Who was Laura?

Laura de Noves

   Laura was the French lady celebrated by Petrarch as the object of his lifelong passion: born in Eaumont, Provence, 1308; died in Avignon, 6 April 1348. Petrarch has told us that he saw her for the first time in the church of Santa Chiara at Avignon, on Good Friday, 6 April 1327; that she was the mother of several children and died on Good Friday at the hour in which he had first seen her, and was the same evening laid to rest in the Franciscan church. It would appear that Laura was the daughter of Audibert de Noves and was married lo Hugo de Sade (an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade) and bore him 11 children.
   There no ground for supposing that Laura was a mere creature of the poet's fancy.