"Paupertatem inter divitias amare": Poverty, Wealth, Luxury, and Munificence in the Letters of Francesco Petrarca

Abstract

Abstract. This study examines the attitude towards poverty and wealth in Petrarch’s letters, mainly those addressed to members of the Papal Curia. The first part of the essay analyses how Petrarch in his letters, both published and unpublished, indirectly describes his condition of a wealthy member of the clergy and, at the same time, professes the ideal of an honesta paupertas (“an honest poverty”). Such an ideal is, in fact, opposed to the that of the paupertas Christi professed by the spiritual Franciscans. The second part of the essay examines how Petrarch, especially during the papacy of Urbanus V, tries to keep a channel of communication with the French cardinals, hoping to exert an influence on the Curia for the sake of the return of the Papal siege to Rome. After having discussed such a political goal, the last part of the essay examines two letters in particular: Fam. XIV 2 (to the Cardinal Elie de Talleyrand) and Sen. II 2 (to the Papal Secretary Antonio Bruni). Both the letters criticize idea that a good man of the Church should lead a life based on an ideal of strict poverty, on the basis of Seneca’s argumentations in the De vita beata and the example of Saint Ambrose.