Petrarca-Preis was a European literary and translation award named after the Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch.
Founded in 1975 by German art historian and publisher Hubert Burda,[1] it was primarily designed for contemporary European poets, but some occasional non-Europeans appear in the list of laureates.
The first jury consisted of fluxus participant Bazon Brock, poets Michael Krüger and Nicolas Born, and novelist Peter Handke.
"We want to support a national and regional culture in Europe", founder Hubert Burda initially said at the 2011 awards.
An explicit goal was to watch out all over Europe for authors who gave a distinctive voice to their prevailing culture.