Theological Origins of Modernity

petrarch and the invention of individuality 63
Humans in this way remain political but only because they become autarchic
cities with laws and customs peculiarly their own.
Th e solitude that Petrarch recommends is not a form of idleness but of
spiritual activity. Here again Scipio serves as a model, Scipio who claimed
“that he was never less idle than when at leisure, and never less lonely than
when alone.” 133 As Petrarch puts it: “Th e holiday I ordain is for the body,
not for the mind; I do not allow the intellect to lie fallow except that it may
revive and become more fertile by a period of rest. . . . I not only entertain
but take pains to summon noble thoughts.” 134 Th is life is above all else devoted
to study, with a view not to fame or a reputation for learning but to
self-improvement and self-perfection. Petrarch thus admits that he could
not endure his solitude without reading: “Isolation without literature is
exile, prison, and torture; supply literature, and it becomes your country,
freedom, and delight.” 135 Not only is solitude conducive to reading, it also
promotes composition, for “literature can be carried on no where more
successfully or freely than in solitude.” 136 Indeed, such leisure or freedom
has always been the source of the arts. 137 Th e solitary life is thus ideally
suited to the most truly human lives, those of the philosopher, the poet,
the saint, and the prophet. 138
Th e goal of this life is to spend time in the company of noble thoughts,
inspiring books, and loving friends. 139 Th e solitary life that Petrarch lauds
is thus not an isolated life like that of a monk or a hermit, but a private life
lived among friends. 140 “No solitude is so profound, no house so small, no
door so narrow but it may open to a friend.” 141 Indeed, solitude for Petrarch
is enriched by the presence of a friend. He even asserts that he would prefer
to be deprived of solitude rather than his friends. 142 Th e solitary life for
Petrarch is not so solitary. In fact, it is much more a private fellowship
of like-minded spirits. All of this is again very reminiscent of Epicurus’s
garden. 143 It is also deeply rooted in Petrarch’s own life experience, for he
worked very hard throughout his life to cultivate and maintain a large
circle of friends. Friendship for Petrarch, however, always meant conversation
whether in person or in writing. Indeed, in this way Petrarch could
repeatedly refer to thinkers long dead as his friends. 144 Th ey spoke to him
through their books. Th e solitary life for Petrarch is thus not the silence
of the Carthusian monastery (which his brother chose and which Petrarch
praised in his Religious Leisure) but a continual conversation, with friends,
through books, in letters, and in the imagination. 145
Solitude, for Petrarch, “is indeed something holy, innocent, incorruptible,
and the purest of all human possessions.” 146 “Th erefore, whether our