Born in 1304, died In 1374; his father banished from
Florence at the same time as Dante; settled at Avignon in
1313; studied at Montpelier; first saw the Laura of his
sonnets in 1327; became a canon at Lembez in 1335; settled
at Vaucluse in 1337, where he wrote his best works; called
both to Rome and Paris in 1340 to be crowned poet laureate;
settled in Milan in 1353; employed on various diplomatic
missions; removed to Padua in 1362; met Boccaccio in Venice
in 1362, for the last time; besides his sonnets, odes and
other poems, wrote controversial and polemical treatises,
letters and orations.