Petrarch, the contemporary of Dante and Boccaccio, achieved fame in his own day as a scholar and founder of Renaissance humanism, but today he is chiefly remembered as a poet of love.

His great cycle of sonnets addressed to the dazzling Laura occupied him for 40 years, forming an emotional and spiritual autobiography that moves between joy and despair. These poems established the themes and images of love poetry which was to spread throughout Renaissance Europe, influencing Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare.

This recording presents 59 of the Laura sonnets, including some of the most powerful, addressed to her spirit after death by the heartbroken poet.