Before getting ready for tomorrow’s event, I’ll admit I was woefully unknowledgeable about the man. After all, I deal with the 12th century BC to the 5th AD…. what did I have to do with an Italian living in the 1300s? That’s positively modern in my books!
But just in my preparatory readings, I have already been hugely inspired. Not necessarily by his specific philosophies (those are interesting of course), but by his way of thinking… and his way of thinking about thinking.
Considered to be the father of humanism, the first tourist, the first mountaineer and the man responsible for finding and preserving so many ancient Latin texts and thus making them popular, Petrarch is credited with beginning the entire Renaissance.
 

What did this man discover that kicked off an entire enlightenment? And how can his profound insights help our here and now?

Can Petrarch inspire us? What lessons can he teach us? And perhaps most importantly of all, do we need another Renaissance at this time?

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