An engraving of the poet Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304–74), and his beloved Laura (possibly Laura de Noves, 1310–48, wife of Count Hugues de Sade). This print is lettered beneath the portraits with a quotation from Petrarch's Canzoniere: "Spirito ignudo sono, e'n ciel mi godo: / Quel, che tu cerchi, è terra gia molt'anni; // Son questi i capei biondi, e L'aureo nodo / Che mi strinse? e i begli occhi che fur mio Sol? // Ant. Sal. Esc.".

The print seems to be part of a series of Italian poets that included Ariosto. Salamanca's publication line – 'ANT. SAL. EXC.' – beneath the bust of Petrarch has been poorly burnished from the plate, presumably to accommodate the addition of the verse.

The print formed part of an album of portrait prints assembled by Cassiano dal Pozzo in Rome. Described in an early nineteenth-century inventory of prints in George III's library as Italian Poets, Historians &c:^a, the album comprised 159 prints. It was dismantled later in the nineteenth century and its contents sold during the early twentieth century, when only a few of Cassiano's foreign non-royal portrait prints were retained for the collection.

For more information see Mark McDonald, The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. I: Ceremonies, Costumes, Portraits and Genre, 3 vols, Royal Collection Trust 2017, part of The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo: A Catalogue Raisonné, cat. no. 1572.