How did Petrarchism spread through Italy, Spain, France, and England?

Petrarchism, the literary phenomenon inspired by the works of Petrarch, developed rapidly during his lifetime and exerted a profound influence on European literature for three centuries. His followers adopted his strict literary discipline and his preference for the sonnet, a form he perfected in his Canzoniere.12

The spread of this movement across Europe occurred as follows:

• Italy: The sonnet originated in the 13th-century Sicilian school and spread to Tuscany, where Petrarch’s 14th-century works established the standard for the Italian sonnet.2
• Spain, Portugal, and France: The Petrarchan sonnet became naturalized in these regions as poets adapted the form to their respective languages. In France, the group known as La Pléiade explicitly advocated for the use of the Petrarchan sonnet to elevate the French language.23
• England: The form was introduced in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey. Elizabethans adapted the Italian model into the English sonnet, characterized by three quatrains and a final rhymed couplet.2