Petrarca and Petrarchism in the Critical Reflection of Caterina Franceschi Ferrucci

Abstract

The essay examines Caterina Franceschi Ferrucci’s interpretation of Petrarca in I primi quattro secoli della letteratura italiana, a literary history first published between 1856 and 1858 and later reissued in 1873. A strong pedagogical and moral purpose emerges as the guiding principle of the author’s approach. Franceschi Ferrucci frequently contrasts Petrarca with Dante, extolling the latter’s civic value while assessing the former through an ethical and political lens characteristic of the Italian Risorgimento. She thus emphasizes Petrarca’s biographical contradictions, his ambiguous relationship with those in power, and the danger of rhetorical excess in his writings, while nevertheless acknowledging the nobility of his poetry and the importance of his classical models. Her interpretation is clearly shaped by a rigorously Catholic moral perspective and by a conception of literature as an instrument of national education. As a result, the Petrarchan model is relegated to a secondary position within a cultural framework oriented toward the definition of national identity, as was understood in the nineteenth century.