Petrarch's Aeneid : critical assessments of Virgil in the Africa

Abstract

Petrarch’s Africa is often read as an attempt to recreate the style and manner of Virgil’s Aeneid. Because of Petrarch’s frequent expressions of praise for Virgil, his epic is considered as a kind of homage to an admired predecessor. This study examines the possibility that Petrarch’s admiration for Virgil’s style does not extend to the actual content of the Aeneid, that the Africa in particular expresses some disquiet about Virgil’s achievement, and that Petrarch is in fact offering a canon of epic poetry which excludes Virgil and nominates Petrarch himself as the natural successor to Homer and Ennius.