Ascent of Mont Ventoux

Mount Ventoux

Francesco Petrarch is regarded as the Father of Alpinism because of his ascent to the top on Mount Ventoux in the spring of 1336. This is a 6,200-foot peak near Petrarch's home in Carpentras, France. A century later, a chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross was built on the top of the mountain. Today there is a steep road to the top of Mount Ventoux that is sometimes painfully incorporated into the Tour de France. Since this is the first time that such a mountain climb was done just for the sport, Petrarch is considered as "Father of Alpinism". Petrarch then was about 30 years of age.

In a letter dated April 26 of that year by the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch to Francesco Dionigi of Borgo San Sepolcro, a close friend of Petrarch's who was an Augustinian monk, he gives his account of the ascent. This letter reads in part:

"Today, I ascended the highest mountain in this region, which, not without cause, they call the Windy Peak. Nothing but the desire to see its conspicuous height was the reason for this undertaking."

InThe Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy Jacob Burkhardt describes Petrarch's ascent as the first time mountain climbing had been undertaken just for the sport of it.

Famous First Facts: International Edition credits Petrarch for the first account of mountain climbing of importance,

"In April 1336 'to see what so great an elevation had to ofer,' he climbed the peak of

Mount Ventoux in Provence, France, which is 6,203 feet high. In a letter to a monk , he later wrote: 'I stood like one dazed, I beheld the clouds under our feet, and what I had read of Athos and Olympus seemed less incredible as I witnessed the same things from a mountain less famous.'

Morris Bishop's book, Petrarch and His World, has a long chapter titled "The Ascent of Mont Ventoux" on the ascent Petrarch made to the top of Mont Ventoux. He says in this chapter,

"There is no clear record that anyone ever climbed a mountain for pleasure or mere curiosity from the time of King Philip of Macedonia to that of Petrarch. True, there is the case of King Peter of Aragon in the thirteenth century, who is said to have climbed Mount Canigou in the Pyrenees only to see what was on the summit. There he found a lake with monstrous hovering dragon, darkening the face of heaven with his breath. I think we may rule this out. We may rule out also the Alpine hermits, who sought their high retreats only to escape the world; and even Empedocles, who climbed Mount Etna in order to throw himself in the crater. Of course there were hunters, pursuing game to the upper fast-nesses, and shepherds seeking stray sheep or goats. However, Petrarch remains the first recorded Alpinist, the first to climb a mountain because it is there. ... Except for a nameless shepherd who will soon appear, Petrarch remains the first recorded Alpinist, the first to climb a mountain

because it is there....Probably by design, for Petrarch had a great sense of anniversaries, he planned the ascent for April 26, 1336, exactly ten years from the day he and Gherardo had left Bologna."

Garrett Mattingly, a professor of European history at Columbia University, writes of Petrarch's ascent on Mount Ventoux in his book Renaissance Profiles (co-author John H. Plumb) and refers to him as being the Father of Alpinism.

In a University of Illinois paper of 1995 presented at the Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference reference is made of Petrarch undertaking his climb of Mount Ventoux in April of 1336 after his reading of Livy's account of how Philip of Macedon climbed Mount Hermus and refers to Morris Bishop calling Petrarch as being "the first modern mountain-climber."

In another online article called "What is Mountaineering" they mention Petrarch as being known as the Father of Alpinism.

In an online article called Provence-Hideaways (sights and flavours of the Provence) about Mont Ventoux it talks much about Petrarch's ascent to the top. In the lead of the article it says,

Petrarch, the famous poet, who lived in Avignon and Carpentras from 1333 to 1349, recorded his ascent in 1336 from Malaucène to the top. He did it just out of curiosity and in order to see the sun rise. More importantly he wrote about it; hence he is considered to be the father of alpinism. Many have followed him; Mont Ventoux has retained his fascination for most of us.

References

• Petrarca: Ascent of Mount Ventoux, letter to Francesco Dionigi de'Roberti of Borgo San Sepolcro, April 26, 1336. pp.42-43, Renaissance Philosophy of Man, ed. Cassirer, Kristeller & Randall, The University of Chicago Press. 1948. ISBN 0-226-09604-1
• The Renaissance philosophy of man, translation selections by Ernst Cassirer; Paul Oskar Kristeller; John Herman Randall, University of Chicago Press, 1956 (OCLC: 71231567), 1971
• Petrarch Letter to Francesco Dionigi de'Roberti, 26 April 1336 (The Ascent of Mount Ventoux). Translated by Hans Nachod in The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, ed. Ernst Cassirer et al., 36-46. Chicago: University of Chicago , 1948.