Who was Laura in Petrarch’s poetry?

In the context of Italian literature, Laura is the idealized beloved and primary subject of the love lyrics written by the poet Petrarch.12

While she has traditionally been identified as Laura de Noves of Avignon—a married woman and mother—Petrarch provided no specific details regarding her identity, leading some critics to suggest she may not have been a real person at all. Petrarch famously claimed to have first seen her in the Church of St. Clare in Avignon on April 6, 1327.13

His devotion to her became a lifelong obsession, inspiring more than 300 Italian sonnets and other lyrics collected in his Canzoniere (or Rime). These poems, divided into those written during her life and those written after her death in 1348, explore his intense psychological reactions to her and established a profound influence on the development of lyric poetry throughout Europe.132