De Viris Illustribus (Petrarch)

De viris illustribus (English: On Illustrious Men) is an unfinished collection of biographies, written in Latin, by the 14th century Italian author Francesco Petrarca. These biographies are a set of Lives similar in idea to Plutarch's Parallel Lives. The works were unfinished however he was famous enough for these and other works to receive two invitations to be crowned poet laureate. He received these invitations on exactly the same day, April 8, 1341, one being from the Paris University and the other from the Roman Senate. He accepted the Roman invitation.

It is composed of two books:

There is as yet no English translation, however Harvard University has it under contract to appear in the I Tatti Renaissance Library sometime in the future.

These are 36 biographies of Petrarch's subjects starting with Romulus, the mythological founder of Rome, and going through Trajan. All of these are mentioned in Petrarch's epic poem Africa. He revised the list many times over the years in different "plans." Some "Illustrious Romans" ended with Titus. Another plan of "Illustrious Romans" added Julius Caesar as the twenty-fourth biography. The adjacent 1476 Table of Contents introduction is old Italian and says something to the effect: Repository of the book here present where will be shown the chapters on 36 "illustrious men" whose deeds are extensively described by the honorable poet, Sir Francesco Petrarca, and beginning as appears below. Listed among these are Titus, Pompey, Scipio Africanus and Julius Caesar.

These are the subjects of Petrarch's 12 biographies starting with the first person of the Bible. Petrarch influenced Giovanni Boccaccio Lives On Famous Women of 106 biographies which starts with the first woman of the Bible. Below is the first person of the Bible and above in Liber I is the first mythical figures that started Rome.

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