Petrarch climbed Mont Ventoux in 1336 for no practical reason — just to see the view — and the moment is often called the beginning of the Renaissance. He rediscovered Cicero’s lost letters, championed the study of classical antiquity, and wrote love sonnets to a woman named Laura that defined European lyric poetry for three centuries. More than any other individual, Petrarch turned Western culture away from medieval theology and toward the human-centered worldview we now call humanism.

This episode traces Petrarch from his exile childhood through the discovery of classical manuscripts, the Laura sonnets, and the intellectual revolution that made him the father of the Renaissance.

• Petrarch’s childhood in exile and the classical education that shaped his worldview
• The ascent of Mont Ventoux and why it symbolizes the birth of Renaissance individualism
• The Laura sonnets — 366 poems to an idealized woman that defined love poetry for centuries
• The recovery of classical manuscripts and Petrarch’s role as the founding father of humanism