Laura de Noves was the name of the young woman generally conceded to be the muse of Italian poet, Francesco Petracco (“Petrarchâ€), who wrote in the 14th century. In a grand gesture so typical of its time, Petrarch immediately fell in love with Laura on Good Friday, 1327, upon seeing her in church. Petrarch had been a clergyman; nonetheless, the possibility of a union was still stymied by the fact that the lady in question was already married (to an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade, no less!). Petrarch poured all his sentiments into his poetry, perfecting the sonnet form, and grieved her despairingly when she died in 1348 at the age of 38, on another fateful Good Friday. Although the cause of her youthful death was unrecorded, perhaps the endurance of eleven pregnancies just may have contributed to her demise. At any rate, Petrarch believed that her soul ascended to heaven, being separated from her “chaste and lovely bodyâ€. He went on to honor her memory all of his life, and he perfected the sonnet form in the service of singing her praises, most notably in the Canzonieri. He alluded in later years to his “…overwhelming but pure love affair, my only one…â€. Well, not exactly. He did father two children outside the holy bonds of matrimony. Laura’s virtue remained intact, however, and Petrarch’s paeans to her have been a gift to us for centuries.
