The research project, focused on the De Otio Religioso, aims to study Petrarch’s work from its origins to its circulation in the humanistic era. Apparently of secondary importance among the author’s Latin works, the De Otio synthesizes Petrarch’s position as a 'Christian humanist,' balancing patristic readings with pagan sources, starting from the very concept in the title, while the path of monasticism—understood as contemplative solitude—lends itself to methodological and autobiographical echoes. After attempting to reconstruct the text of De Otio by thoroughly examining its manuscript tradition, the project will aim to analyze its main themes and core issues also in light of the author’s poetics and his figurative inner division. Finally, the study of the work’s dissemination at least up to the first half of the fifteenth century may yield further evidence concerning its different interpretations.