Philippe de Cabassoles
The Bishop of Cavaillon, Philippe de Cabassoles, Seigneur of Vaucluse, was the great protector of the famous Renaissance poet and author Francesco Petrarch. Philippe, in whose diocese was Vaucluse, had a villa not far from Avignon. He formed a lasting friendship with Petrarch. Petrarch built a home here after visiting his friend Philippe, who had built his castle on the site of a 7th century BC Oppidem. Living just a 10-15 minute walk from one another, they developed a close relationship that lasted a lifetime. Petrarch dedicated a book to his friend, who "treated him as a brother" despite his later status as Cardinal. From Philippe's castle the view was beautiful and is no wonder the bishop selected this lofty spot.[1]
Petrarch made a collection of 350 letters he personally wrote called Epistolae familiares (a.k.a. Familiar Letters). In among these letters in 1346 Petrarch writes what is called De vita solitaria, a treatise composed of two books and dedicated to Philippe de Cabassoles.[2] In Book XXII of Familiar Letters is Petrarch's books of these letters to Philippe which he delivered 20 years after he wrote them.[3][4] Also in addition to these books of letters he wrote some very special letters that he held out of the set of Epistolae familiares, which was later put into a set of 19 letters called Liber sine nomine. Letters 1 and 12 are letters Petrarch wrote to his friend Phillippe that are in this reserved set of letters "without a name" of the recipient.
References
- This article incorporates text from the old Catholic Encyclopedia of 1914, a publication now in the public domain.
- This article incorporates text from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, a publication now in the public domain.