What made Francesco Petrarch important?
He was a writer from the Renaissance, and he criticized the Avignon Papacy, and going against the church was a big deal–no one messed with them because they were so powerful. He also wrote some of the first “modern” love poetry, which was a shift from the strictly religious poetry from the Middle Ages to one that focused on the individual (which was also a threat to authority because it encouraged people to think for themselves and not follow the church blindly, and decide for themselves if they wanted to follow the church). Petrarch also seamlessly blended classical ideals with human emotion. He is known for being the founder of Humanism, a movement in the Renaissance that fostered the idea that individualism is a good thing and its not immoral. He also was devoted to uniting Italy from having divisive provences to a real country with nationalistic pride.
