Encyclopædia Americana
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LAURA; Petrarch''s mistress. It was long erroneously supposed that this lady, who has been celebrated in the sweetest strains of poetry, was only an allegorical person, or a descendant of the houses of Chaband and Sade, who remained single, and lived at Vauclnse, where the poet had an opportunity of becoming acquaint ed with her. According to the investigations of the abbe Sade, Mémoires pour la Vie tle Frangois Pétrarque (Amsterdam, 1764—67, 3 vols., 11ml; of ''1'' irab0scl:i,in ...