Petrarca e la Spagna

Spain in Petrarch is a geographical space confused with the myth and the history, above all the Roman history. From one hand the contemporary chronicle, with the military glory of Aragon and Castile, is dissolved in the memory of Rome; on the other hand a legendary past unites Spain to the Pillars of Hercules, with the ‘unintentional’ memory of the insane flight of Ulysses in the Divine Comedy. So Petrarch points at ancient Spain, in connection with Rome and the great Latin culture.