GW1 - Petrarch: "Ascent of Mount Ventoux"

Petrarch climbs a mountain and discovers Humanism.

[@hannahshook8689]

So thankful I found this! Has really help me better understand my readings for class. Thank you!

[@douglasparker6276]

thank you. I'm glad you're getting to know Petrarch.

[@lucasbrown7458]

By ascending the mountain, Petrarch reorients his perspective, in the grand scope of time and space, around himself. It takes him to endure this experience, to get closer to the divine, to ultimately lead to true introspection. He experiences a physically transcendental experience after which he realizes the true experience was inside him all along. That is Humanism, the belief that human beings and human experience are the starting point for all philosophical knowledge.

[@douglasparker6276]

Thanks for adding. This is terrific context.

[@anthonychiang3182]

Thank you for this analysis Professor Parker! Loved the deeper look into what seems to be a very short work, helped a lot within my class.

[@douglasparker6276]

Glad to help. Petrarch's short work is by far his best. The longer stuff only lives on in mid-level Latin classes.

[@tommyandreas8011]

From the medieval book De Miseria chapter XIII: "We mortals clamber over hedges and poke around paths, hike up hills, climb mountains, scale cliffs, practically fly over the Alps; people walk right over pits and into caves; they pry into the bowels of the earth, the depths of the sea, the hidden windings of rivers, the darkness of the forest, the pathless desert." Petrach was not the first out-door-man.

[@douglasparker6276]

No argument on that point in essence. I'm not the first to suggest the novel characteristic of Petrarch in regard to his outdoorsiness, but certainly there are predecessors. What I will say about this one quotation, however, is that the clambering described seems to be in deliberate pursuit of a specific discovery of objective Nature. That seems different in kind from Petrarch whose explorations of Nature are mostly metaphorical probings of his subjective self. I won't claim anything definitive here, but this is the handle I maintain on Petrarch to guide my interaction with his work.

[@shrimppimp4509]

thank you for this my Art History Teacher sucks at explaining any of this and now i gotta make 3 page essay on a concept she never explained

[@douglasparker6276]

Teaching is a series of selections. It's unfair to expect any one teacher to offer up everything you need for an understanding of a concept. You should also expect that the necessary context for you might be different from what others need to grasp the same ideas. Thankfully, anyone with internet access these days can find alternatives. This is a miraculous age for learning.

[@nicolebarry5785]

thank you :)

[@douglasparker6276]

Thanks for watching.

[@darioalberto1128]

minute1:01 "...North-East of France". Nope: it is located in the South-East

[@douglasparker6276]

You're right. My mistake. Sometimes talking without a script is an invitation to error. Plus, importantly, I'm kind of a dope. Thanks for correcting the record.