ABSTRACT
Petrarch's passion for books i n tur n fed other new enthusiasms, the most importan t of whic h was new schools wit h new teaching programmes. Althoug h he wasn't a teacher himself , the subjects he cultivate d - history-writing , poetry and literature , letter-writin g and internalised debates on personal and ethical subjects - were all humanist , or liberal-art s subjects, as opposed to the more skills - and science-orientated subjects of the medieval teaching curriculum . So too was art, whic h Petrarch also encouraged, more portrait s of hi m surviving , as we saw, than of any of his contemporaries. By writin g in Italia n as wel l as Latin , he helped to feed the new intellectua l publi c that was developin g in Italy' s cities and courts, enthusing them as wel l as other scholars wit h his personal passions. The scholars provide d the know-ho w - i t was they wh o recovered the ancient books that tol d them about classical schools and teaching programme s and then pu t them int o practice - and thi s new intellectua l publi c provide d the institutiona l backing and the pupils , withou t whic h nothin g woul d have changed.
