Museum and Library François Pétrarque, Fontaine de Vaucluse

The Petrarch Museum is a place for poetry which keeps alive the written and artistic legacy of two major artists : - Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) - His poetry and his intellectual heritage as well as medieval literature and culture are preserved in the collection. - René Char (1907-1988) - Illustrated first editions of his poems as well as an exhibit of modern art by twentieth century artists can be found in the museum.

A privileged showcase set in the heart of a narrow valley, the Petrarch Museum invites visitors to discover the exceptionnal beauty of its site and cultural wealth.

Separated by five centuries but standing side by side in the continuity of this inspired place, two major poets, Francesco Petrarch and René Char are remembered in the Museum created in 1927 in a home which had been built on what is believed to have been the property of the italian poet.

- The Mythical Triad :

The museum's iconography features drawings and prints of the celebrated triad of Petrarch, Laure and La Fontaine-de-Vaucluse as artists imagined and painted them over the centuries and a collection of ancient prints of Petrarch's works which includes volumes written by French and Italian Petrarch scholars.

- Writing and Painting :

There is also a small collection of first editions which reveals the pictorial collaboration by the artistic brotherhood of Braque, Giacometti, Miro, Picasso, Staël, and oters who illustrated the poems of René Char.

- The Water Treasure :

Works by contemporary artists accompany the museum's exploration of the poetic territory of La Fontaine-de-Vaucluse in which the collection of antique volumes, by reason of its importance and the sense of mistery it evokes, raises to a higher plane the experience of viewing modernity in its historical perspective.