Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/850

 PETRARCH

778

PETRARCH

Cornelius Palma, lieutpnant of Trajan. From it \v:is formed the Province of Arabia, "redaeta in fdiriuuii provinci;e Arabia", as Trajan's .sinn-posts road, ex- tendinfi from Hostra in Ilanran to the Red Sea. In 295 the provinee was divided into Arabia Augusta Libanensis on the north, with Bostra as metropoHs, and Aral)ia on the south, with Petra as metropoHs. Twehe years later Southern Arabia wa.s united with the Province of Palestine to be afiain detached in the second half of th<' fourth a, because of the city of Petra, and not with the implication that the rcfjion was rocky, for it. is rather fertile. After a visit from the Emperor Hadrian Petra took the sur- name of Hadriana, found on the coins and on some inscriptions.

Christianity was introduced into Petra doubtless at an early date, for in the time of Strabo, who has de- scribed the country (XIV, iv, 21 sq.), Greek and Latin merchants flocked thither. Anions its bishops Le (^uicn (Oriens Christ.. Ill, 721-8) mentions St. Asterius, who.se feast is celebrated on 20 June, one of the defenders of the Council of Ni- caea and St. Athan- asius; his contem- porary Germanus, probably an Arian; John (457); Theo- dore (536), biog- rapher of St. Theodosius the Cenobite; Atheno- genes. a relatixc of the Emperor Mau- rice (end of the Pei sixth century). An

inscription indicates likewise a bishop by the name of Jason (probably fifth century)- The Diocese of Petra in Palestine, mentioned by Le Quicn (ibid., Ill, 663-70), who relied on a faulty text of St. Athanasius, never existed. In the time of John ISIoschus (seventh century) Petra was a flourishing monastic centre, but the decline of the city was even then far advanced, be- cause the direction of commerce had changed and the prosperity of Palmyra had injured that of Petra. Wlien the Franks took possession of the country in the twelfth century and founded their Trans-Jordanic principality they established somewhat prior to 1 1 16 a stronghold called "Li Vaux Moyse", a translation of the Arabic name Ouadi-Moussa, the ruins of which have been discovered near the village of El-Dji. It was captured by the Arabs, first in 1144 and definitively in 1 188. The Latin archdiocese, called Petra Deserti, which was establislied by the crusaders in 1 168, must not be confused with our Petra; the former is Charac- Moba, the ancient capital of the Moabites, now EI- Kerac (Le Quien, ibid.. Ill, 1305; Du Cange, Les families d'Outrc-mer, Paris, 18.59, p. 755; Eubel, Hicrarchia catholica medii xvi, I, 418).

Petra, now Ouaili-Moussa, is completely ruined. Of the (ra'Co-Roman city there remain, besides the theatre hewn from the rock, only shapeless ruins; but the tombs dug in tbesidesof the mountain surrounding the city are one of the wonders of the v\'orld. There are more than 3000, of different periods. Archa-ology, it is true, regards some of them as temples. As the red sandstone from which the tombs are hewn is veined

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with a variety of colours, and as the light is dazzling, this city of the dead presents the ai)|)carance of a veri- tabli> fairy-land, the like of whi<-h is not to be seen elsewhere in the world. Recently the high place and the site of the altar of sacrifice have been discovered.

Whin the late Archbishop of New York, Michael .'\ugu.stinc Corrigaii, w:is coadjutor to Cardinal Mc- Closkey, his titular see was that of Petra.

Laborde, Voyage dans I' Arable PHHe (Paria, 1830-34); Wil- son, The Lands of the Bible, I (Edinburgh), 291-330: Stanlet, Sinai and Palestine (London, 1860), 87-98; Palmer, The Desert ojf Exodus, II (London, 1871); Libbet, The Jordan Valleu and Petra (New York, 190.5); Luynes, Voyage d' exploration d In Mir Moric etc. (Paris, lii7\), 274; Bvhl, Gesch. der Edomiter (LcipziK. 1893); Brunnow and D0MA8ZEW8KI, Die Provincia Arabia, I (.straaburg, 1904); Muaii., .4ra6i:a Petra-a. II (Vienne, 1907); Dai.man, Petra und seine FelsheiligstUmer (Leipzig, 1908); Sargenton-Galichon, Sinai, Ma&n. PHra (Paris, 1904); Remie Biblique (1897; 1898; 1902; 1903); KebqoblaT, Sties dtlaiasia d'Orient (Paris, 1911), 91-154. S. VaILh6.

Petrarch, Fr.\ncesco, Italian poet and humanist, b. at Arezzo, 20 July, 1304; d. at Arquii, 19 July, 1374. His father, Petracco or Pe- traccolo (a name which the son adopted as his cog- nomen, changing it to Petrarca) came of a family belong- ing originally to the region of the Val- darno, but already settled for some time at Florence. There Ser Petracco acted as clerk of one of the courts of justice, but with other White Guelphs he was banished in 1302, and went to Arezzo. Francesco's earli- est years were spent chiefly at In- cisa in the ances- tral district of the Valdarno. In 1310 his father transferred their abode to Pisa, whence the family went to Avignon in France, which had been for about six years the papal residence. Between 1315 and 1319 the lad was trained at Carpentras under the tutelage of the Italian Convenevole da Prato. His father in- tended him for the legal profession, and .sent him for the necessary studies to Montpellier (1319-23) and to Bologna "(1323-5). France.sio disliked the career chosen for him, and devoted himself as much as pos- sible to belles-lettres, thereby so incensing his father that, upon one occasion, the latter burned a number of his favourite ancient authors. When Ser Petracco died in 1323, Francesco returned to Avignon and took minor orders, which permitted him to enjoy church benefices and only bound him to the daily reading of his Office. He entered rather freely into the gay and fashionable life at Avignon, and there on Good Friday (1327) he saw for the first time Laura, the lady who was to be the inspiration of his most famous work. In spite of what he himself says as to his first encounter with Laura, many persons have doubted her real existence. The majority of critics, however, believe that she was truly a lady in the flesh, and some iden- tify her with a certain Laura, the wife of Hugues de Sade (d. 1348). There would seem to be little chance for romance in such an attachment, yet the weight of authority is in favour of regarding it as a genuine one productive of true and poignant emotion in Petrarch, how('ver Platonic it may have remained.

About 1330 the poet began a period of restless