This project explores the textual transmission and cultural influence of Petrarch’s poetry across different literary traditions and languages, integrating computational methods to enhance traditional philological and literary analysis. As one of the most influential poetic works of pre-modern literature, the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (canzoniere) had a widespread impact on cultural and literary traditions beyond the Italian peninsula, both in terms of themes and poetic genres (e.g the Petrarchan sonnet). This project examines the dissemination of Petrarch’s poetry from manuscripts and early printed editions, to translations and adaptations, investigating how his work was interpreted, reshaped, transmitted and re-used across linguistic and cultural boundaries. By incorporating computational tools—such as (but not limited to) stylometry, text mining, network analysis, or digital manuscript collation—this research aims to uncover patterns of textual variation, intertextual connections, and the broader diffusion of Petrarchan poetics on a global scale.
Principal Investigator: Dr Isabella Magni (Digital Humanities Institute)
Apply for a PhD on this project
We welcome research proposals from PhD candidates that address this project. Successful candidates will have an interest and background in applying digital methodologies to humanities research questions, in Petrarch’s poetics from a textual, material and/or visual point of view, and in the transmission of Petrarch and Petrarchism(s) in local and global cultural contexts and literary traditions.