Unfinished Designs: Petrarch, Pliny, and the Aesthetics of Rupture

Scholars have related Petrarch's reflections on fragments and ancient ruins to his poetics and to his evolving sense of self. He expresses fears that his texts might become fragmented in the hands of posterity, and he would rather burn them than show them to the public in an unfinished state. Scholars have routinely noted his thought, derived from Saint Augustine, that the intentional fragment is spiritually and morally problematic. However, this article argues that a close look at Petrarch's writing practices reveals different priorities that run counter to his overtly stated values. He routinely introduces elements such as erasures, marginalia, and lacunae into his manuscripts, staging ruptures in the writing process that perpetually forestall the completion of the texts. This article challenges conventional understandings of Petrarch's poetics and self-conception by demonstrating how his actual writing practices subvert his professed beliefs about the dangers of fragmentation and incompleteness.