The PETRARCA Academy provides a forum for dialogue and research for all those who are committed to the preservation, maintenance and development of European cultural landscapes, and who wish to further their knowledge and meet one another in this context.  In order to awaken from this dreamlike state, and to understand what he had experienced, Petrarch sought to interpret the experience against the backdrop of the philosophical tradition of the theory of the cosmos. Here, ‘cosmos’ originally refers to nature as a whole, nature in its comprehensive cosmic perspective and origin – not the material world broken down into details. And ‘theory’, in its original sense, means ‘contemplation’ or ‘observation’ – initially in the sense of philosophical immersion in one’s own contemplative vision, dedicated to the gods. The ‘theory of the cosmos’, therefore, in its original sense, does not refer to an abstract theory about the cosmos, but to a direct contemplation of the cosmos, whereby ‘cosmos’ meant ‘nature’ and ‘nature’ meant the nature of a thing, its essence, its character.

Finally, Petrarch sought solace in Augustine’s *Confessions*, which he always carried with him. Yet Augustine dismissed Petrarch’s experience as a ‘forgetfulness of the self’. Petrarch was devastated and left the summit – enriched in his experience, yet regarding himself as a failure.

 

This is underpinned by the conviction that landscape can be reborn when people recognise their intrinsic involvement and are prepared to take active responsibility, their actions springing from an understanding of the living interconnections within the landscape.

 

If we see the beauty of earlier cultural landscapes as a reflection of the direct connection between the people inhabiting them and their environment, then today’s landscapes hold up a mirror to the breakdown of these relationships.

 

The PETRARCA Academy aims to explore ways in which people can become aware of the interrelationships between the external appearance of the landscape and their inner connection to it. Such appropriate steps towards understanding can complement conventional nature conservation and landscape management activities, which usually amount to nothing more than an attempt to preserve past landscape images.

 

The foundations for a new awareness of the interrelationships within a landscape were laid in the long-standing work of Jochen Bockemühl in the Natural Science Section at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. The PETRARCA Academy builds on this work and maintains links with the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum.

The specific aim of the PETRARCA Academy is to inspire people

 

• to develop a personal, inner connection with the landscape in which they live,

• to the connection between shifts in human consciousness and changes in the appearance of landscapes, and

• to the question of what insights might help ensure that people’s inner states are reflected in a wholesome way in future landscapes​

 

For our modern understanding of ourselves, however, this letter by Petrarch is exceptionally illuminating: in a manner that is pivotal to the intellectual history of Central Europe, Petrarch’s literary descriptions document an experience in which nature as a whole—in the form of the landscape, and thus sensually visible and surrounding—was experienced. In the philosophical tradition of cosmological theory, the whole was reserved solely for intellectual contemplation. What lay before one’s eyes—visible nature, encompassing humankind—remained, so to speak, devoid of vitality (5). Cosmological theory unfolded in schools, in the monastery cell and, ultimately, within the soul.

With the conception of nature as a whole as landscape, however, a new form of the theory of the cosmos has been attained. Landscape is nature that is aesthetically present to the eye of a feeling and sensitive observer. Landscape only comes into being when a person turns to nature with their senses, without any practical purpose, in ‘free’, appreciative contemplation. Petrarch calls upon us to continue what he began in a manner appropriate to modern consciousness: the visualisation of nature as landscape.

 

Against this backdrop, PETRARCA supports and develops practical approaches to landscape planning, design and research; organises workshops; fosters networks; and collaborates to this end with international, national and regional institutions committed to the development of landscapes. For example, the PETRARCA Academy fulfils an advisory role within the Council of Europe regarding the implementation of the Landscape Convention.

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The Founding

 

The idea for a ‘European Academy for Landscape Culture – PETRARCA’ arose in October 2000, following on from the international conference ‘The Culture of the European Landscape as a Task’ (Dornach, September 2000), within the initiative group that had organised that conference. The Dornach Landscape Manifesto, which was drawn up at this conference, and the European Landscape Convention (Council of Europe, October 2000) were the starting points for the founding of PETRARCA.

 

Background

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Since the late 1960s, research projects, as well as numerous conferences and seminars, have been conducted at the Research Institute of the Natural Science Section at the Goetheanum with the aim of developing the ability to engage meaningfully with a wide variety of natural phenomena and landscape features, and to assess them appropriately through one’s own experiences. This has taken place not only locally, but also in many countries across Europe and beyond, involving a diverse range of people and landscapes.

Several exhibitions have emerged from the Research Institute’s work on landscape:

 

• 1980 ‘Recognising, Experiencing and Shaping Life’s Interconnections’ (6)

• 1984 ‘Dying Forests: A Question of Consciousness’ (7)

• 1992 ‘Awakening to the Landscape’ (8)

 

The last two are travelling exhibitions. They were shown in many locations across European countries and were published as richly illustrated exhibition catalogues.

 

Since 1986, the “Practical Week on Landscape Perception and Design” has taken place almost annually. The first few years were held in Dornach, then in ...

 

• 1993 Berlin

• 1994 Dresden

• 1995 Dörögd Basin (Hungary)

• 1996 Mahlitzsch Farm near Meissen

• 1997 Dornach (Switzerland)

• 1998 Kaluga (Russia)

• 1999 Nordgard Aukrust Farm, Lom (Norway)

• 2000 Dornach (Switzerland)

• 2002 Storckensohn (Vosges, France)

• 2003 Pishwanton (Scotland)

• 2005 Gut Hohenberg (Palatinate)

• 2006 Hofgut Bleijendeijk (Netherlands)

• 2008 Nordgard Aukrust Farm, Lom (Norway)

• 2010 Feuilla (Les Corbières Maritimes, France)

• 2012 Dornach (Switzerland)

• 2014 Cabreira do Côa, Almeida (Portugal)

 

each in collaboration with local stakeholders. The themes of the conferences and working groups are guided by issues that are relevant to the specific location and time(9). The international conference ‘The Culture of the European Landscape as a Task’, held in autumn 2000 at the Goetheanum and attended by representatives from public authorities, institutes and prominent figures from across Europe, was organised by an eight-member steering group following a year of preparation, which included a round-table discussion and further seminar events. In addition to *Landscape our home, Lebensraum Landschaft*, the book accompanying the conference, a manifesto was drafted and adopted during the conference, which was presented to representatives of the Council of Europe, amongst others. The conference papers have been published in *Natur und Mensch*, issue 5/2000.

 

Francesco Petrarch

 

Francesco PETRARCH (1304–1374), one of the founders of humanism, climbed Mont Ventoux in 1336 and contemplated the landscape. This was undoubtedly the first time in history that a landscape had been perceived so consciously as an image.

 

 

On 26 April 1335, the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), regarded as the father of humanism, set out to climb Mont Ventoux (a karst ridge 1,912 metres high situated in the Southern French Pre-Alps), with the aim of enjoying, from up there, the view of the landscape stretching out below — ‘driven solely by the desire to discover with his own eyes the unusual height of a place’. An old shepherd he met along the way merely shook his head in bewilderment: Petrarch was too far ahead of his time with this project… and even ahead of himself, as the following descriptions in his letter to the Augustinian monk Francesco Dionigi show:

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Even as he was climbing the mountain, Petrarch sought to interpret and justify his endeavour by comparing it to the ascent towards the blessed life, which is also ‘at a height towards which… the path climbs steeply’ – in the hope that, once at the summit, he might ‘contemplate God with love’ whilst marvelling at the vast natural landscape surrounding him. Upon reaching the summit, he appeared – struck by the unusual breeze and the panoramic view before him – to be a ‘dazed man’.

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To emerge from this dreamlike state, to understand what he had just experienced, Petrarch sought to interpret this experience in the light of the philosophical tradition of cosmology. Originally, the term ‘cosmos’ referred to nature as a whole, nature in its overarching cosmic vision and its origin – and not to the world of objects broken down into details. And the term ‘theory’ means, in its original sense, ‘vision’ or ‘contemplation’ — primarily in the sense of a philosophical immersion in one’s own intellectual vision, dedicated to the gods. The ‘theory of the cosmos’ therefore does not, in its original sense, refer to an abstract theory about the cosmos, but to an immediate vision of the cosmos, the term ‘cosmos’ here denoting ‘nature’ and the term ‘nature’ denoting the nature of a thing, its essence, its character.

 

Ultimately, Petrarch sought solace in Augustine’s *Confessions*, which he always carried with him. But Augustine rejected Petrarch’s experience, describing it as ‘self-forgetfulness’. Petrarch was, as it were, stunned and left the summit – certainly enriched by this experience, but regarding himself as having failed in his self-understanding.

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This letter by Petrarch is, however, extremely illuminating for our understanding of the present day: Petrarch’s literary descriptions bear witness to an experience—one of decisive importance for the intellectual history of Central Europe—in which nature as a whole, in the form of the landscape, that is to say, as perceived by the senses, was regarded as an immediate environment. In the philosophical tradition of cosmology, the Whole remained the preserve of spiritual contemplation alone. That which presented itself to the eye – namely, the visible nature surrounding humankind – remained, in a sense, devoid of power (5). Cosmological theory was the preserve of schools, monastic cells and the depths of the soul.

 

 

But with the perception of nature as a whole as landscape, a new form of cosmological theory emerged. Landscape is nature presenting itself aesthetically to the gaze of a sensitive and receptive observer. The landscape only takes shape when man turns towards nature with his senses, without any practical purpose, in a ‘free’ and joyful contemplation. Petrarch invites us to continue what he began in a way suited to modern consciousness: the representation of nature as landscape.

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