Petrarch’s Lessons on Fortune (Leaf from De Remmediis)

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Petrarch’s Lessons on Fortune (Leaf from De Remmediis)

Printer Heinrich Knoblochtzer

Place of OriginGermany, Heidelberg

Dateabout 1490

ClassificationPrints

Object number

1927.256

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DescriptionThese two leaves come from a 1490 German edition of De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae (On the Remedies for Both Kinds of Fortune), the most influential moral treatise of the Italian poet and humanist Francesco Petrarch. Written between 1354 and 1366, the work consists of 254 short dialogues in Latin between Reason (Ratio) and the emotions—Joy, Hope, Sorrow, and Fear—offering guidance on how to face life’s alternating good and bad fortune with measured composure. The first leaf presents Dialogue XVII, “On the Sweetness of Music,” where Joy delights in melody and Reason warns against sensual excess, reminding the reader that even harmony can lead to vanity. The second contains Dialogue XXVI, “On Ointments and Scents,” in which Reason cautions against the superficial pleasures of perfumes.

Label TextWritten by the great Italian poet and scholar Francesco Petrarch, On the Remedies for Both Kinds of Fortune was among the Renaissance’s most widely read guides to virtuous living. Composed as 254 dialogues between Reason and various personified emotions, the text teaches that both success and misfortune test the moral balance of the human soul. The two leaves shown here come from a 1490 edition printed in Heidelberg by Heinrich Knoblochtzer, an early German printer known for his crisp Gothic type. One dialogue explores the seductive power of music, where Reason cautions Joy that delight in melody quickly gives way to melancholy; the other treats perfumes and ointments, warning that artificial pleasure distracts from true spiritual health. For Renaissance readers, Petrarch’s work offered a psychological mirror—an attempt to discipline the passions through philosophical reflection and to restore harmony between body and mind. It circulated widely among scholars, merchants, and clerics alike, shaping European ideas of self-mastery for centuries.