From Sin to Redemption: Laura and Love at the Canzoniere

Abstract

This article aims to discuss Petrarch’s ideals of love and the image of Laura, based mainly on the poems of the Canzoniere. The study focuses on the duality that permeates Petrarch’s work, where Laura, both in life and after death, simultaneously embodies sublime love and devastating guilt. The article seeks to examine how Petrarch weaves this complex image of Laura, not as an idealized figure, but as a tangible representation of the poet’s internal struggle between carnal desire and spiritual aspiration. Throughout the Canzoniere, this tension between flesh and spirit, deeply rooted in Petrarch’s humanistic premises, reveals itself in a poetic trajectory marked by ambiguity and conflict. Laura, when portrayed in metaphors that oscillate between the earthly and the divine, reflects the poet’s constant battle with his own human inclinations and his incessant search for redemption. Thus, the article not only reveals the complexity of Petrarchan love, but also illuminates the philosophical and theological implications that underlie this duality, showing how Petrarch’s work transcends the simple portrait of an impossible love to become a profound meditation on the human condition and the search for balance between earthly pleasure and spiritual salvation.