In the middle of the 14th century, Francesco Petrarca—better known as Petrarch—did something no one had ever done: He wrote letters to the dead. Among his recipients were the Greek epic poet Homer and the Roman writers Cicero, Seneca, and Livy.
Petrarch’s letters are full of questions, praises, and reproaches. They show readers what it means to treat an author as a friend, and to befriend the past.
