papacy and the controversial lavish lifestyle practiced at Avignon. Liber sine nomine is an epitome of this same work in one ''volume without a title'' (which is 19 letters).
* Francesco Petrarch, ''Letters on Familiar Matters (Rerum familiarium libri),'' translated by Aldo S. Bernardo (New York: Italica Press, 2005)