Klug und von hehrer Gestalt

The first modern man

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) - one of the Tre Corone of Florence alongside Dante and Boccaccio - is considered the first early modern humanist. His world-famous "Canzoniere", the cycle of poems on the life and death of the Madonna Laura, is one of the most famous love poems of the West. The image of his soul and spirit must be juxtaposed with another: that of an imagined and idealised physiognomy. With the burgeoning awareness of the individual and an increasingly developing need for representation, the early portraits already show Petrarch as an outstanding personality of his era. Depending on the reception of his works, a wide variety of depictions emerged over the course of later centuries in miniatures, printed books and engravings, on coins and medals or as monuments and sculptures. This volume is the first monograph on Petrarch's portrait and its variations over the centuries. The selection of portraits and the accompanying texts create a richly illustrated anthology that provides an insight into Petrarch's image as reflected in his personality, his fame and the history of his influence, both for the general public and for experts.Reiner Speck, born 1941, Dr med., is a doctor, collector and publicist as well as founder of the Marcel Proust Society in Cologne. His art collection is just as well known as his extensive library on the work of Marcel Proust and his important collection on Francesco Petrarca, which is the largest privately owned collection in the world. Reiner Speck has published on art, literature and the history of medicine. Snoeck recently published "I hate Paul Klee. Works on paper and artists' books from the Speck Collection" and as a bilingual edition (German/French) together with Jürgen Ritte "Cher ami ... Votre Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust in the mirror of his correspondence".