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eventually reconquered by modern culture. By accomplishing the arduous ascent of the exemplary mountain, the poet of Laura expresses his willingness to “climb” as high as his ancient predecessors. Petrarch intends to give new life to poetry, the first among all arts at the time, which is equivalent to winning the laurel wreath (the last poet recognized was Statius).

The image of the Parnassus omnipresent in the work of Petrarch increased in importance from his establishment in Fontaine de Vaucluse in 1337. This haven of peace and place of inspiration was immediately identified by Petrarch as mons Parnaso or Helicon. Here, where he wrote his Scattered Rimes (or Song Book, Canzoniere), but also the epic Africa, he built two gardens. One was dedicated to Apollo, the other to Dionysus, thus resuming the duality of the two-headed mountain, half Apollonian, half Dionysiac. It is here, in the beloved solitude of the Vaucluse that he will “live,” according to his own words, in the immediate company of the authors of Antiquity. Within his little Parnassus, he will talk incessantly with the masters of the past; he will treat them as guests and as true friends, friends by the names Horace, Virgil, Cicero, Seneca, or Titus Livius. Here, in the heart of the Vaucluse, he identified the early signs of the renewal of times: “And now we begin to see again the double-crested Helicon and the spring born from the horse’s hoof and the green forest of the poets and a brighter fate smiling at the wretched.” 6

The idea of closeness with his “great friends,” actualized as physical contact with his illustrious colleagues of the past and practiced in his new transalpine Parnassus, favors a timeless conception of the mythical place. This timeless Parnassus, exclusively reserved for those worthy of Apollo’s crown, allowed to transpose the glorious past into the present and to imagine another, more radiant future. In his epic Africa, the poet imagined the advent of a new era by resorting to the mythical mountain and, in particular, by relying on the syncretic Parnassus-Heliconian scheme: “Then on the Helicon you will see a new tree appear and the sacred laurels cover themselves with leaves; Then high spirits and docile souls will arise for whom the passion for good will redouble the ancient love of the Muses.” 7

The Triumphs of Petrarch (and above all, the Trionfo della Fama, the Triumph of Fame) only strengthened the centrality of Parnassus in the Renaissance culture. It is precisely this work that served as a model for countless festive ceremonies in the following centuries. The example of Petrarch, imitated by