Petrarch

Here's a little food for thought:
Do you think Petrarch's contemporaries thought he was as crazy as we do? I mean, Petrarch definitely has a unique relationship with Cicero, Augustine and Laura - all people that he had never even spoken to in his life. Did the people he saw and talked to on a regular basis, and even those who read his works and letters, think he was odd for mentioning these three people as those he has an intimate bond with them? Or did they just through it up to artistic genius? I know it was common in the Renaissance to idealize the human form and honor the ancient world, but I think Petrarch took it to the extreme.