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Petrarch

(Encyclopedia)Petrarch fränchĕsˈkō pāträrˈkä [key], 1304–74, Italian poet and humanist, one of the great figures of Italian literature. He spent his youth in Tuscany and Avignon and at Bologna. He returne...

Laura

(Encyclopedia)Laura, subject of the love poems of Petrarch. She is thought to be Laura de Noves (1308?–1348), wife of Hugo de Sade, but this has not been proved. ...

Cino da Pistoia

(Encyclopedia)Cino da Pistoia chēˈnō dä pēstôˈyä [key], 1270–1337?, Italian jurist and poet, whose full name was Guittoncino dei Sinibaldi, or Sighibuldi. A friend of Dante and Petrarch, he wrote treatise...

Noot, Jan van der

(Encyclopedia)Noot, Jan van der yän vän dĕr nōt [key], b. 1539 or 1540, d. 1595?, Flemish poet. He wrote sonnets, odes, and other pieces in imitation of Petrarch and especially of Ronsard. ...

Griselda

(Encyclopedia)Griselda grĭzĕlˈdə [key], long-suffering heroine of medieval story, whose husband subjects her to numerous trials in order to test her devotion. The story originated in a widespread W European fol...

Tyard, Pontus de

(Encyclopedia)Tyard, Pontus de pôNtüsˈ də tēärˈ [key], 1521?–1605, French poet of the Pléiade (see under Pleiad). The sonnets in his Erreurs amoureuses (3 vol., 1549–55) are imitative of Petrarch and ar...

Chapman, George

(Encyclopedia)Chapman, George, 1559?–1634, English dramatist, translator, and poet. He is as famous for his plays as for his poetic translations of Homer's Iliad (1612) and Odyssey (1614–15). Chapman was a clas...

sonnet

(Encyclopedia)sonnet, poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme. There are two prominent types: the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, composed of an octave and a sestet (rh...

canzone, in literature

(Encyclopedia)canzone –nä [key], in literature, Italian term meaning lyric or song. It is used to designate such various literary forms as Provençal troubadour poems and the lyrics of Dante, Petrarch, and other...

Costa, Lorenzo

(Encyclopedia)Costa, Lorenzo lōrĕnˈtsō kōˈstä [key], 1460–1535, Italian painter of the Ferrarese and Bolognese schools. Trained in the manner of such painters as Tura and Cossa, he modified the strident Fe...

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