ABSTRACT
Althoug h an Italia n by birth , Francesco Petrarca spent his formativ e years outside Italy , firs t i n Carpentras, where his father went to liv e after being exiled fro m Florence, and then in Avignon . Far fro m disadvantagin g him , however , the seventeen years Petrarch spent i n the household of Bishop Giacomo and Cardina l Giovann i Colonn a in Avigno n opened hi m to a worl d of cultur e that was more stimulatin g - and formativ e - than Italy was at the time. It was there that he firs t acquired a knowledg e of classical literatur e and embarked on what became a lifelon g passion, his hun t for ancient manuscript s [158 p. 10]. A s an exile Petrarch was also more aware than his ow n countryme n of the cultura l heritage of Italy - 'my Italy' , as he called it in a movin g poem - and he was more resentful than they were of the Papacy's prolonged absence fro m Rome, whic h was stil l revered as the ancient centre of the Roman empir e and the rightfu l seat of the Papacy.
