Petrarch’s view

Here’s a synchronicity that was a key factor in the life of an important figure who played a starring role in history at the outset of the Renaissance. Petrarch 1304-1374, an Italian scholar and poet, is known as the father of humanism. He was also one of the first to label the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages. Readers will find some similarity in this one with a recent post from Adele Aldridge, The I Ching Meets a Dream
In both cases, the synchronicity was tapped when a book was opened.
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For many years, Petrarch thought about climbing Mont Ventoux for a panoramic view of the region. Mountain climbing was rarely done, especially to obtain a better view, in his time. But in April 1336, Petrarch began the ascent that scholars would later regard as the event that symbolized the onset of the Renaissance.

When he reached the summit, with clouds below his feet, wind in his face, he was astonished by the view of French Provence, the Alps, and the Mediterranean. In his exhilarated state, he opened his pocket copy of Augustine’s Confessions. Turning at random to book X,8, he read: “And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows of the sea, the broad tide of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuit of the stars, and pass themselves by…”

Writes James Hillman in Re-visioning Psychology, “Petrarch was stunned at the coincidence between Augustine’s words and the time and place they were read. His emotions both announced the revelation of his personal vocation and heralded the new attitude of the Renaissance…Petrarch draws this crucial conclusion from the Mont Ventoux event: ‘Nothing is admirable but the soul.'”
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Tomorrow we’ll post another historical synchronicity, this one by Saint Augustine, the author of the book Petrarch was reading.