Francesco Petrarca, known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet, and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists, often popularly called the "father of humanism." His works, along with those of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio, formed the basis for the modern Italian language as developed by Pietro Bembo. Petrarch is credited with developing the sonnet, a form that became a model for lyrical poems across Europe during the Renaissance. He was also among the first to characterize the Middle Ages as a "Dark Ages."
Der Canzoniere, im lateinischen Original “Rerum vulgarium fragmenta”, ist eine Sammlung von italienischen Sonetten und Kanzonen, in denen Petrarca seine Liebe zu Laura und seine Trauer über ihren Verlust besingt. Die Sammlung beläuft sich auf 316 Sonette und 29 Kanzonen, Zumeist geht es im Canzoniere, aus vorher genanntem Grund, um das Thema der Liebe. Nebenbei findet man aber immer wieder ethische, religiöse oder politische Themen, die der Dichter verarbeitet.