..-•^ 
 
r^a^-^x^ ^^^c-<K, n-t 
 
 i^Ur-y-v^ 'ki^ f'^^e^.^J^ f'V^^^^^ 
 
 
 
3PJ@^M..amCc!.li[f[, 
 
 : leniy CoTbi. 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 PETRARCH. 
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL, ESQ. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HEl^RY COLBUET^, PTJBLISHEH, 
 
 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1841. 
 
London: 
 
 l". SliOBERr,, JUN. 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET, 
 PRINTER TO H. R. H. PRINCE ALBERT. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 I UNDERTOOK to Write the Life of Petrarch 
 more from accident than orio-inal desio-n. It was 
 known that the Eev. Archdeacon Coxe had be- 
 queathed to the Library of the British Museum a 
 MS. Life of the Poet, which he had written. Mr. 
 Colburn caused a copy of it to be taken ; and, in- 
 tending it for publication, requested me to be the 
 editor. I readily agreed ; for, as the Archdeacon 
 had considerable literary reputation, I could not 
 imagine that he had left to a great public insti- 
 tution any work that was ill digested and not 
 worthy of perusal : so I surrounded myself with as 
 many books connected with the subject as I could 
 obtain, and applied assiduously to the study of 
 Italian literature, which I had neglected for some 
 years. 
 
iv ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Great, however, was my disappointment when, 
 sitting clown to the Coxe-Petrarchan MS., I found 
 it an incomplete biography, that stops short of the 
 poet's death by twelve years, written in a style so 
 sprawlingly diffuse that, where three words would 
 serve, the Archdeacon is sure to employ nine. I 
 tried to remedy this fault by compression, but 
 found that the reverend man's verbosity defied all 
 power of packing. If any one suspects me of dealing 
 unfairly with the Archdeacon, let him go to the 
 library of the British Museum and peruse the work 
 in question — his scepticism will find its reward. He 
 will agree with me that the Coxeian MS. is placed 
 in a wrong part of the Museum. It should not be 
 in the library, but among the bottled abortions of 
 anatomy, or the wooden visages of the South Sea 
 idols, ^or will he blame me for saying that the 
 entire MS. betrays a writer incapacitated by nature 
 for disserting on poetry. His ability to compose 
 matter-of-fact travels and political memoirs I call 
 not in question ; but, with regard to any spark of 
 poetical sympathy, his mind was obtuse and a mere 
 mortuum caput. I found no fault with him for 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. V 
 
 having drawn his materials almost entirely from 
 De Sade, for that biogi*apher is the only one who 
 can be mainly depended upon for information 
 respecting Petrarch ; but I did blame the Arch- 
 deacon for doing so unavowedly, instead of ac- 
 knowledging the debt, as Mrs. Dobson and myself 
 have done, and for interspersing his clumsy trans- 
 lation of De Sade with still clumsier remarks of his 
 own. 
 . To have edited this foetus of biography would 
 
 have done no good to either Petrarch, or Arch- 
 deacon Coxe, or myself. 
 
 I had employed, however, some time and trouble 
 in consulting books and preparing notes for the 
 proposed editorship ; and, unwilling to throw them 
 away, I undertook to write a Life of Petrarch, for 
 which I should be solely responsible. 
 
 I have in general followed the text of De Sade, 
 correcting, by the aid of his latest biographer 
 Baldelli, the few inaccuracies in his memoirs, 
 chiefly of dates, which the latter industrious author 
 has detected in De Sade, I have made a depar- 
 ture from the nomenclature of De Sade and his 
 English abridger, Mrs. Dobson, which, I think, 
 
vi ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 will be no disadvantage to the English reader. 
 They I oth frenchify the names both of persons 
 and places, so as half to disguise them from those 
 acquainted with the Italian language. To this 
 rule, which I have followed, there is one exception 
 in my retaining the common English contraction 
 of the poet's name. We are so accustomed to call 
 the lover of Laura Petrarch, that I thought it 
 Avould be as pedantic to call him Petrarca, as to 
 name the Koman historian Livius, instead of Livy. 
 I may have taken a few other liberties of this 
 kind ; but, in no instance, I apprehend, can they 
 lead to obscurity. Even those who are little ac- 
 quainted with the language of the Italians know 
 that our name John is synonymous with their Gio- 
 vanni ; our James with their Gacopo ; and our 
 Joan with their Giovanna. 
 
PlIEFACE. 
 
 REVIEW OF THE BIOGRAPHERS OF PETRARCH. 
 
 After the death of Petrarch, there was a gene- 
 ral call throughout Italy for some account of his 
 life that should be worthy of his fame ; and, first 
 of all, Filippo Villani, Pietro Paolo Vergerio, and 
 Domenico Aretino, and, not long afterwards, Sicco 
 Polentono, Lionardo Aretino, and Gianozzo Ma- 
 netti, sought to satisfy this demand. But all these 
 writers were destitute of literary research ; they 
 were ample praisers, but negligent inquirers : their 
 meagre and inaccurate accounts of the poet were 
 almost all drawn either from his Epistle to Pos- 
 terity, or compiled from vulgar traditions, which 
 jumbled together the great and the trivial, the true 
 and the false. 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 Ill the earlier part of the fifteenth century, the 
 reputation of Petrarch greatly declined. The 
 learned turned all their attention to the Greek and 
 Roman writers, and they forgot their obligations 
 to those who had been, as it were, their pioneers 
 in classical literature. Their admiration of the 
 earliest poetry in the vulgar tongue was suspended ; 
 all who aspired to be called learned wrote in Latin, 
 or, if they used Italian, they abandoned the 
 simple graces of the past age for latinisms and 
 falsely ambitious phraseology. Writers imbued 
 with this bad taste, such as Panfilo and others, 
 threw into the shade the patriarchs of the Tuscan 
 tongue. 
 
 Some counteraction to this bad taste was found 
 in the writings of Lorenzo, Benivieni, and Pulci ; 
 and Poliziano revived a predilection for the old 
 Petrarchan style. ISTot long afterwards, Bembo, 
 though not a native of Tuscany, was so conversant 
 with its dialect, that he brought back the vulgar 
 tongue to its ancient beauty. Then, that is, about 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century, the can- 
 zoniere of Petrarch resumed their past renown; 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 and it was not eclipsed, but on the contrary 
 heightened, by the glory of Ariosto and a host of 
 highly imaginative and beautiful poets, who illus- 
 trated that period. It was then that Girolamo 
 Squarciofico wrote the life of Petrarch with lauda- 
 ble zeal, though his style was diffuse, and his nar- 
 rative disfigured by fables. Our poet's next bio- 
 grapher was Alessandro Vellutello, w^ho, although 
 he had the curiosity to visit the birth-place of 
 Laura, in order to clear up doubts about her his- 
 tory which had become prevalent in Italy, instead 
 of throwing light upon the subject, threw over it 
 the darkness of an enigma. In the course of the 
 century, Lelio dei Leli, the descendant of his 
 namesake, Petrarch's faithful friend, thought of 
 tracing the history of the poet's life out of his 
 writings. Manuscript copies of this work lie in 
 the Ambrosian and Eiccardian libraries. Baldelli 
 thinks this biography worthy of praise, though it 
 is inelegantly written, and loaded with diftuse di- 
 gressions into contemporary history. 
 
 Giovanni Andrea Gesualdo, the best commen- 
 tator on the canzoniere of Petrarch, subjoined to 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 his commentaries a life of our poet by Giovanni 
 Antonio Niccolini, which he published at Venice 
 in 1533. In this edition, according to Baldelli, 
 we see the first demonstrations of capacity for the 
 task in those who wrote about Petrarch. The 
 biography shews diligent research. 
 
 But the most esteemed life of our bard which 
 was written in that age was that of Lodovico Bec- 
 cadelli, archbishop of Ragusa, which, though com- 
 posed in 1540, lay unpublished in the Vatican till 
 it was edited by Tommasini. He was a learned 
 and sagacious critic ; but his work is not free from 
 anachronisms and errors, and is so little illustrated 
 by contemporary history, that Petrarch seems like 
 a man isolated from any particular age. 
 
 After a golden age in Italian literature, which 
 continued far into the sixteenth century, came a 
 degenerate period, disgraced by the compositions of 
 Casus Molza and Aretino, and the reign of bad 
 taste was made despotic by the subsequent influ- 
 ence of Marino, who, though endowed with a fer- 
 tile and original imagination, was infected with 
 the conceits and false images that had marked the 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 first degeneracy of Italian poetiy. The sectaries 
 of the Marino school were rabid assailants of Pe- 
 trarch's fame,* and, unhappily, they were so po- 
 pular that, during the seventeenth century, there 
 were but few and wretched editions of his Canzo- 
 niere. Filippo Tommasiui among the Italians 
 alone attempted to revive the reputation of our 
 poet. Tommasini, as his champion, spared neither 
 care nor research to furnish a full and accurate life 
 of Petrarch ; but, from his being an unskilful critic 
 and a credulous narrator, diffuse in light matters, 
 and inaccurate in those of importance, his " Pe- 
 trarca Kedivio " is a work not much to be com- 
 mended, except for its notice of numerous unknown 
 facts. Tommasini had the merit of bringing to 
 
 * The first of them who derided Petrarch and his imitators 
 was Niccolo Franco, the friend and disciple, and afterwards 
 the antagonist, of the infamous Aretino, whom he rivalled in 
 bitter satire, as well as outrageous indecency. He ended his 
 days very worthily on the gallows. He published a dialogue, 
 entitled, " II Petrarchista presso il Ciolito" (Venice, 1539), in 
 which, mixing up lies and truth, he mocked the life, the writings, 
 the love, and the worshippers of our poet. Ercole Giovan- 
 nini followed his example, and wrote another dialogue, en- 
 titled, " II secondo Petrarchista," which, together with that 
 of France, was published by Barezzi, at Venice, in 1623. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 light four ancient lives of the poet, Avliich had been 
 all but forgotten, together with that of Beccadelli, 
 which lay a neglected MS. in the Vatican. The 
 void in the succession of Petrarch's biographers 
 after Tommasini is filled up by De Sade with the 
 names of several writers, such as Andrea Scho- 
 deren, the German, Filippo di Maldeghen of Flan- 
 ders, and Placido Catanusi, a Parisian. As Bal- 
 delli owns that he had never read these ultramon- 
 tanes, I need not be ashamed to make the same 
 confession. But De Sade's opinion may console 
 us, for he thinks them even worse than preceding 
 biographers. 
 
 In process of time, the evil popularity of Marino 
 and his school declined in Italy, and the nation 
 returned to a just estimate of the writers of the 
 fourteenth century. Writers of higher genius 
 arose with the improved national taste. At 
 this epoch, Lodovico Antonio Muratori under- 
 took the biography of Petrarch. Great expecta- 
 tions were formed from his extensive knowledge 
 and research ; but the literary public were disap- 
 pointed in the great annalist's life of our poet. It 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 was his worst work : it was* short and confused, 
 and was found to be full of errors and anachronisms. 
 Giuseppe di Bimard, baron of Bastia, who died in 
 1742, left a life of Petrarch unedited, but it was 
 published by the Academy of Inscriptions and 
 Belles Lettres at Paris, of which he was a mem- 
 ber, A part of his work, and, perhaps, the most 
 important, entitled the Library of Petrarch, was 
 left unfinished by his sudden death. He was a saga- 
 cious critic, and is not unworthy of praise as Pe- 
 trarch's biographer, though De Sade has exposed 
 many of his errors and anachronisms. Luigi Ban- 
 dini resumed the task : he was a diligent inquirer 
 respecting the ancestors of Petrarch, and he cer- 
 tainly brought to light, from original sources, some 
 circumstances in Petrarch's life that had been un- 
 noticed before. It is true that he has fallen into 
 flagrant errors, and has many defects, though he 
 may possibly have removed some from that part 
 of his work which has not been published. De 
 Sade often reproves his confusion of facts and 
 chronology, but he is the first author who has 
 M^ritten philosophically about Petrarch ; never- 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 theless, a sincere love of truth shines through his 
 writings, and De Sade, his severe censor, has been 
 much indebted to him. 
 
 But among the biographers of Petrarch the 
 Abbe de Sade claims beyond all comparison the 
 highest place. Proud of being descended from 
 Laura, he undertook, for the sake of writing her 
 lover's life, minute researches, and toilsome jour- 
 neys, that consumed the greater part of his life. 
 He thus acquired that vast knowledge of the lite- 
 rary and political history of Italy, which marks 
 him out as the most accomplished foreigner who 
 has ever written on the fourteenth century. Prom 
 the MSS. of the Parisian library, and from other 
 unedited literary treasures, he traced many letters 
 of Petrarch's that had been previously unknoAvn. 
 Well versed in the Tuscan tongue, and in corre- 
 spondence with the most learned men of Italy, he 
 collected a rich store of materials which had till 
 then lain buried in the libraries of Italy, and 
 among others the Medicean, from which the cele- 
 brated Canon Bandini supplied him with valuable 
 matter. 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 His Memoirs of the life of the poet show admi- 
 rable sagacity in discovering, we may almost say, 
 the chronology of Petrarch's life, his ecclesiastical 
 preferments, his descendants, his relations and 
 friends, his political and literary life. De Sade's 
 work is, in fact, a deep and large reservoir of in- 
 formation respecting the manners and customs of 
 Petrarch's age; and he has given, as it Mere, a 
 new life to Laura, by bringing forward documents 
 respecting that interesting woman from the archives 
 of his own family, which he shows to coincide with 
 passages in Petrarch's writings. So valuable an 
 author is De Sade, that I have made him my text- 
 book in my humble attempt to write the life of 
 the poet ; and my apology for following him as a 
 guide is, that I could find no other worthy of so 
 much confidence. 
 
 No doubt, De Sade, by speaking with rather un- 
 measured contempt of preceding biographers, and 
 by taxing the whole Italian nation with profound 
 ignorance about Petrarch, roused a hornet-nest of 
 critics against him in Italy. Their angry accusa- 
 tions were, of course, exaggerated in some cases ; 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 but in others they were disagreeably true. It 
 is not to be denied, for instance, that there is 
 such redundant information respecting the age and 
 contemporaries of Petrarch, as often to make us 
 forget the poet himself amidst the broad historical 
 tablet. De Sade was, moreover, charged with 
 misunderstanding Petrarch's Italian poetry, be- 
 cause he has not translated it at once literally and 
 elegantly. 
 
 If, however, we subject to this ordeal all the 
 translations of Petrarch's poetry that were ever 
 made, we shall find that he has scarcely one genuine 
 translator. The German translations of him are 
 like rooks imitating a nightingale ; and the French 
 language has still less harmony than the German. 
 Our bold and sinewy English is too robust to adapt 
 itself to the graces of Petrarch's poetry ; and, when 
 we spin a Petrarchan sonnet, we find the short- 
 haired wool of our speech very unlike the silky and 
 ductile fleece of that of Italy. 
 
 The Abb6 Arnaud of Avignon published, in 
 1 778, a work entitled the Genius of Petrarch. He 
 was reckoned a happier translator of Petrarch's 
 
PREFACE. XVU 
 
 Terses than De Sade ; but as a biographer he fol- 
 lows De Sade chapter and Terse. 
 
 Other celebrated Italian writers of the last cen- 
 tury illustrated the memory of Petrarch. Among 
 these was the Abb6 Mehus, Avho collected all the 
 infoi-mation that could be found respecting him in 
 the vast treasures of the Florentine library, 1759- 
 Next came the leanied and clear Tiraboschi, an 
 historian of literature who has no superior in that 
 class of composition. He corrected several mis- 
 takes even in De Sade. Besides Mehus, Sigiior 
 Andres, who gained celebrity in Italy by his Ge- 
 neral History of Literature, is praised by Baldelli 
 for having Avritten with sagacity and eloquence on 
 the subject of Petrarch ; and Father Affo,. in his 
 account of the literary men of Parma, has added to 
 our knowledge of many friends whom the poet pos- 
 sessed in that place, and has ascertained by distinct 
 documents the precise dates of his promotion to 
 the canonicate and archdeaconry of its cathe- 
 dral. Bettinelli and Rubbi are the last writers 
 whom Baldelli commends as learned eulogists of 
 Petrarch. 
 
 VOL. I. h 
 
XVlll PREFACE. 
 
 Baldelli himself published in 1792 a work in 
 four books on our poet's life and writings, which 
 came to a second edition in 1837. He was a dili- 
 gent searcher of libraries, and, by his own in- 
 quiries, as well as the aid of Mehus and other 
 preceding biographers, he has rectified several 
 erroneous dates in De Sade's Memoirs. He has 
 added a chronological summary of the Life of Pe- 
 trarch, which is made clear and useful to the 
 student by the subjoined notes, containing argu- 
 ments in favour of what he asserts in his text. 
 Baldelli also adds to his four books an alphabetical 
 list of the principal friends of the poet, and of the 
 persons connected with his history, On the whole, 
 literary history is certainly indebted to Baldelli. 
 Yet he appears to me an incomparably less valuable 
 biographer than De Sade, even after he has cor- 
 rected his errors. 
 
 De Sade, with all his diffuseness, has a charm at 
 once of freedom and distinctness, which I miss in 
 Baldelli. The former puts on his margin at every 
 page the Anno Domini of events in the poet's life ; 
 the latter, in what he calls his life of Petrarch, 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 has no marginal dates, but reserves his chronology 
 for a separate chapter. This is bad taste, for it is 
 not in an abstracted chapter that we wish to recol- 
 lect a man's age when any interesting event befalls 
 him ; but we wish to be reminded of his age side 
 by side with the anecdote itself. The subject of 
 biography said, or wrote, or did, so and so. The 
 saying or action was very imprudent, or very 
 prudent ; how old was he when this happened ? 
 Surely we are more obliged to the biographer who 
 puts the date upon his margin, than to him who 
 refers us to a chronological chapter. 
 
 Again, Baldelli's notices of Petrarch's friends 
 and persons connected with his history is far from 
 comprehending half the names about which we may 
 be curious. It is, in fact, an imperfect index. 
 Baldelli, moreover, is a dry and short writer. He 
 omits a great deal that is interesting in Petrarch's 
 biography, particularly his travels. Of these travels 
 Levati has given an account in a work in four 
 volumes ; and certainly Levati cannot be accused 
 of being dry or abrupt ; but, in his account of 
 Petrarch's travels, he has introduced matter which 
 
 b 2 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 I violently suspect is not to be verified by any 
 thing in the writings of Petrarch, I have quoted 
 Levati, but I cannot warrant him to the reader as 
 unquestionable authority. 
 
 To those who are particularly interested about 
 the history of Petrarch and his times, the following 
 information may possibly be acceptable. Professor 
 Marsand of Padua collected a Bihlioteca Pe- 
 trarchesca — a Petrarchian library — consisting of 
 nine hundred volumes, illustrative of the history of 
 the poet. A catalogue of these works was pub- 
 lished at Milan, in 4to. ; but the collection itself 
 was purchased in 1829 for the private library of 
 the King of France, in the Louvre. 
 
CONTEl^TS 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Importance of Petrarch's influence on the revival of Modern 
 Literature — His Claims to Remembrance, independently of his 
 Poetry — His Patriotism — Apology for some fluctuating Traits 
 in his Political Character, as well as for his Intimacy with some 
 of the Aristocracy in Italy, who were opposed to him in Poli- 
 tical Sentiments — His Industry and Sagacity in recovering 
 Copies of the Classics — His Latin Compositions — His Enmity 
 to the Corruptions of Popery, and his General Liberalism — State 
 of Literature and Science at the time when he came into the 
 World — Italian Universities and their Professors — Political 
 Situation of Italy at the beginning of the 14th Century 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 The Family of Petrarch— The Eventful Date of his Birth, 
 at the very time when his Father was exposing his Life in 
 Battle — Petrarch is taken in his Infancy, by his Mother, to 
 Ancisa, where he remains for Seven Years— His Father and 
 
XXll CONTENTS. 
 
 Family remove to Pisa, where they remain for Seven Months 
 
 — In 1315, they remove to Carpentras, where, under the 
 Care of his Mother, and the Tuition of Convennole da Prato, 
 he acquires the First Rudiments of Learning — His subse- 
 quent kindness to his old Preceptor — Petrarch forms, at Car- 
 pentras, a boyish friendship for Guido Settimo, which lasts 
 for Life — Early manifestations of the Young Poet's Genius 
 
 — His exclamation on being led to see Vaucluse — He is 
 sent, in 151 9, in his Fifteenth Year, to the College of Mont- 
 pelier, and from thence, in 1323, to the University of Bologna 
 
 — He continues to be averse to the Law, and attached to 
 the Classics — His Father, enraged at his devotion to Latin 
 Authors, comes to Bologna, and burns a portion of his Library 
 
 — Petrarch studies at Bologna, under Cino da Pistoia, who 
 was a Poet, as well as a Jurisconsult — Boccaccio is said, 
 but inaccurately, to have been a Pupil of Cino's — Petrarch's 
 visit to Venice — His admiration of that place — On his return, 
 he learns the Death of his Mother, and, soon after, that of 
 his Father — His Verses on the Death of his Mother — He 
 returns to Avignon, and settles there, pursuing his Clas- 
 sical Studies — His- friendship with John of Florence, and 
 his introduction to the friendship and patronage of James 
 Colonna . . . • • .29 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Petrarch falls in love with Laura — Absurd opinions about 
 Laura entertained by the Poet's early biographers — He is 
 invited by James Colonna to accompany him to his diocese at 
 Lombes — Circumstances which drew the Pope's favour towards 
 James Colonna — Petrarch accepts the Bishop's invitation, and 
 travels with him through Languedoc — They visit Montpelier, 
 Narbonne, and Toulouse — Proven9al Poetry — Floral Games 
 
CONTENTS. XXIU 
 
 • — Horrible Event in a Monastery of Toulouse — Their Tour 
 to the highest Mountain of the Pyrenees, and their raeeting 
 with an hospitable old Saracen, who invites them to his Castle 
 — Liberal idea of the Mussulman respecting the Prophet's Law 
 about drinking Wine . . . . .53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Petrarch returns with the Bishop of Lombes to his diocese 
 ■ — Strong attachment formed by the Poet for two Friends whom 
 he met under James Colonna's roof, and whom he afterwards 
 distinguished by the names of Lselius and Socrates — Cardinal 
 John Colonna arrives at Avignon — Petrarch is introduced to 
 him, and takes up his abode with him— Sketch of the History 
 of the Colonna Family — Concourse of learned and distinguished 
 Strangers at John Colonna's House — Arrival of Richard de 
 Bury at Avignon — Petrarch's acquaintance with him — The 
 Education of Agapito Colonna, son of the younger Stefano, is 
 entrusted to our Poet — His passion for Laura continues un- 
 prosperous, but undiminished . . . .73 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Petrarch makes a journey through the north of France, 
 and visits Flanders as well as a part of Germany — Baldelli's 
 correction of De Sade's mistake as to the date of this journey 
 — His Letter from Paris to the Cardinal Colonna — His De- 
 scription of the Parisians — He makes acquaintance with Ro- 
 berto di Bardi — University of Paris — He proceeds to Ghent, 
 where he complains of the high price of Wine, and thence 
 to Liege, where, in spite of a vast number of Clergv, there 
 was a great scarcity of Ink — Journeys on to Aix-la-Chapelle 
 — His Letter from thence to Cardinal Colonna — He visits 
 Cologne, and relates in a Letter a Superstitious Custom of the 
 
XXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Inhabitants — He returns homeward, arrives at Lyons, and 
 learns there that the Bishop of Lombes had gone to Rome — 
 Writes to him in an irritated state of mind — Gets back to 
 Avignon, and finds the cause of James Colonna's absence ex- 
 plained by his Brother the Cardinal . - - 87 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 State of Affaire in Italy from 1314 to 1333 — Competition 
 for the Imperial Crown between Frederic of Austria and Lewis 
 of Bavaria — Frederic supported by the Pope, the King of 
 Naples, and the Guelphs of Italy, whilst the Italian Ghibel- 
 lines, the Swiss Cantons, and John, King of Bohemia, support 
 Lewis of Bavaria — Character of John of Bohemia — Death 
 of Pope Clement V. — Is succeeded by John XXII. — Matteo 
 Visconti excommunicated by the Pope — His Dotage and Death 
 — Is succeeded in power by his son, Galeazzo Visconti — 
 The Battle of Miihldorf — Lewis of Bavaria begins to rule 
 the empire as an independent and legitimate sovereign — 
 He releases his captive rival, Frederic of Austria, from the 
 prison to which he had been consigned, but, from his in- 
 gratitude to the Ghibellines, Lewis begins to decline in popu- 
 larity among the Italians — John of Bohemia becomes a 
 favourite throughout Germany and Italy — He approaches 
 the frontiers of Italy, and is invited by several of its States 
 to protect them — Comes to a perfidious understanding with 
 Pope John XXII. to suppress the liberties of all Italy — Awakens 
 the jealousy of all the Italians, who unite, Guelph and Ghibel- 
 line, foil the Pope, and oblige the Bohemian Monarch to 
 retire ....... 103 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Petrarch remains at Avignon — Illness of Laura in the year 
 1334 — His Sonnets on the subject —Projects of the old Pope, 
 
CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 John XXII. — He wishes to revive the Crusades — Petrarch's 
 zeal for the absurd scheme is kindled, and he inveighs against 
 the Christian Powers for their inactivity against tlie Moslems 
 — The Kings of France and Bohemia pledge themselves to an 
 Expedition to the Holy Land, but it never takes place — The 
 Pope talks of replacing the Holy Chair at Rome — He enters 
 Italy ; but, fearing to trust himself in the Roman Capital, re- 
 pairs to Bologna to wait for quieter times — Petrarch writes 
 with enthusiasm on this subject also — Endeavour of the Pope 
 to establish a New Doctrine respecting the " Beatific Vision," 
 namely, that we shall not see God face to face till after the 
 Resurrection — John, finding his Doctrine universally con- 
 demned, recants it — His Death — He is succeeded by Benedict 
 XII. — Letter xjf Petrarch to the new Pope in the Character of 
 the City of Rome — Benedict declines old Mother Rome's 
 Invitation, but praises Petrarch, and gives him the Canonicate 
 of Lombes — Azzo da Correggio eomes to Avignon with an 
 appeal to the Pope's Tribunal — His Cause is pleaded by Pe- 
 trarch, and triumphantly carried — Satirical Letter of the Bishop 
 of Lombes to Petrarch, and the Poet's answer . .135 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Petrarch, hopeless of appeasing his passion for Laura, re- 
 solves ouce more to travel — Difference of his Biographers 
 respecting the date of his First Journey to Rome — Baldelli, 
 the most likely to be right, fixes it in 1335 — The state of his 
 mind borders on distraction before he can wind up his resolu- 
 tion to depart — His emotion at seeing a Country Girl washing 
 the veil of Laura — Leaves Avignon ; embarks at Marseilles 
 for Civita Vecchia — The friends whom he expects to see in 
 his travels ; among whom were Dionisio dal Borgo and Roberto 
 Bardi — Allusion to the Historv of the latter — Lands on the 
 
XXVI CONTENTS. 
 
 Coast of Tuscany ; sees a Laurel Tree, and is thrown into 
 ecstasies — Difficulty of getting to Rome — He takes refuge in 
 the Castle of Capranica — Writes to the Bishop of Lombes, at 
 Rome, and to Cardinal Colonna, at Avignon, describing to the 
 latter the Dreadful State of the Country — The Bishop of 
 Lombes, and his brother Stephano Colonna, come to Capranica, 
 and conduct our poet to Rome — He is lodged in the Capitol — 
 Caressed by the whole Colonna Family, and shewn the Anti- 
 quities of the City by Giovanni da S. Vito, brother of the 
 elder Stephano Colonna — Leaves Rome, and voyages even 
 into the British Seas — Flatters himself that he has conquered 
 his Passion — Returns to Avignon and finds his mistake — Has 
 a Son born to him by a Woman whose Name and History are 
 unknown — Retires to live at Vaucluse . . .155 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Description of Vaucluse, where Petrarch buys a Cottage 
 and Field, and settles — His account of his Mode of Living — 
 His friends come seldom to see hira, but he is visited some- 
 times by Philip of Cabassoles, Bishop of Cavaillon, and by 
 Guido Settimo, his friend from Boyhood — His Literary Un- 
 dertakings — He makes the Acquaintance of Humbert IL, 
 Dauphin of Vienne — They Visit the Cavern at Beaume, said 
 to have been the Residence of Mary Magdalene — His Letter 
 to the Dauphin — His friends Azzo da Correggio and Gug- 
 lielmo da Pastrengo come to Avignon — Petrarch's passion for 
 Laura continues unabated — Mention of the Sonnets which he 
 wrote to her in 1339 — Simone of Siena comes to Avignon, 
 and executes for him a Portrait of Laura — Bernardo Bar- 
 laamo, a Greek Monk, arrives in Avignon, and, either on his 
 first or more probably* on his second visit to Avignon, becomes 
 Petrarch's Teacher in the Greek Language — Barlaamo is, un- 
 
CONTENTS. XXVll 
 
 fortunately for our poet, recalled from Provence — Dionisio dal 
 Borgo passes through Avignon, and has an interview with 
 the Poet — Petrarch's Letter to Dionisio, with complimentary 
 allusions to Robert King of Naples — The King writes to 
 Petrarch — Petrarch's Answer . . .171 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Anecdote illustrating Petrarch's love of Literary Occupation 
 — Arrival of Dionisio dal Borgo at Avignon — The high 
 favour of this ecclesiastic with Robert King of Naples — 
 Petrarch writes to Dionisio, evidently hinting his wish to be 
 patronized by his Neapolitan Majesty — His ambition to be 
 crowned as Poet Laureate is gratified — Two letters reach him 
 on the same day, the first from the Roman Senate, inviting 
 him to come and be crowned at Rome ; the other from Roberto 
 Bardi, giving him the same invitation to Paris — He consults 
 Cardinal Colonna on the subject, who advises him to go to 
 Rome — He repairs to Naples — He selects the King of Naples 
 as the Examiner of his competency for the Laurel — King 
 Robert's Qualifications for the oflSce of Examiner — He wishes 
 Petrarch to be Crowned at Naples : but the Poet decides on 
 receiving that honour at Rome — Favours bestowed on him by 
 the King — Petrarch proceeds to Rome — Ceremonies attending 
 his Coronation — ^^He goes to Pisa , . .193 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Petrarch's Letter from Pisa to King Robert of Naples — 
 He goes thence to Parma, and is welcomed by his friend 
 Azzo Correggio — Mark of his popularity in the visit paid to 
 him by the blind old Schoolmaster of Pontremoli — The Poet 
 hires a house at Parma — He has to mourn the loss of his 
 friends Tommaso da Messina, and the Bishop of Lombes — 
 
xxvui CONTENTS. 
 
 His dream respecting the latter — He is commissioned by the 
 Roman people to go to Avignon as their advocate to Pope Cle- 
 ment VI., the successor of Benedict XH. — Contrast of cha- 
 racter between the two Popes — Petrarch is joined in this com- 
 mission with the subsequently famous Cola di Rienzo — He 
 repairs to Avignon — Speeches of the two advocates to Clement 
 — Petrarch vents his indignation at the Pope's refusal to go to 
 Rome in his Liber Epistolarum sine titulo — Petrarch's brother 
 Gherardo retires to a Monastery — Laura's manner to Petrarch 
 is more complacent — Barlaamo comes again to Avignon, but 
 remains but for a short space — Petrarch resides chiefly at 
 Avignon, seldom visiting Vaucluse — Birth of his daughter 
 Francesca . - . . . - 213 
 
 CHAPTER XU. 
 
 Petrarch commences the Study of the Greek Language — 
 His Instructor Barlaamo — Mission of Barlaamo to the papal 
 court — Proposed union of the Greek and Latin churches — 
 Boccaccio's description of Barlaamo — Petrarch begins to 
 learn Greek by reading Plato — Glance at the Hamiltonian 
 system of learning languages ; its general inutility — Useful- 
 ness of a Latin translation to the Greek student in certain 
 eases — Opinion of Person and Heyne on the subject — In 
 reading Plato Petrarch imbibes much of his spirit — He assists 
 his instructor to obtain a bishopric — Birth of his daughter 
 Francesca • . - . . . 231 
 
 CHAPTER XllL 
 
 Death of Robert King of Naples — Petrarch's Letter to Bar- 
 bato di Sulmona on the subject, predicting the evils likely to 
 result to Naples — The Pope sends Petrarch on an embassy to 
 Naples, where he is at the same time commissioned by the Co- 
 
CONTENTS. XXIX 
 
 lonna family to plead for the liberation of some of their friends 
 who had been imprisoned by the late King Robert — Petrarch's 
 interview with the Queen Dowager, with Andrew, (the young 
 queen's husband) and with his minister Roberto, an Hunga- 
 rian Monk — Unkindness of Andrew to Giovanna, who suc- 
 ceeds to her grandfather's throne — Insolence of the Hungarian 
 minister and his faction — History of Fillippa the Catanese, 
 the young queen's favourite — Petrarch's Letters to Cardinal 
 Colonna, describing his efforts at negotiation in Naples, and 
 his excursions to the neighbouring scenery . . 241 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Tremendous Storm at Naples — The Council of Government 
 are moved by Petrarch to take the case of the prisoners, Co- 
 lonna's friends, into consideration — Cause of one of their 
 sittings being closed by the advance of evening — Atrocious 
 Customs of the Neapolitans — Petrarch obtains the Liberation 
 of the Prisoners — Leaves Naples — Repairs to Parma ; is well 
 received by his friend Azzo Correggio — Hopes to settle at 
 Parma ; but War breaks out between the Correggios and the 
 Lords of Milan — Parma is besieged, and Petrarch, leaving it, 
 sets out for Avignon — He is beset by Robbers near Rheggio — 
 He and his Companions pass a dreadful night in their flight 
 to Scandiano — He proceeds to Bologna, and finally reaches 
 Avignon — Rumours of his Death spread over Italy — Absurd 
 Poem composed on the imagined event — Affairs of Naples — 
 Murder of Prince Andrew — Laura's kind reception of the Poet 
 on his return to Avignon .... 259 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Petrarch spends the winter of 1346 at Avignon — Witnesses 
 the Fetes given to Charles of Luxemburg — That Prince dis- 
 
XXX CONTENTS. 
 
 tinguishes Laura at a Grand Ball — Petrarch's Sonnet upon the 
 incident — Feuds in the Papal Conclave — Danger of a Boxing 
 Match between two Cardinals — Charles's promise to the Pope 
 in the event of his Election to the Empire — He is Elected — 
 Petrarch's Visit to the Bishop of Cavaillon — He commences 
 his Treatise on a " Solitary Life^ — His Description of his War 
 with the Water Nymphs of the Sorgue — Petrarch's Sonnet 
 respecting Laura supposed to have been addressed to a Lady 
 who was their mutual friend — Laura is seized with Ophthalmia 
 — He visits her — She recovers — His Sonnet on the occasion — 
 He is made Prebendary of Parma — His Letter to Ugolino de' 
 Rossi — He makes an Excursion to Vaucluse in company with 
 Socrates, and they visit together the Bishop of Cavaillon — 
 His pleasing Letter from Vaucluse to Guglielmo di Pastrengo 
 — Visits his Brother at the Carthusian Convent of Montrieux 
 — Is enthusiastically welcomed by the Monks — Returns to 
 Avignon, and writes his Treatise " De Otio Religiose" . 277 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 Revolution at Rome accomplished by Cola di Rienzo — Birth 
 and History of that Extraordinary Man — The abuses prevail- 
 ing at Rome before he proposed " The Good Establishment" 
 — His means of awakening the attention of the Romans — The 
 rise of his popularity — He seizes the opportunity of Stefano 
 Colonna's departure from Rome to proclaim a new Constitu- 
 tion, and make the Romans swear to support it — He is in- 
 vested with the supreme executive power as Roman Tribune 
 — He overawes the Roman Barons — Establishes peace and se- 
 curity in the City and all its Vicinity — Sends an embassy to 
 the Pope at Avignon — His Couriers are every where respected 
 — Foreign Potentates acknowledge Rienzo's authority — Pe- 
 trarch is filled with enthusiastic admiration of him — Decline 
 
CONTENTS. XXXI 
 
 of prudence in the Tribune's character — Laura makes an 
 exception to her general severity towards Petrarcli — Farther 
 proceedings of Rienzo — Insurrection of the Roman Nobles — 
 They are repulsed in their attack on Rome, with the loss of 
 six warriors of the Colonna Family — Petrarch determines to 
 leave Avignon and repair to Italy — His last Interview with 
 Laura . . . . . .299 
 
 CHAPTER XVTI. 
 Petrarch returns to Italy for the fifth time — Writes from Genoa 
 a letter of remonstrance to the Tribune — Proceeds to Parma, 
 where he learns the unhappy fate of the Colonnas — Decline of 
 the Tribune's Popularity — The Legate of Clement VI. con- 
 spires with the Roman Aristocracy against him — The Count 
 of Minerbino brings a Gang of his Freebooters to Rome, who, 
 encouraged by the disaffected nobles, bid defiance to Rienzo — 
 Rienzo convokes the people, resigns his power, and shuts 
 himself up in the castle of St. Angelo — Petrarch proceeds from 
 Genoa to Florence ; thence he repairs to Parma, and from 
 Parma to Verona — Memorable Earthquake in Italy — Origin 
 of the Great Plague — Moral influence of its destructive- 
 ness — Petrarch returns to Parma, where he fixes his son 
 John — Receives the news of Laura's death — Death of Cardinal 
 Colonna — Petrarch visits Giacomo da Carrara at Padua — 
 Allusion to the History of the Carrara family — His friends 
 Luca Christiano and Mainardo Accursio come to Parma to 
 see him, but find him absent — Untimely fate of those two in- 
 dividuals — The Florentines, at the call of Petrarch, avenge 
 their death . . . . . .339 
 
 CHAPTER XVIH. 
 
 Death of the Cardinal Colonna — Estimate of Petrarch's 
 grief for his loss — Luca Christiani and Mainardo Accursio 
 
XXXll CONTENTS. 
 
 propose to live with Petrarch in Italy — They are murdered on 
 their journey — Petrarch rouses the Florentine Republic to 
 avenge their Death — Our Poet's devotion to the memory of 
 Laura , . . . . .371 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 portrait of Petrarch . . . Frontispiece. 
 
 View of the Castle and Fountain at Vaucluse . . 377 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 Portrait of Laura .... Frontispiece. 
 Italian Coins of the Fourteenth Century No. I. . 379 
 
 Ditto . ... No. II. . 391 
 
 ERRATUM, 
 
 Vol. I., page 31, line 14, for "name," read " son." 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Importance of Petrarch's influence on the revival of Modern 
 Literature — His Claims to Remembrance, independently of his 
 Poetry — His Patriotism — Apology for some fluctuating Traits 
 in his Political Character, as well as for his Intimacy with some 
 of the Aristocracy in Italy, who were opposed to him in Poli- 
 tical Sentiments — His Industry and Sagacity in recovering 
 Copies of the Classics — His Latin Compositions — His Enmity 
 to the Corruptions of Popery, and his General Liberalism — State 
 of Literature and Science at the time when he came into the 
 World — Italian Universities and their Professors — Political 
 Situation of Italy at the beginning of the 14th Century, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The importance of Petrarch's influence on the 
 revival of modern literature is well knovrn to those 
 who are acquainted with literary history ; but it is 
 not universally known. It is not uncommon for 
 persons, otherwise well-informed, to respect Pe- 
 trarch on no other account than his poetry. !N^ow, 
 though his verses, especially those in his own lan- 
 guage, are undoubtedly the principal basis of his 
 fame, still, independently of his poetry, Petrarch 
 was a great man. His zeal, his knowledge in 
 recovering the wTecked treasures of the classics, 
 and his Herculean labours in transcribing them, 
 were heroic. After the deluge of barbarism in 
 modern Europe had subsided, he stood, like a post- 
 diluvian patriarch, connecting our knowledge of 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 the old world with that of the new : and he had 
 over his head a rainbow of genius, promising that 
 the flood of ignorance should never return. 
 
 Petrarch was emphatically an Italian patriot. 
 I give him the praise of national and not provin- 
 cial patriotism ; for, though his family was Flo- 
 rentine, much cannot be said of his attachment to 
 Florence. That city, it is true, had used him ill, 
 yet he had better have been less attached to its 
 enemies. He was, nevertheless, in a wide sense, 
 nobly zealous for the welfare of Italy. He con- 
 stantly exhorted its rival states to quench their 
 mutual animosities, and by their harmony to re- 
 store the power and grandeur of their common 
 country. 
 
 lio doubt he exhibited some traits in his poli- 
 tical character which require a candid, perhaps 
 even a charitable allowance. He was originally in 
 his principles a Eepublican, though ever, and it 
 may be added, over desirous that Rome should be 
 the ruling republic of the world. He supported 
 the Tribune Eienzo, believing that he was to 
 prove the restorer of Rome — and he did so, at 
 the risk of enmity from his patrician patrons, the 
 familv of Colonna, who were the most formidable 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. O 
 
 foes of Eienzo. When the Tribune fell by his 
 own folly, Petrarch could no longer support his 
 cause ; yet, in the last days of that extraordinary 
 man, he protested against the injustice of his being 
 impeached for having asserted the free rights of 
 Eoman citizens. Afterwards, when the Emperor 
 Charles was invited into Italy, he addressed himself 
 warmly to that prince, exhorting him to act with 
 spirit as a Koman emperor. But this was only 
 an apparent change from Eepublican principles. 
 The cause of it was his love of the Eoman people ; 
 and, as they could not be great under a Tribune, he 
 wished them to be great under an emperor. 
 
 Another charo-e ag-ainst him was his intimate 
 friendship with some of the most tyrannic aristo- 
 cracy of Italy — the Visconti family, for instance. 
 But here we must put the question — what benefit 
 Petrarch could have obtained, either for himself 
 or Italy, by spurning the proffered friendship of 
 men in power, although he differed from them in 
 political principles. What could he have done by 
 resisting those potentates, who, with all their 
 faults, were not always deaf to his good advice, 
 but have thrown away whatever influence his 
 genius possessed, and retired to a monastery ! Yet, 
 
6 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 at the courts of princes, his heart never grew 
 lukewarm towards his beloved Italy, and he spent 
 the last breath of his eloquence in persuading 
 Venice to be reconciled with Genoa. 
 
 Nay, more ; by his intimacy with those in 
 power, he had the means of obtaining patronage 
 for the learned and ingenious. By the fascina- 
 tion of his manners, not less than by his fame and 
 strength of intellect, he commanded the respect of 
 all classes of society. Weak as he was in the con- 
 flict with his oivn one indomitable passio?i, he took 
 high ground in his social intercourse with the 
 proudest classes of men. A prince, a king, or an 
 emperor, met him, not as an object of their humble 
 patronage, but as a sage whose company was in- 
 structive, and whose counsel was desirable in the 
 most important affairs. Nay, men more justly 
 proud than princes, namely, contemporary men of 
 genius, deferred to him with admiration. At a 
 public feast, a seat was assigned to him at the 
 table appropriated to those of princely rank. 
 
 He acquired a degree of erudition that was im- 
 mense for his age, at a time when learning was 
 beset with difficulties unknown to modern scholars, 
 Mhen the art of printing had not been invented, 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 7 
 
 and when copies of the classics, instead of being 
 multiplied, were fast disappearing. In many in- 
 stances, Petrarch snatched those copies from the 
 brink of oblivion. He devoted nights and days 
 to transcribing them ; and diffused, not only their 
 matter, but their spirit, for the instruction of pos- 
 terity. 
 
 He aspired to a classical style in Latin com- 
 position, and was the first who substituted any 
 thing like an approach to such a style, in place 
 of the barbarous jargon which had for centuries 
 called itself Latin. At the same time, it must be 
 recollected, that in the sixteenth century the study 
 of the classics was carried to a degree of intense 
 emulation among the finest geniuses of Eurof>e, 
 with the advantage of dictionaries and commen- 
 taries, of which Petrarch was not possessed ; and 
 that, as he was only a pioneer in the renovation of 
 the ancient language, his Latinity ought to be 
 judged of with relation to his times. The fastidious 
 scholars of later ages have condemned his imperfect 
 endeavours at purity. " He wants," says Erasmus, 
 " full acquaintance with the language, and his whole 
 diction shows the rudeness of the preceding age." 
 If Petrarch had never written Latin, it may be ques- 
 
8 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 tioned if Erasmus would have been so good a judge 
 of Latinitv. Still it is confessed by competent 
 modern scholars that passages of pure Latin elo- 
 quence are frequent in his writings; though his 
 pretensions to perfect prosody must be surrendered 
 at discretion, 
 
 Petrarch, at one period of his life, was more 
 proud of his epic poem, called Africa, the hero 
 of which is Scipio, and its subject the termination 
 of the second Punic war, than of the sonnets and 
 odes which have made his name immortal, and 
 which were indeed the chief sources of his imme- 
 diate renown. Of this epic I shall speak more at 
 large in another place. Meanwhile, I am obliged 
 to alloAv that his Latin poetry abounds icith faults 
 of metre. At the same time, his Africa is perhaps 
 superior to any preceding specimen of Latin ver- 
 sification in the middle ages, unless we should 
 think Joseph Iscanius his equal. 
 
 By his single energy he led the way to the re- 
 vival of literature, about a century before its full 
 restoration was ensured by the arrival of learned 
 exiles from the broken up Greek empire. If Pe- 
 trarch's genius had not interfered at that critical 
 period, it is more than probable that those exiles 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. \) 
 
 would have arrived in Italy too late to ensure 
 any taste for the classics. The spirit of curiosity 
 would have been extinct, and the Grrecian strangers 
 would have found men's minds too callous for cul- 
 tivation. 
 
 But it was not the mere dead matter of erudition 
 that this great man cultivated, for his works are 
 redolent with the spirit of classical philosophy. 
 He rebuked the barbarous jargon that usurped the 
 name of philosophy in his own age ; he denounced 
 the system and authority of Aristotle, at the time 
 when the Stagyrite's words were almost equal in 
 weight to those of the bible ; and he Avas thus, 
 virtually, a forerunner of Lord Bacon in rational 
 philosophy. 
 
 Though a sincere Catholic, he deprecated the 
 corruptions of popery. Many a pious Protestant 
 has been burnt alive for less severe censures than 
 Petrarch passed on the Church of Eome. 
 
 IN^or was he a mere looker back upon antiquity : 
 — passages might be quoted from his works that 
 shew a liberality of spirit far in advance of his age. 
 He derided astrology at a period when scepticism 
 on that subject was deemed as bad as atheism. A 
 century later than our poet's time, a poor philoso- 
 
10 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 pher was tried on the capital charge of being an 
 infidel, who believed neither in astrology, nor in 
 a hell, nor a devil, nor any thing sacred ! ! ! He 
 studied geography assiduously, and promoted the 
 knowledge of it, as will be seen in the course of 
 his biography. 
 
 I postpone for the present the consideration of 
 his character as an Italian poet. My immediate 
 object is only to glance at Italy in the days when 
 she received our poet, a country which, in spite of 
 its political distractions, was the richest and most 
 civilized in Europe at the time when Petrarch came 
 forth as the leader and commander of its litera- 
 ture. Eefore our poet's birth, Italy was civilized 
 in comparison with other nations. The light of 
 knowledge had dawned, although but faintly. 
 
 In the preceding century, the Italians had felt 
 the necessity of promoting science and literature, 
 which had languished during the barbarism of many 
 ages ; and this circumstance in some degree recon- 
 ciles us to times which we should otherwise con- 
 template with aversion. The eminent station oc- 
 cupied in history by some of the Emperors, the 
 Estensi, the Carraresi, the Gonzaghi, and the 
 Visconti, as patrons of learning, mitigates our hor- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. ] 1 
 
 ror at a period pregnant with perfidies and cruelties. 
 To those potentates, and to some of her free cities, 
 Italy owed several universities and public schools, 
 which were endowed with honours, privileges, and 
 salaries. But, though Bologna, Padua, N^aples, 
 Pisa, Pa^^a, and other cities, could boast of public 
 places of education, founded both in the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth centuries, and though there was a 
 general inclination for knowledge, no distinct pro- 
 gress had been made in any art or science that de- 
 pends upon instruction. 
 
 Undoubtedly the one art, " unteachable, un- 
 taught,'''' which depends not on tuition, had made 
 no small advance in Italy before Petrarch's time. 
 To the lords of Provence — the conquerors of Sicily 
 — Italv owed the use of the Romance lano-uag-e, and 
 her acquaintance with the jolly Troubadours, from 
 whom she derived the new birth of her native 
 poetry, as well as many of the metres of her 
 poetry : Petrarch shows himself grateful to those 
 fathers of modern song, and makes honourable 
 mention of them in his Trionfi. But, with the 
 exception of poetry, Petrarch found every other 
 intellectual pursuit either neglected or badly cul- 
 tivated. Literature still ])ore the impression of 
 
12 LIFE OF PETRARCH- 
 
 barbarous times ; the good ancient authors being 
 for the most part buried, and the few that saw the 
 light being either unperused or little understood. 
 Those who wished to be learned sought for the 
 elder and modern fathers of the church, for books 
 on the canon and civil law, as well as for treatises 
 on philosophy ; but they obtained them at a high 
 price, and corrupted by the hands of ignorant 
 copyists. The Italian cities, moreover, increased 
 the scarcity of books by prohibiting their exporta- 
 tion under a severe penalty. In fine, the gram- 
 marians of that age had as much respect for JEsop 
 and Prosper as for Cicero and Yirgil. 
 
 A catalogue of the professors of the university 
 of Bologna, at the time when Petrarch studied there 
 in 1S25, has been preserved by Tiraboschi. Prom 
 this list of teachers in the then most celebrated 
 university of Europe, it appears that learning must 
 have been miserably deficient from the paucity of 
 branches into which it was divided. It appears, 
 further, that civil and ecclesiastical jurisprudence 
 were prosecuted more than any other studies. In 
 the third place, we find that the credulity of the 
 age supported a chair of astrology, and gave its 
 professor one of the highest salaries enjoyed by any 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 13 
 
 teacher in the university. Lastly, the appointment 
 of a doctor in grammar to expound Ovid, without 
 mention of Virgil, shows the low state of literary 
 taste. 
 
 The art of writing history was at that time 
 scarcely known. The Villanis give interesting ac- 
 counts of their own times ; but they are annalists, 
 and not elegant historians. The monuments of an- 
 tiquity were neglected ; chronology was confused ; 
 and there was no resource for dissipating the dark- 
 ness that enveloped past ages. In fact, the chro- 
 niclers of that period, credulous, superstitious, and 
 ignorant, threw rudely together the trivial and the 
 marvellous, the true and the false. 
 
 There was an obstacle to the advancement of 
 literature in men's general ignorance both of clas- 
 sical and foreign languages. Kaimondo Lullo, in 
 the preceding age, had proposed the study of the 
 Oriental tongues, and made interest with Pope 
 Honorius IV. to ordain public schools for that pur- 
 pose. Clement V. also expressed his wish, in the 
 council of Vienna, that the most celebrated univer- 
 sities should have professors of the Eastern lan- 
 guages ; but it does not appear that so useful a 
 design was ever effected. 
 
14 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 As to the classical languages, Tiraboschi asserts 
 that Greek never was wholly extinguished in Italy ; 
 but, excepting the works of Aristotle, some frag- 
 ments of the Fathers, and an abridgment of 
 Homer, there were no remnants of Greek litera- 
 ture. The best models of Attic taste and wisdom 
 were unknown. 
 
 Latin eloquence Mas not even in its infancy ; 
 and the rude, obscure style, which the learned of 
 that age employed, was loaded with pedantic quo- 
 tations. Any one, says Baldelli,* wishing to have 
 an exact idea of the erudition and eloquence of the 
 age, ought to read the extolled epistle written by 
 King Robert of l^aples to the republic of Flo- 
 rence, in 1333. Robert was reputed another 
 Solomon ; but it will be seen that the whole learn- 
 ing of this good king was limited to an acquaint- 
 ance with the sacred writings, with the works of 
 Seneca, and with a few treatises of Cicero. 
 
 Petrarch himself was accused of tampering with 
 magic, on account of his intimacy with Virgil, who 
 was supposed to be the prince of magicians. 
 
 Scholastic theology might be said, at that period, 
 to be adult ; but its maturity added nothing to the 
 
 * Baldelli del Petiarca e delle sue opera Libri Quatto. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 15 
 
 sum of useful knowledge : it consisted in subtleties 
 foreign to the spirit of religion, in interpreting 
 interpretations, in commenting on commentaries, 
 and in multiplying idle questions. Jurisprudence 
 was in its vigour more than any other science, 
 being the stepping-stone to public offices, to riches 
 and honours; perhaps because Italy, afflicted by 
 anarchy or tyramiy, felt the importance of having 
 laws and men versed in the law. Hence it was 
 that the Azzis, the Accursis, and a few other pri- 
 mitive Italian lawyers, had almost di^nne worship 
 paid to them. But this unfortunately produced an 
 immense cabalistic and dark crowd of commen- 
 tators and interpreters, who did damage both to 
 civil and ecclesiastical jurisprudence, and who for- 
 tified fraud by perplexing the noble simplicity of 
 the laws. 
 
 The translation of the works of Aristotle, which 
 had been ordered in the preceding age by Frederic 
 II., by Manfredi, and by Urban IV., awakened in 
 the Italians a love of philosophy, that had been 
 extinct for ten ages ; but their study of it was not 
 aided by observation, nor by those experiments 
 with which men strike into the mysteries of ]^a- 
 ture, and without which the mania for creating 
 
16 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 ingenious systems, in order to explain the laws of 
 Nature, is so apt to spring up. The students of 
 that period were eager only to know what Aristotle 
 thought on any subject. A translation of the 
 works of Averroes, by Ermengardo di Eiagio, came 
 about the same time into Italy ; and both the Ara- 
 bian commentator and his Italian translator added 
 new errors to the obscure system of Alexander's 
 tutor. Averroes himself, the Arabian translator 
 of Aristotle, did not understand Greek. 
 
 Medicine, as a branch of physical knowledge, 
 can never prosper without receiving nourishment 
 from the parent stem of natural philosophy. It 
 passed into Italy from the Arabs, and the Italians 
 blindly followed their principles, taking no care 
 to verify them by fresh and constant observa- 
 tion. The physicians of that age were anxious 
 only for reputation and riches, which were then 
 easily obtained from an ignorant public. Pe- 
 trarch, knowing their frauds and impostures, treated 
 them wdth contempt and derision. Hence it is not 
 surprising that he became the object of their rabid 
 persecution. 
 
 The love of the marvellous, combined with igno- 
 rance and credulity, had created Astrology. The 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 17 
 
 finest geniuses of the age were infected with its 
 phantasies. It was taught in ahnost every univer- 
 sity. Every sovereign kept beside him an astro- 
 loger, like his household god and oracle, and upon 
 liim frequently depended the life and death of those 
 who were subjected to him, by superstition, the 
 destiny of states, war or peace, and the fear or 
 the quiet of the people and their rulers. Petrarch 
 was so far ahead of his age as to laugh at this folly, 
 although, in those times, it was an heretical incre- 
 dulity. At Milan he was intimately acquainted 
 with the official astrologer who lived at the court 
 of the Visconti. Petrarch esteemed him person- 
 ally, and tells us that he was a learned man, but 
 very needy. When our poet rallied him upon his 
 profession, he confessed with a sigh that poverty 
 alone obliged him to adopt it. Petrarch was too hu- 
 mane, ever afterwards, to taunt him on the subject. 
 For two ages before the time of Petrarch, ava- 
 rice had searched the earth for the imaginary trea- 
 sure of the philosopher's stone, and for this pui-pose 
 alchymy compounded and decompounded bodies. 
 It is wonderful to think how modern chemistry 
 slowly and insensibly arose into a true science out 
 of these blind and greedy researches. But it did 
 
 VOL. I. c 
 
18 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 SO happen ; and the fact reminds us of the fable of 
 the husbandman bequeathing a fictitious pot of 
 gold to his sons, which was buried, he alleged, in 
 his vineyard. They dug up every inch of the vine- 
 yard, and found their treasure in an abundance of 
 grapes. We learn that Petrarch derided the alchy- 
 mists as much as the astrologers. 
 
 Such was the state of literature and science at 
 the time of our poet's entrance into the world. It 
 may be proper to take a view, also, of the political 
 situation of his country at that period. 
 
 Italy, as I have remarked, was, at the beginning 
 of the fourteenth century, the richest, the most 
 commercial, and, comparatively with the surround- 
 ing barbarians of Europe, the most enlightened 
 country of Europe ; but it was at the same time 
 a prey to two factions, who tormented it, under 
 the names of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. It 
 was a battle, lost by the Guelph, or Wolf of Ba- 
 varia,* during the contest, that gave rise to the 
 
 * The battle of Weinsberg, which was followed by the sur- 
 render of that town to the emperor, when, according to the 
 terms of the capitulation, the women, being allowed to carry 
 away their most valuable effects, marched out with their hus- 
 bands on their backs. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 19 
 
 popular names of the two parties. Griielph had 
 given his name as the word on that day, whilst 
 the signal of the imperialists was Waiblingen. 
 This was one of the patrimonial possessions of the 
 house of Hohenstauffen, who were thence called 
 Waiblinger, which the Italians softened into Grhi- 
 belline. The love of liberty on the one hand, and 
 the quarrels of the popes and emperors on the other, 
 had given birth to these two factions. The Guelphs, 
 zealous for the independence of their country, fought 
 under the papal standard, and tried to shake off the 
 imperial yoke ; whilst the Ghibellines followed the 
 imperial eagle, persuaded that, as Italy was the 
 principal portion of the Roman empire, the Italians 
 were bound to hold the emperor as their chief; 
 and they insisted that the true liberty of their 
 country depended on that allegiance. 
 
 Both factions agreed in one point, namely, in 
 lamenting that the children of the Cimbri and 
 the Teutons, those barbarians over whom Rome 
 had so often triumphed, should have the power of 
 electing the successor of Augustus and the master 
 of Rome. 
 
 The kings of France having lost by their weak- 
 ness the empire transmitted to them by Charle- 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 magne, the sovereigns of Germany had usurped its 
 titles and prerogatives. These sovereigns were no 
 sooner elected in their own country, than they went 
 to get themselves crowned, first in Lombardy, and 
 then at Korae, where, finding themselves seated on 
 the throne of the Caesars, they believed that they 
 had a right to exercise all Caesarean authority over 
 the different parts of the Koman empire, but par- 
 ticularly Italy. 
 
 The popes, on the other hand, made strong pre- 
 tensions to the possession of Kome and a portion 
 of Italy. They founded their claims upon the do- 
 nations made to them by Constantine, by Pepin, 
 by Charlemagne, by the Emperor Otho, and by the 
 Countess Matilda. This last concession, which 
 was regarded as the best title of the popes, com- 
 prehended Tuscany, part of Lombardy, and almost 
 all that is commonly called the patrimony of St. 
 Peter, which the popes enjoyed peaceably for 
 several ages. 
 
 But the emperors contended that all the terri- 
 tories comprehended in these donations were only 
 fiefs of the crown of Lombardy united to the em- 
 pire ; and that neither preceding kings and empe- 
 rors, nor the Countess Matilda, had any right to 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 21 
 
 alienate those fiefs, to the prejudice of the empire, 
 to which they reverted in default of males, accord- 
 ing to the principles of feudal government. 
 
 Pope Gregory VII., in whose favour the Countess 
 Matilda had made her donation to the Holy See, 
 would not restrict the rights and power of the 
 popes to this concession. According to his prin- 
 ciples, the sovereign pontiff, as head of the church, 
 had authority over the whole Christian world, in 
 virtue of the keys which had been confided to St. 
 Peter. He had, therefore, a right to sit in judg- 
 ment on kings, to excommunicate, to depose them, 
 and to appoint their successors, wdienever the good 
 of the church demanded his interposition. The 
 papal successors of Gregory adroitly profited by his 
 example. He had laid the foundation of their 
 power, and they failed not to raise the edifice. 
 Thwarted as they were by other sovereigns, the 
 popes adhered to their capital object of subjecting 
 to their authority the emperors whom they were 
 pleased to consider as peculiarly bound to obey 
 them, seeing that they had the power of placing 
 the imperial diadem on the elected head. 
 
 Most of the emperors not only refused sub- 
 mission to this yoke, but even ascribed to them- 
 
22 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 selves a kind of jurisdiction over the popes, whom 
 they considered simply as the bishops of the capital 
 of their states. Regarding their holinesses in this 
 light, they contended that the bishops of Rome 
 could not be elected without their consent, and that 
 they had a right to depose them, if they misgoverned 
 the church. 
 
 These conflicting pretensions of the popes and 
 emperors had caused abundance of blood to be shed 
 in Italy during two centuries. 
 
 The Romans, flattered by seeing their pontifl" 
 the chief of the church, submitted to the pope's 
 spiritual authority, but declared that it extended 
 not beyond the care of their souls. The king of 
 the Germans, though he took the title of emperor, 
 was not, in their eyes, more than a chief of barba- 
 rians. The Romans, proud of their past grandeur, 
 of which they never lost sight, would not in fact 
 have bowed to either pope or emperor, if their 
 weakness, for the present, had not obliged them to 
 receive the law from the stronger ; but the eflbrts 
 which they made to throw off their subjugation 
 only fixed it, and made it heavier. 
 
 The other cities of Italy, sighing, like Rome, for 
 ancient liberty, tried to profit by the contest be- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 23 
 
 tween pope and emperor in recovering their rights, 
 and partly succeeded. The example of Venice, 
 Genoa, and Pisa, which, under the auspices of a 
 republican government, then monopolised the com- 
 merce of Europe, roused the emulation and envy 
 of all the other Italian states. Milan, Bologna, 
 Parma, Pavia, Modena, Mantua, Verona, and 
 Padua, succeeded for some time in shaking off 
 both the papal and imperial yoke ; but those cities 
 became, by this liberation, neither more free nor 
 more prosperous. Their leaders, who began with 
 patriotism, ended in becoming petty despots, who 
 seized upon the government, and, alleging autho- 
 rity from the pope or the emperor, as either pre- 
 vailed, maintained their usurpation under the title 
 of vicars, sometimes of the emperor, and sometimes 
 of the holy see. 
 
 At the beginning of the fourteenth century these 
 intestine discords of Italy had a good deal sub- 
 sided, though they had terminated almost always 
 to the loss of the partizans of liberty. From that 
 period the Estensi became the possessors of Fer- 
 rara, the Scaligeri of Verona, the Gronzaghi of 
 Mantua, and, latterly, the Carraresi of Padua ; 
 whilst the Correggeschi held Parma, and the Or- 
 
24 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 delaffi, the Manfredi, and the Malatesti, possessed 
 the different parts of the Romagna, 
 
 The two republics of Venice and Genoa, busied 
 with their extensive foreign commerce, cared little 
 about the external changes in the rest of Italy. 
 Italian authors allege that the seeds of selfishness 
 and avarice had already grown up in those states, 
 and were preparing their destruction. Undoubt- 
 edly, in the fourteenth century, they weakened 
 themselves by their mutual contests ; but their 
 veritable decline was postponed to the subsequent 
 century, and its main cause was the accomplish- 
 ment of a ncAv route to India by the Portuguese, 
 around the Cape of Good Hope, which changed 
 the course of commerce. 
 
 The emperors, baflfled by the partizans of the 
 popes, had ceased for a time to make descents upon 
 Italy. This temporary abandonment of their pre- 
 tensions procured an interval of calm to the Italian 
 states ; but the Emperor, Henry VII., renewing 
 the imperial claims, and wishing to check the ag- 
 grandizements of the sovereign of N^aples, who 
 aspired to possess himself of all Italy, revived the 
 hopes of the Ghibelline party. Henry succeeded 
 in getting possession of the northern parts of Italy ; 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 25 
 
 but, in preparing for the invasion of Naples, he 
 was carried off by a premature death ; and thus 
 were extinguished all the hopes of the Ghibel- 
 lines. 
 
 The kingdom of J^aples was at this period 
 governed by Robert I., a warlike monarch, who 
 added to that realm, and to the county of Pro- 
 vence, both bequeathed to him by his ancestors, 
 many cities of Lombardy and Tuscany. 
 
 Strictly speaking, however, there was not, at 
 the opening of the fourteenth century, any sove- 
 reignty in Italy, that was peaceably and universally 
 recognized. The house of Anjou, which the popes 
 had placed on the throne of T^aples and Sicily, was 
 at war with the house of Arragon, who occupied 
 one part of the Neapolitan kingdom, and struggled 
 for the other. Florence was at this time the most 
 powerful and opulent city of Italy. It gave the 
 tone to the rest of Europe in all that concerns the 
 fine arts and mental culture. The Florentines 
 gave out that, in 1285, they had bought from the 
 Emperor Rodolph I. their independence of the 
 prefects of the empire. They had erected a re- 
 publican government, and, jealous of their inde- 
 pendence, they would obey neither popes nor em- 
 
26 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 perors ; but this independence, it appears, was far 
 from confirming popular liberty. 
 
 The aristocracy and the people disputed fiercely 
 for the reins of government. Their conflicts kept 
 the city in perpetual agitation, which occasioned 
 Dante to say that whatever Florence spins in the 
 month of October never lasts till the month of 
 IJ^ovember. The patricians and plebeians made 
 some efforts at reconcilement, and at forming a 
 mixed government, which should establish a ba- 
 lance of power ; but these efforts were fruitless.* 
 
 Such a state of affairs seemed but ill calculated 
 to draw the fine arts from the ruins of barbarism, 
 under which they had been buried for ages. Yet 
 it was in the bosom of discord, and amidst the 
 horrors of intestine wars, that almost all these arts 
 received, as it were, a new birth at Florence. 
 
 At the very period when the Guelphs and the 
 
 * At a later period, the new names of Blacks and Whites — 
 Neri and Bianchi — were given to the contending factions, from 
 the circumstance that, in a fray which took place at Pistoia, a 
 man, whose wife's name was Bianca, was particularly distin- 
 guished, and those who followed him took the appellation of the 
 Whites. The Florentines, for no good reason that is known, 
 took a share in this quarrel of their neighhours, the Guelphs 
 declaring for the Blacks, and the Ghibellines for the Whites. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 27 
 
 Ghibellines, and whilst the nobles and citizens of 
 Florence were doing their best to destroy each 
 other, Brunetto Latinia, a man of singular merit, 
 delivered lectures in that city on rhetoric and phi- 
 losophy ; and his teaching had some influence in 
 dissipating the darkness of the times. The great 
 Dante profited by his instruction, and will make 
 the name of his tutor be remembered as long as 
 the world shall be interested in the author of the 
 "Divifia Co?nf}iedia" Cimabue and Giotto created, 
 as it were, the art of painting for a second time. 
 They produced pictures that astonished their con- 
 temporaries, and that are still admired, in spite of 
 their hardness. John Villani, as an historian, re- 
 corded the events passing under his eyes with vera- 
 city and candour, though drier in his outline of 
 facts than Cimabue was in that of figures. 
 
 During this crisis, at the opening of the four- 
 teenth century, when the afiairs of Italy were 
 but partially composed, one circumstance greatly 
 contributed to the disadvantage of the country, 
 namely, the removal of the pontifical seat to Avig- 
 non. The violent struggle between Boniface YIII. 
 and Philip the Fair terminated in the imprisonment 
 and death of his holiness, with no small humilia- 
 
28 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 tion to the pontifical authority. The shameful 
 schism of the cardinals at the election of a new 
 pope, after the death of Benedict XI. caused the 
 tiara to be given to Gotto, Bishop of Bordeaux, 
 a subject of Philip's, whom that adroit monarch de- 
 tained in his own kingdom. The pontiff, there- 
 fore, summoned the sacred college from the other 
 side of the mountains, to the great grief of the 
 Italians, who regarded A\ignon as the prison of 
 the Roman hierarchy. 
 
 Florence and the cities of Tuscany continued, 
 even at the beginning of the fourteenth century, 
 to be distracted by the two factions which had 
 assumed the new names of N^eri and Bianchi. 
 Boniface VIII., in 1302, under pretence of esta- 
 blishing tranquillity, sent Charles of Anjou with a 
 secret commission to extinguish the Bianchi party. 
 Charles made common cause with the I^eri; he 
 gave pretended indulgences to their enemies, but 
 finished by giving them over to proscriptions, 
 banishment, and plunder, fully entitling his par- 
 tizans, in the worst sense of the word, to the name 
 of Blacks. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 *rhe Family of Petrarch— The Eventful Date of his Birth, 
 at the very time when his Father was exposing his Life in 
 Battle — Petrarch is taken in his Infancy, by his Mother, to 
 Ancisa, where he remains for Seven Years — His Father and 
 Family remove to Pisa, where they remain for Seven Months 
 
 — In 1315, they remove to Carpentras, where, under the 
 Care of his Mother, and the Tuition of Convennole da Prato, 
 he acquires the First Rudiments of Learning — His subse- 
 quent kindness to his old Preceptor — Petrarch forms, at Car- 
 pentras, a boyish friendship for Guido Settimo, which lasts 
 for Life — Early manifestations of the Young Poet's Genius 
 
 — His exclamation on being led to see Vaucluse — He is 
 sent, in 1519, in his Fifteenth Year, to the College of Mont- 
 pelier, and from thence, in 1323, to the University of Bologna 
 
 — He continues to be averse to the Law, and attached to 
 the Classics — His Father, enraged at his devotion to Latin 
 Authors, comes to Bologna, and burns a portion of his Library 
 
 — Petrarch studies at Bologna, under Cino da Pistoia, who 
 was a Poet, as well as a Jurisconsult — Boccacio is said. 
 
30 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 but inaccurately, to have been a Pupil of Cino's — Petrarch's 
 visit to Venice — His admiration of that place — On his return, 
 he learns the Death of his Mother, and, soon after, that of 
 his Father — His Verses on the Death of his Mother — He 
 returns to Avignon, and settles there, pursuing his Clas- 
 sical Studies — His friendship with John of Florence, and 
 his introduction to the friendship and patronage of James 
 Colonna. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 31 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 The family of Petrarch was originally of Flo- 
 rence, where his ancestors held employments of 
 trust and honour. Garzo, his great-grandfather, 
 was a notary : a man universally respected for his 
 integrity and judgment. Though he had never 
 devoted himself exclusively to letters, his literary 
 opinion was consulted by men who were esteemed, 
 learned, and philosophical. Garzo attained to a 
 venerable age ; and, having lived a hundred and 
 four years, he died, like Plato, in the same bed 
 in which he had been born. 
 
 Garzo left three sons, one of whom was the 
 grandfather of Petrarch, whose name, Pietro, by 
 the diminutives customary to the Tuscan tongue, 
 was familiarly called Petracco, or little Peter. 
 Petracco, like his ancestors, was a notary, and 
 not undistinguished for his sagacity. He applied 
 
32 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 himself to public affairs, and had several impor- 
 tant commissions from government. At last, in 
 the increasing conflicts between the Guelphs and 
 the Ghibellines — or, as they now called them- 
 selves, the Blacks and the Whites — Petracco, like 
 Dante, was obliged to fly from his native city, 
 along with the other Florentines of the White 
 party. He was unjustly accused of having offi- 
 cially issued a false deed, and condemned, on the 
 20th of October, 1302, to pay a fine of one thou- 
 sand lire, and to have his hand cut off, if it was 
 not paid within ten days from the time he should 
 be apprehended. Petracco fled, taking with him 
 his wife, Eletta Canigiani, a lady of a distin- 
 guished family in Florence, several of whom had 
 held the office of Gonfalonier, 
 
 Petracco and his wife first settled at Arezzo, 
 a very ancient city of Tuscany. Hostilities did 
 not cease between the Florentine factions till 
 some years afterwards ; and, in an attempt that 
 was made by the Whites to take Florence by 
 assault, Petracco was present with his party. They 
 were repulsed. This action, wliich was fatal to 
 their cause, took place in the night between the 
 19th and 20th days of July — the precise date of 
 
1304-5.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 33 
 
 the birth of Petrarch. At the time when Petracco 
 was exposing his life for the sake of what he con- 
 sidered to be the interests of his native state, his 
 wife was in imminent danger of losing her's, whilst 
 she gave birth to Francesco Petrarcha. 
 
 During our poet's infancy, his family had still to 
 struggle with an adverse fate ; for his proscribed 
 and wandering father was obliged to separate him- 
 self from his wife and child, in order to have the 
 means of supporting them. 
 
 As the pretext for banishing Petracco was purely 
 personal, Eletta, his wife, was not included in the sen- 
 tence. She removed to a small property of her hus- 
 band's, at Ancisa, fourteen miles from Florence, and 
 took the little poet along with her, in the seventh 
 month of his age. In their passage thither, both 
 mother and child, together with their guide, had 
 a narrow^ escape from being drowned in the Arno. 
 Eletta entrusted her precious charge to a robust 
 peasant, who, for fear of hurting the child's body, 
 wrapt it in a swaddling cloth, and suspended it over 
 his shoulder, in the same manner as Metabus is 
 described by Virgil, in the eleventh book of the 
 -^neid, to have carried his daughter Camilla. In 
 passing the river, the horse of the guide, who car- 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1312-13. 
 
 ried Petrarch, stumbled, and sunk doMii ; and in 
 their struoo-les to save him, both his sturdy bearer 
 and the frantic parent were, like the infant itself, 
 on the point of being drowned. 
 
 After Eletta had settled at Ancisa, Petracco, 
 moved by conjugal affection, often visited her by 
 stealth, and the pledges of their affection were two 
 other sons, one of whom died in childhood. The 
 other, called Grherardo, was educated during his 
 juvenile years along with Petrarch. Petrarch re- 
 mained A^ith his mother at Ancisa for seven years. 
 
 The arrival of the emperor, Henry VII., in 
 Italy, revived the hopes of the banished Ploren- 
 tines ; and Petracco, in order to wait the event, 
 went to Pisa, w^hither he brought his wife and 
 Francesco, who was now in his eighth year. Pe- 
 tracco remained with his family in Pisa for several 
 months ; but, tired at last of fallacious hopes, and 
 not daring to trust himself to the promises of the 
 popular party, who offered to recall him to Flo- 
 rence, he sought an asylum in Avignon, a place to 
 which many Italians were allured by the hopes of 
 honours and gain at the papal residence. In this 
 voyage, Petracco and his family were nearly ship- 
 wrecked off Marseilles, 
 
1315.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 35 
 
 But the numbers that crowded to Avignon and 
 its luxurious court rendered that city an uncom- 
 fortable place for a family in slender cirjcumstances. 
 Petracco, accordingly, removed his household, in 
 1315, to Carpentras, a small quiet town, where 
 living was cheaper than at Avignon. 
 
 De Sade tells us of Petrarch going to Carpen- 
 tras in 1314; but Baldelli shows, from the poet's 
 csvii epistle to posterity, that he must have gone 
 thither a year later. From this authority it is 
 clear that he went to Carpentras when he was 
 eleven years old. 
 
 At Carpentras, mider the care of his mother, he 
 imbibed his first puerile instruction, and was taught 
 by one Conveimole da Prato as much grammar and 
 logic as could be learned at his age, and more than 
 could be learned by an ordinary disciple from so 
 common-place a preceptor. This poor master, 
 however, had sufficient intelligence to appreciate 
 the genius of Petrarch, whom he esteemed and 
 honoured beyond all his other pupils. On the other 
 hand, his illustrious scholar aided him, in his old 
 age and poverty, out of his scanty income. 
 
 Petrarch used to compare Convenuole to a m het- 
 stone, which is blunt itself, but which sharpens 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 others. His old master, however, was sharp enough 
 to overreach Petrarch in the matter of borrowing 
 and lending. When the poet had collected a con- 
 siderable library, his grammar-school master paid 
 him a visit, and, pretending to be engaged in some- 
 thing that required him to consult Cicero, he bor- 
 rowed a copy of one of the works of that orator, 
 v.hich was particularly valuable. He made ex- 
 cuses, from time to time, for not returning it ; but 
 Petrarch, at last, had too good reason to suspect 
 that the old grammarian had pawned it. The poet 
 would willingly have paid for redeeming it, but 
 Convennole was so much ashamed, that he would 
 not tell to whom it was pawned ; and the precious 
 manuscript was lost. 
 
 Petracco contracted an intimacy with Settimo, 
 a Genoese, who was, like himself, an exile for his 
 political principles, and who fixed his abode at 
 Avignon with his wife, and his boy, Guido Settimo, 
 who was about the same age with Petrarch. The 
 two youths formed a friendship, which subsisted 
 between them for life. 
 
 Petrarch manifested signs of extraordinary sen- 
 sibility to the charms of Nature in his childhood, 
 both when he was at Carpentras and at Avignon. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 37 
 
 One day, when he was at the latter residence, a 
 party was made up, to see the fountain of Vaucluse, 
 a few leagues from Avignon. The little Francesco 
 had no sooner arrived at the lovely landscape than 
 he was struck mth its beauties, and exclaimed, 
 " Here, now, is a retirement suited to my taste, 
 and preferable, in my eyes, to the greatest and 
 most splendid cities." 
 
 A genius so line as that of our poet could not 
 servilely confine itself to the slow method of school 
 learning, adapted to the intellects of ordinary boys. 
 Accordingly, while his fellow pupils were still 
 plodding through the first rudiments of Latin, Pe- 
 trarch had recourse to the original writers, from 
 whom the grammarians drew their authority, and 
 particularly employed himself in perusing the works 
 of Cicero. And, although he was, at this time, 
 much too young to comprehend the full force of 
 the orator's reasoning, he was so struck with the 
 charms of his style, that he considered him the 
 only true model in prose composition. 
 
 His father, who was himself something of a 
 scholar, was pleased and astonished at this early 
 proof of his good taste ; he applauded his classical 
 studies, and encouraged him to persevere in them ; 
 
38 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1319. 
 
 but, very 80on, he imagined that he had cause to 
 repent of his commendations. Classical learning 
 was, in that age, regarded as a mere solitary accom- 
 plishment, not much esteemed, and the law w^as 
 the only road that led to honours and preferment. 
 Petracco was, therefore, desirous to turn into that 
 channel the brilliant qualities of his son ; and for 
 this purpose he sent him, at the age of fifteen, to 
 the university of Montpelier. Petrarch remai'ned 
 there for four years, and attended lectures on law 
 from some of the most famous professors of the 
 science. But his prepossession for Cicero pre- 
 vented him from much frequenting the dry and 
 dusty walks of jurisprudence. In his epistle to 
 posterity, he endeavours to justify this repug- 
 nance by other motives. He represents the abuses, 
 the chicanery, and mercenary practices of the law, 
 as inconsistent with every principle of candour and 
 honesty. 
 
 When Petracco observed that his son made no 
 great progress in his legal studies at Montpelier, 
 he removed him, in 1323, to Bologna, celebrated 
 for the study of the canon and civil law, probably 
 imagining that the superior fame of the latter place 
 might attract him to love the laAv. To Bologna 
 
1323.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 39 
 
 Petrarch was accompanied by his brother Ghe- 
 rardo, and by his inseparable friend, young Guido 
 Settimo. 
 
 But neither the abilities of the sereral professors 
 in that celebrated academy, nor the strongest ex- 
 hortations of his father, were sufficient to conquer 
 the deeply-rooted aversion which our poet had con- 
 ceived against the law. Accordingly, Peti*acco 
 hastened to Bologna, that he might endeavour to 
 check his son*s indulgence in literature, which dis- 
 concerted his favourite designs. Petrarch, guessing 
 at the motive of his arrival, hid the copies of 
 Cicero, Virgil, and some other authors, which com- 
 posed his small library, and to purchase which he 
 had deprived himself of almost the necessaries of 
 life. His father, however, soon discovered the 
 place of their concealment, and threw them into 
 the fire. Petrarch exhibited as much feeling of 
 agony as if he had been himself the martyr of his 
 father's resentment. But Petracco was so much 
 affected by his son's tears, that he rescued from 
 the flames Cicero and Virgil, and, presenting them 
 to Petrarch, he said, " Virgil will console you for 
 the loss of your other MSS., and Cicero will pre- 
 pare you for the study of the law." 
 
40 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 It is by no means wonderful that a mind like 
 Petrarcli's could but ill relish the glosses of the 
 Code and the commentaries on the Decretals. 
 
 At Bologna, however, he met with an accom- 
 plished literary man and no inelegant poet in one 
 of the professors, who, if he failed in persuading 
 Petrarch to make the law his profession, certainly 
 quickened his relish and ambition for poetry. This 
 man was Cino da Pistoia, who is esteemed by 
 Italians as the most tender and harmonious lyric 
 poet in the native language anterior to Petrarch. 
 Cino da Pistoia, though a law professor, was a 
 man of taste and gallantry ; but neither of these 
 qualities seduced him from the regular duties of his 
 vocation. 
 
 Cino, De Sade tells us, had the honour of 
 having for his scholars both Petrarch and Boc- 
 caccio. But here this valuable biographer has been 
 misled, there being no proof that Boccaccio ever 
 studied at Bologna. 
 
 During his residence at Bologna, Petrarch made 
 an excursion as far as Venice, a city that struck 
 him with enthusiastic admiration. In one of his 
 letters he calls it " orbem alterum.'''' Whilst Italy 
 was harassed, he says, on all sides by continual 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 41 
 
 dissensions, like the sea in a storm, Venice alone 
 appeared like a safe harbour, which overlooked the 
 tempest without feeling its commotion. The reso- 
 lute and independent spirit of that republic made 
 an indelible impression on Petrarch's heart. The 
 young poet, perhaps, at this time little imagined 
 that Venice was to be the last scene of his trium- 
 phant eloquence. 
 
 Soon after his return from Venice to Bologna, 
 he received the melancholy intelligence of the 
 death of his mother, in the thirty-eighth year of 
 her age. Her age is known by a copy of verses 
 which Petrarch wrote upon her death, the verses 
 being the same in number as the years of her 
 life. She had lived humble and retired, and 
 had devoted herself to the good of her family ; 
 virtuous amidst the prevalence of corrupted man- 
 ners, and, though a beautiful woman, untainted by 
 the breath of calumny. Petrarch has repaid her 
 maternal affection by preserving her memory from 
 oblivion. Petracco did not long survive the death 
 of this excellent woman. According to the judg- 
 ment of our poet, his father was a man of strong 
 understanding and character. Banished from his 
 native country, and engaged in providing for his 
 
42 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1326. 
 
 family, lie was prevented by the scantiness of his 
 fortune, and the cares of his situation, from rising 
 to that eminence which he might have otherwise 
 attained. But his admiration of Cicero, in an age 
 when that author was universally neglected, was a 
 proof of his superior mind. 
 
 Petrarch quitted Bologna upon the death of his 
 father, and returned to Avignon, with his brother 
 Gherardo, to collect the shattered remains of their 
 father's property. Upon their arrival, they found 
 their domestic affairs in a state of great disorder, 
 as the executors of Petracco's will had betrayed 
 the trust reposed in them, and had seized most of 
 the effects of which they could dispose. Under 
 these circumstances, Petrarch was most anxious for 
 a MS. of Cicero, which his father had highly 
 prized. *' The guardians," he writes, " eager to 
 appropriate what they esteemed the more valuable 
 effects, had fortunately left this MS. as a thing of 
 no value." Thus he owed to their ignorance this 
 treatise, which he considered the richest portion 
 of the inheritance left him by his father. 
 
 But, that inheritance being small, and not suf- 
 ficient for the maintenance of the two brothers, 
 they were obliged to think of some profession for 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 43 
 
 their subsistence ; they therefore entered into the 
 church ; and Avignon was the place, of all others, 
 where preferment was most easily obtained. John 
 XXII. had fixed his residence entirely in that city 
 since October, 1316, and had appropriated to him- 
 self the nomination to all the vacant benefices. 
 The pretence for this appropriation was to prevent 
 simony — in others, not in his holiness — as the sale 
 of benefices Avas carried by him to an enormous 
 height. At every promotion to a bishopric he re- 
 moved other bishops ; and, by the meanest impo- 
 sitions, soon amassed prodigious wealth. Scan- 
 dalous emoluments, also, which arose from the sale 
 of indulgences, were enlarged, if not invented, 
 under his papacy, and every method of acquiring 
 riches was justified which could contribute to feed 
 his avarice. By these sordid means he collected 
 such sums, that, according to Villani, he left be- 
 hind him, in the sacred treasury, twenty-five mil- 
 lions of florins, a treasure which Voltaire remarks 
 is hardly credible. 
 
 The luxury and corruption which reigned in the 
 Eoman court at Avignon are fully displayed in 
 some letters of Petrarch's, without either date or 
 address. The partizans of that court, it is true. 
 
44 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 accuse him of prejudice and exaggeration. He 
 painted, as they allege, the popes and cardinals in 
 the gloomiest colouring. His letters contain the 
 blackest catalogue of crimes that ever disgraced 
 humanity. And it is no doubt easy to suppose 
 that the same strength of fancy in Petrarch, 
 which set every object before him in the strongest 
 light, and which magnified every amiable quality 
 of his friends, might also heighten his picture of 
 papal depravities. But I believe that our poet 
 told much truth. The exalted notions entertained 
 of the popes and cardinals could not dazzle the 
 eyes of Petrarch. He saw through the veil of 
 ignorance which covered them from the eyes of the 
 multitude : neither the purple of the cardinals nor 
 the tiara of the pope could rescue their enormities 
 from his reproaches, and he inveighed against 
 them with a spirit of freedom that was never re- 
 mitted. 
 
 But, if we consult contemporary historians, 
 and those other writers "vvho were not prejudiced 
 against the Gallic popes, we shall find these de- 
 scriptions scarcely at all exaggerated ; and, with 
 no great allowance for his ardour, we see the real 
 picture of the court of Rome delineated in his 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 45 
 
 letters. Some prelates, indeed, of the highest 
 rank were exempted from the almost universal 
 contagion, whose protection of Petrarch, as well 
 as his reciprocal attachment, prove that they were 
 not included in those censures. 
 
 Petrarch was twenty-two years of age when he 
 settled at Avignon, a scene of licentiousness and 
 profligacy. The luxury of the cardinals, and the 
 pomp and riches of the papal court, were displayed 
 in an extravagant- profusion of feasts and ceremo- 
 nies, which attracted to Avignon women of all 
 ranks, among whom intrigue and gallantry were 
 generally countenanced. Petrarch Mas by nature 
 of a warm temperament, with vivid and suscep- 
 tible passions, and strongly attached to the fair 
 sex. We must not therefore be surprised if, with 
 these dispositions, and in such a dissolute city, he 
 was betrayed into some excesses. But these were 
 the result of his complexion, and not of deliberate 
 profligacy. He alludes to this subject in his 
 epistle to posterity, with every appearance of truth 
 and candour. 
 
 From his own confession, Petrarch seems to 
 have been somewhat vain of his personal appear- 
 ance during his youth, a venial foible, from which 
 
46 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 neither the handsome nor the homely, nor the wise 
 nor the foolish, are exempt. It is amusing to find 
 our own Milton betraying this weakness, in spite 
 of all the surrounding strength of his character. 
 In answering one of his slanderers, who had 
 called him pale and cadaverous, the author of 
 Paradise Lost appeals to all who knew him whether 
 his complexion was not so fresh and blooming as 
 to make him appear ten years yomiger than he 
 really was. 
 
 Petrarch, when young, was so strikingly hand- 
 some, that he Mas frequently pointed at and admired 
 as he passed along, for his features were manly, 
 well formed, and expressive, and his carriage was 
 graceful and distinguished. He was sprightly in 
 conversation, and his voice was uncommonly musi- 
 cal. His complexion was between brown and 
 fair, and his eyes were bright and animated. His 
 countenance was a faithful index of his heart. 
 
 He endeavoured to temper the warmth of his 
 constitution by the regularity of his living and the 
 plainness of his diet. He indulged little in either 
 wine or sleep, and fed chiefly on fruits and vege- 
 tables. 
 
 In his early days he was nice and neat in his 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 47 
 
 dress, even to a degree of affectation, which, in 
 later life, he ridiculed when writing to his brother 
 Gherardo. " Do you remember," he says, " how 
 much care we employed in the lure of dressing- 
 cur persons ; when we traversed the streets, with 
 what attention did we not avoid every breath of 
 wmd which might discompose our hair ; and with 
 what caution did we not prevent the least speck 
 of dirt from soiling our garments !" 
 
 This vanity, however, lasted only during his 
 youthful days. And even then neither attention 
 to his personal appearance, nor his attachment to 
 the fair sex, nor his attendance upon the great, 
 could induce Petrarch to neglect his own mental 
 improvement, for, amidst all these occupations, he 
 found leisure for application ; and, as he had no 
 longer to contend with the absolute commands 
 of a father, he gave up the law, and devoted him- 
 self entirely to the cultivation of his favourite pur- 
 suits of literature. 
 
 Being now his own master, he applied himself 
 afresh to the reading of the classics, because a 
 suspended pleasure increases our desire to return 
 to it. His love of Cicero having revived, he se- 
 lected that author as his teacher and model in 
 
48 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 the art of expressing thoughts with energy, with 
 naturahiess, and with dignity. Having made this 
 first step towards good taste, he was at first cen- 
 sured and derided, and afterwards imitated by 
 others. Inclined by nature to moral philosophy, 
 he was guided by the reading of Cicero and Seneca 
 to that profound knowledge of the human heart, of 
 the duties of others and of our own duties, which 
 shows itself in all his writings. Gifted with a 
 mind full of enthusiasm for poetry, he learned from 
 Virgil elegance and dignity in versification. But 
 he had still higher advantages from the perusal of 
 Livy. The magnanimous actions of Roman heroes 
 so much excited the soul of Petrarch, that he 
 thought the men of his own age light and con- 
 temptible. 
 
 His first compositions were in Latin : many 
 motives, however, induced him to compose in the 
 vulgar tongue, as Italian was then called, which, 
 though improved by Dante, was still, in many re- 
 spects, harsh and inelegant, and much in want of 
 new beauties. Petrarch wrote for the living, and 
 for that portion of the living who were least of all 
 to be fascinated by the language of the dead. 
 Latin might be all very well for inscriptions on 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 49 
 
 mausolenms, but it was not suited for the eai*s of 
 beauty and the bowers of love. The Italian lan- 
 guage acquired, under his cultivation, increased 
 elegance and richness, so that the harmony of his 
 style has contributed to its beauty. He did not, 
 however, attach himself solely to Italian, but com- 
 posed much in Latin, which he reserved for graver, 
 or, as he considered, more important subjects. 
 His compositions in Latin are Africa, an epic poem, 
 his Bucolics, containing twelve eclogues, and three 
 books of epistles. 
 
 Petrarch found that the greatest obstacles to his 
 improvement arose from the scarcity of authors 
 whom he wished to consult — for the manuscripts 
 of the writers of the Augustan age Avere, at that 
 time, so uncommon, that many could not be pro- 
 cured, and many more of them could not be pur- 
 chased under the most extravagant price. This 
 scarcity of books had checked the dawning light 
 of literature. 
 
 The zeal of our poet, however, surmounted all 
 these obstacles, for he was indefatigable in collect- 
 ing and copying many of the choicest manuscripts ; 
 and posterity is indebted to him for the possession 
 of many valuable writings, which were in danger 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 of being lost through the carelessness or ignorance 
 of the possessors. 
 
 Petrarch could not but perceive the superiority 
 of his own understanding and the brilliancy of his 
 abilities. The modest humility which knows not 
 its own worth is not wont to shew itself in minds 
 much above mediocrity ; and to elevated geniuses 
 this virtue is a stranger. Petrarch from his youth- 
 ful age had an internal assurance that he should 
 prove worthy of estimation and honours. 
 
 ^Nevertheless, as he advanced in the field of 
 science, he saw the prospect increase, Alps over 
 Alps, and seemed to be lost amidst the immensity 
 of objects before him. Hence the anticipation of 
 immeasurable labours occasionally damped his ap- 
 plication. 
 
 But from this depression of spirits he was much 
 relieved by the encouragement of John of Flo- 
 rence, one of the secretaries of the pope, a man of 
 learning and probity. He soon distinguished the 
 extraordinary abilities of Petrarch ; he directed 
 him in his studies, and cheered up his ambition. 
 Petrarch returned his affection with unbounded 
 confidence. He entrusted him with all his foibles, 
 his disgusts, and his uneasinesses. He says that he 
 
1326.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 51 
 
 never conversed with him without finding himself 
 more cahn and composed, and more animated for 
 study. 
 
 The superior sagacity of our poet, together wdth 
 his pleasing manners, and his increasing reputation 
 for knowledge, ensured to him the most flattering 
 prospects of success. His conversation was courted 
 by men of rank, and his acquaintance was sought 
 by men of learning. It was at this time, 1326, 
 that his merit procured him the friendship and 
 patronage of James Colonna, the third son of 
 James Colonna, who belonged to one of the most 
 ancient and illustrious families of Italy. 
 
 " About the twenty-second year of my life 
 (Petrarch writes to one of his friends), I became 
 acquainted with James Colonna. He had seen me 
 whilst I resided at Bologna, and was prepossessed, 
 as he was pleased to say, with my appearance. 
 Upon his arrival at Avignon, he again saw me, 
 when, having inquired minutely into the state of 
 my affairs, he admitted me to his friendship. I 
 cannot sufiiciently describe the cheerfulness of his 
 temper, his social disposition, his moderation in 
 prosperity, his constancy in adversity. I speak 
 not from report, but from my own experience. He 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 was endowed with a persuasive and forcible elo- 
 quence. His conversation and letters displayed 
 the amiableness of his sincere character. He 
 gained the first place in my affections, which he 
 ever afterwards retained." 
 
LIFE OF PETKARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Petrarch falls in love with Laura — Absurd opinions about 
 Laura entertained by the Poet's early biographers — He is 
 invited by James Colonna to accompany him to his diocese at 
 Lombes — Circumstances which drew the Pope's favour towards 
 James Colonna — Petrarch accepts the Bishop's invitation, and 
 travels with him through Languedoc — They visit Montpelier, 
 Narbonne, and Toulouse — Provencal Poetry — Floral Games 
 — Horrible Event in a Monastery of Toulouse — Their Tour 
 to the highest Mountain of the Pyrenees, and their meeting 
 with an hospitable old Saracen, who invites them to his Castle 
 — Liberal idea of the Mussulman respecting the Prophet's Law 
 about drinking Wine. 
 
1327.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 55 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Such is the portrait which om* poet gives of 
 James Colonna. A faithful and wise friend is 
 among the most precious gifts of fortmie ; but, as 
 friendships cannot wholly feed our affections, the 
 heart of Petrarch, at this ardent age, was de- 
 stined to be swayed by still tenderer feelings. 
 He had nearly finished his twenty-third year 
 without ha-\dng ever seriously known the pas- 
 sion of love. In that year he first saw Laura. 
 Concerning this lady, at one time, when no life of 
 Petrarch had been yet written that was not crude 
 and inaccurate, his biographers launched into the 
 wildest speculations. One author considered her 
 as an allegorical being ; another discovered her to 
 be a type of the Virgin Mary ; another thought 
 her an allegory of poetry and repentance. Some 
 denied her even allegorical existence, and deemed 
 her a mere phantom beauty, with which the poet 
 
56 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 had fallen in love, like Pygmalion with the work 
 of his own creation. All these caprices about 
 Laura's history have been long since dissipated, 
 though the principal facts respecting her were 
 never distinctly verified, till De Sade, her own 
 descendant, wrote his memoirs of the Life of Pe- 
 trarch. 
 
 Petrarch himself relates that in 1327, exactly 
 at the first hour of the 6th of April, he first be- 
 held Laura in the church of St. Clara of Avignon,* 
 where neither the sacredness of the place, nor the 
 solemnity of the day, could prevent him from being 
 smitten for life with human love.f In that fatal 
 hour he saw a lady, a little younger than him- 
 self,| in a green mantle sprinkled with violets, on 
 
 * Before the publication of De Sade's " Memoires pour la 
 vie de Petrarque," the report was that Petrarch first saw 
 Laura at Vaucluse. The truth of their first meeting in the 
 church of St. Clara depends on the authenticity of the famous 
 note on the MS. Virgil of Petrarch, which is now in the Am- 
 brosian Library at Milan. This subject will be discussed in 
 another place 
 
 •j- It has been generally supposed that the day was Good 
 Friday. Baldelli thinks, from the evidence of astronomers as 
 to the time of Easter occurring in 1327, that it must have been 
 Good Monday. The question is of little importance. 
 
 I Petrarch, in his dialogue with St. Augustin, states that he 
 was older than Laura by a few years. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 57 
 
 which her golden hair fell plaited in tresses. She 
 was distinguished from all others by her proud and 
 delicate carriage. The impression which she made 
 on his heart was sudden, yet it was never effaced. 
 
 Laura, descended from a family of ancient and 
 noble extraction, was the daughter of Audibert de 
 ^oves, a Provencal nobleman, by his wife Esmes- 
 senda. She was born at Avignon, probably in 
 1308. She had a considerable fortune, and was 
 married in 1325 to Hugh de Sade. The parti- 
 culars of her life are little known, as Petrarch has 
 left few traces of them in his letters ; and it was 
 still less likely that he should enter upon her per- 
 sonal history in his sonnets, which, as they were 
 principally addressed to herself, made it unneces- 
 sary for him to inform her of what she already 
 knew. 
 
 His contemporaiy and immediately succeeding 
 biographers have imitated the poet in this ob- 
 scurity, as if they, also, were desirous to conceal 
 from posterity the name and family of Laura. 
 
 De Sade was the first writer who deserved the 
 name of Petrarch's biographer. He has discovered 
 as much about Laura as could be expected at the 
 distance of centuries. 
 
58 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 While many \A'riters have erred in considering 
 Petrarch's attachment as visionary, others, who 
 have allowed the reality of his passion, have been 
 mistaken in their opinion of its object. They allege 
 that Petrarch was a happy lover, and that his mis- 
 tress was accustomed to meet him at Vaucluse, 
 and make him a full compensation for his fond- 
 ness. 
 
 'No one at all acquainted with the life and 
 writings of Petrarch Mill need to be told that this 
 is an absurd fiction. Laura, a married woman, 
 who bore ten children to a rather morose husband, 
 could not have gone to meet him at Vaucluse with- 
 out the most flagrant scandal. It is e\ddent from 
 his writings that she repudiated his passion when- 
 ever it threatened to exceed the limits of virtuous 
 friendship. On one occasion, when he seemed to 
 presume too far upon her favour, she said to him 
 with severity, " I am not what you take me for." 
 If his love had been successful he would have said 
 less about it. 
 
 Of the two persons in this love aflair, I am more 
 inclined to pity Laura than Petrarch. Indepen- 
 dently of her personal charms, I cannot conceive 
 Laura otherwise than as a kind-hearted, loveable 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 59 
 
 woman, who could not well be supposed to be 
 totally indifferent to the devotion of the most 
 famous and fascinating man of his age. On the 
 other hand, what was the penalty that she would 
 have paid if she had encouraged his addresses as 
 far as he would have carried them ? Her disgrace, 
 a stigma left on her family, and the loss of all 
 that character which upholds a woman in her own 
 estimation and in that of the world. I would not 
 go so far as to say that she did not at times betray 
 an anxiety to retain him under the spell of her 
 fascination, as, for instance, when she is said to 
 have cast her eyes to the ground in sadness when 
 he announced his intention to leave Avignon ; but 
 still I should like to hear her own explanation be- 
 fore I condemned her. And, after all, she was 
 only anxious for the continuance of attentions, re- 
 specting which she had made a fixed understanding 
 that they should not exceed the bounds of inno- 
 cence. 
 
 "We have no distinct account how her husband 
 reofarded the homao-e of Petrarch to his wife — 
 whether it flattered his vanity, or moved his wrath. 
 As tradition gives him no very good character for 
 temper, the latter supposition is the more probable. 
 
60 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Every morning that he M'ent out he might hear 
 from some kind friend the praises of a new sonnet 
 which Petrarch had written on his wife ; and, 
 when he came back to dinner, of course his good 
 humour was not improved by the intelligence. 
 He was in the habit of scolding her till she wept ; 
 he married seven months after her death, and, 
 from all that is known of him, appears to have 
 been a bad husband. I suspect that Laura paid 
 dearly for her poet's idolatry. 
 
 "No incidents of Petrarch's life have been trans- 
 mitted to us for the first year or two after his at- 
 tachment to Laura commenced. He seems to have 
 continued at Avignon, prosecuting his studies and 
 feeding his passion. 
 
 James Colonna, his friend and patron, was pro- 
 moted in 1328 to the bishopric of Lombes. Li 
 order to explain the cause of his promotion, I 
 must necessarily allude to the contemporary po- 
 litics of Italy. After the death of the emperor, 
 Henry V., the succession to the empire was dis- 
 puted by Lewis of Bavaria and Frederic of Austria. 
 The contest at last terminated in the defeat and 
 captivity of Frederic, who was constrained to cede 
 the empire to his rival. The !<ee of Rome claimed 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 61 
 
 the privilege of ratifying the choice of the electors ; 
 without this approbation, the election was consi- 
 dered by the pope to be null and void. 
 
 In consequence of these pretensions, Pope John 
 XXII. accused the Emperor Lewis of having as- 
 sumed the title of king of the Eomans without his 
 approbation, and ordered him to submit his cause 
 with humility to the decision of the pontiff, with- 
 out whose confirmation he could not ascend the 
 imperial throne. The independent spirit of Lewis 
 could ill brook the ambition of the Roman pontiff: 
 he disdained the pope's pretensions, and, regarding 
 the confirmation of his authority as an idle cere- 
 mony, determined to free himself and his suc- 
 cessors from a dependence so mortifying to the 
 dignity of the empire. 
 
 Some religious disputes between the pope and 
 the Franciscans widened the breach. John per- 
 secuted those monks with the fury of a bigot, while 
 the emperor received and protected them. Thus 
 religion was added to interest as a ground of hos- 
 tility ; the quarrel became more personal, and the 
 parties more implacable in their resentment. Mean- 
 while, Lewis hastened into Italy at the head of an 
 army, and, after having received the iron crown at 
 
62 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Milan,* he besieged and took the city of Pisa. 
 He then marched to Rome, where he was crowned 
 amidst the acclamations of the people. Soon after 
 his coronation, he summoned an assembly of the 
 Roman people, accused John XXII. of heresy, and 
 deposed him from the papacy. Upon the first 
 entrance of Lewis into Italy, John published a 
 bull, by which he deprived the emperor of all his 
 dignities, declared him a rebel and a heretic, and 
 forbade the citizens of Rome to receive him under 
 pain of excommunication. It was an affair of 
 great importance to have the bull published and 
 posted up at Rome. But the danger of the enter- 
 prize was alarming, as the city was full of the 
 emperor's soldiers. James Colonna, however, un- 
 
 * In the western empire the use of coronations began with 
 Charlemagne ; as the patriarch of Constantinople crowned the 
 eastern emperors, so the pope crowned the western. They 
 were crowned with the silver crown at Aix-la-Chapelle as 
 emperors of Germany, with the iron crown at Milan as kings 
 of Italy, and with the gold crown at Rome. All the emperors, 
 fifty-five in number, till the year 1558, were crowned at Aix ; 
 and in the cathedral of that city, the chair of white marble, 
 plated with gold, upon which many of them sat during the 
 ceremony, is still preserved. Of the second coronation there are 
 not so many examples. A great many, however, received the 
 third coronation. Frederic III. was twice crowned at Rome, 
 to supply the omission of a coronation at Milan. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 63 
 
 dertook the business, and executed it with the 
 coolest intrepidity. He arrived at Home on the 
 22nd of April, 1328, with four attendants, and, 
 after having read the bull before a large concourse 
 of people, he maintained that John XXII. was the 
 true catholic and legitimate pope, and that he who 
 called himself emperor was not emperor, whom he 
 excommunicated with all his adherents. At the 
 conclusion of these words he offered to prove what 
 he had asserted by arguments, and even by combat 
 in a place of neutrality. He then posted up the 
 bull without any opposition, and expeditiously re- 
 tired to Palestrina. 
 
 The emperor, who was at St. Peter's while this 
 transaction happened, burst into a rage when he 
 was informed of it. On the following day he sum- 
 moned a council, in which sentence of death was 
 pronounced against the pope as guilty of treason. 
 Accordingly, John XXII. was burnt in effigy, 
 under the name of James of Cahors. Meanwhile, 
 James Colonna had returned to Avignon, where he 
 was welcomed with acclamations of joy. The 
 pope was the more pleased w^ith the gallantry of 
 the enterprize, because the family of the Colonnas 
 had generally sided with the emperors against the 
 
64 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 see of Rome. He bestowed upon him the bishopric 
 of Lombes in Gascony ; and in the year 1330 James 
 went from Avignon to take possession of his dio- 
 cese, and invited Petrarch to accompany him to his 
 residence, 'No invitation could be more accept- 
 able to our poet : they set out at the end of March, 
 1330. In order to reach Lombes, it was neces- 
 sary to cross the whole of Languedoc, and to pass 
 through Montpelier, l^arbonne, and Toulouse. Pe- 
 trarch already knew Montpelier, where he had, or 
 ought to have, studied the law for four years. 
 
 Pull of enthusiasm for Eome, Petrarch was re- 
 joiced to find at l^arbonne the city which had been 
 the first Roman colony planted among the Gauls. 
 This colony had been formed entirely of Roman 
 citizens, and, in order to reconcile them to their 
 exile, the city was built like a little image of Rome. 
 It had its capitol, its baths, arches, and fountains ; 
 all which works were worthy of the Roman name. 
 In passing through I^arbonne, Petrarch discovered 
 a number of ancient monuments and inscriptions. 
 
 Our travellers thence proceeded to Toulouse, 
 where they passed several days. This city, which 
 was known even before the foundation of Rome, 
 is called, in some ancient Roman acts, " Roma 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 65 
 
 Garumnae." It was famous in the classical ages 
 for cultivating literature. Martial gives it the title 
 of Palladia, which it long retained. Ausonius, a 
 poet famous in the fourth century, who was edu- 
 cated at Toulouse, tells us that it was a large and 
 well-peopled city. 
 
 Nonnunquam altricem nostri reticebo Tolosam 
 Coctilibus maris quam circuit ambitus ingens. 
 
 AUS. DE CLAR. URB. 7. EP. 24. 
 
 Eloquence, rhetoric, and the Greek language, 
 were here taught. The professors of its academy 
 were highly reputed, and the most distinguished 
 families of the empire, those of the emperors 
 themselves, sent their children thither to be edu- 
 cated. 
 
 After the fall of the Roman empire, the suc- 
 cessive incursions of the Visigoths, the Saracens, 
 and the ^N^ormans, for a long time silenced the 
 Muses at Toulouse; but they returned to their 
 favourite haunt after ages of barbarism had passed 
 away. De Sade says,* that what is termed Pro- 
 vencal poetry was much more cultivated by the 
 Languedocians than by the Provencals, properly 
 so called. The city of Toulouse was considered as 
 
 * Memoirs, &c., vol i., p. 153. — Amsterdam edition. 
 VOL. I. F 
 
66 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 the principal seat of this earliest modem poetry, 
 which was carried to perfection in the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries, under the patronage of the 
 counts of Toulouse, particularly Kaimond V., who 
 was proverbially named the good, and his son, Rai- 
 mond VI. Both these princes were despoiled of 
 their estates for favouring the Albigenses. 
 
 Petrarch speaks with high praise of those poets 
 in his Triumphs of Love. It has been alleged 
 that he owed them this mark of his regard for their 
 having been so useful to him in his Italian poetry ; 
 and Nostradamus even accuses him of having stolen 
 much from them. But Tassoni, who understood the 
 Provencal poets better than Nostradamus, defends 
 him successfully from this absurd accusation. 
 
 It is the opinion of the best judges that Petrarch 
 ow^ed very little to the Troubadours ; unless we ac- 
 count as an oblig'ation the extravagant conceits with 
 which he sometimes denaturalizes his poetry. Of 
 this obligation, however, if it was such, the poet 
 himself was not conscious. 
 
 Although Provencal poetry was a little on its 
 decline since the days of the dukes of Aquitaine 
 and the counts of Toulouse, it was still held in 
 honour; and, when Petrarch arrived, the Floral 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 67 
 
 games had been established at Toulouse during six 
 years.* 
 
 Ere long, however, our travellers found less 
 agreeable objects of curiosity, that formed a sad 
 contrast vnth the chivalric manners, the floral 
 games, and the gay poetry of southern France. 
 Bishop Colonua and Petrarch had intended to re- 
 main for some time at Toulouse; but their sojourn 
 was abridged by their horror at a tragic event "j" in 
 
 * "The Floral games were instituted in France in 1324. 
 They were founded by Clementina Isaure, Countess of To- 
 louse, and annually celebrated in the month of May. The 
 countess published an edict, which assembled all the poets of 
 France, in artificial arbours, dressed with flowers ; and he that 
 produced the best poem was rewarded with a violet of gold. 
 There were, likewise, inferior prizes of flowers made in silver. 
 In the mean time, the conquerors were crowned with natural 
 chaplets of their own respective flowers. During the cere- 
 mony degrees were also conferred. He who had won a prize 
 three times was pronounced a doctor ' en gaye science,' the 
 name of the poetry of the Provencal Troubadours. This insti- 
 tution, however fantastic, soon became common through the 
 whole of France." — Wartons History of English Poetry, 
 vol. i. p. 467. 
 
 f I have transferred the following anecdote, and another 
 with which this chapter closes, from Levati's Viaggi di Pe- 
 trarca, (vol. i. p. 119 et seq.) It behoves me to confess, how- 
 ever, that I recollect no allusion in any of Petrarch's letters 
 to either of the anecdotes, and I have found many things in 
 Levati's book which make me distrust his authority. 
 
68 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 the principal monastery of the place. There lived 
 in that monastery a yoimg monk, named Augustin, 
 who was expert in music, and accompanied the 
 psalmody of the religious brothers with beautiful 
 touches on the organ. The superior of the con- 
 vent, relaxing its discipline, permitted Augustin 
 frequently to mix with the world, in order to teach 
 music, and to improve himself in the art. The 
 young monk was in the habit of familiarly visiting 
 the house of a respectable citizen : he was fre- 
 quently in the society of Lis daughter, and, by the 
 express encouragement of her father, undertook to 
 exercise her in the practice of music. Another 
 young man, who was in love with the girl, grew 
 jealous of the monk, who was allowed to converse 
 so familiarly with her, whilst he, her lay admirer,, 
 could only have stolen glimpses of her as she passed 
 to church or to public spectacles. He set about the 
 ruin of his supposed rival with cunning atrocity ; 
 and, finding that the young woman was infirm in 
 health, suborned a physician, as worthless as him- 
 self, to declare that she was pregnant. Her cre- 
 dulous father, without inquiring whether the intel- 
 ligence was true or false, went to the superior of 
 the convent, and accused Augustin, who, though 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 69 
 
 thunderstruck at the accusation, denied it firmly, 
 and defended himself intrepidly. But the superior 
 was deaf to his plea of innocence, and ordered him 
 to be shut up in his cell, that he might await his 
 punishment. Thither the poor young man was 
 conducted, and threw himself on his bed in a state 
 of horror. 
 
 . The superior and the elders among the friars 
 thought it a meet fate for the accused that he 
 should be buried alive in a subterranean dungeon, 
 after receiving the terrific sentence of " Vade in 
 jiacem." " What ! " exclaimed the victim, with 
 justifiable fury, " am I condemned, innocent and 
 w^ithout a trial, to suffer a hundred times the 
 pain of an ordinary death ; and you, ye impious 
 butchers ! dare ye call yourselves the ministers 
 of a merciful God ? " The horrific sentence was, 
 however, put into execution. At the end of 
 several days the victim dashed out his brains 
 against the walls of his sepulchre. Bishop Colonna, 
 Avho, it would appear, had no power to oppose 
 this hideous transaction, when he was informed 
 of it, determined to leave the place immediately ; 
 and Petrarch in his indignation exclaimed — 
 
 " Heu I fuge crudeles terras, fuge littus avarum." — Virg. 
 
70 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 One morning, in the course of this tour, the 
 bishop, together with Petrarch, his friend Lselius, 
 and a sufficient suite of attendants, set out to %isit 
 the highest of the mountains that form the chain of 
 the Pyrenees, from the summit of which can be de- 
 scried both France and Spain, as well as the seas 
 that wash their shores. As they were ascending 
 to this mountain top by a steep and tortuous path, 
 at its roughest part they stopped in sight of a pic- 
 turesque castle. Its owner, an aged Arab, came 
 out to meet them. He had made many campaigns 
 in bygone years, during the war which his fellow- 
 believers waged against the king of Castille and 
 Granada. Afterwards, he had traversed France 
 and Flanders as a merchant, and acquired wealth 
 enough to purchase the lordship of this fief. The 
 turban on his head marked him out as a Saracen, 
 whilst the numerous suite that followed James 
 Colonna shewed that he was a distinguished per- 
 sonage. The Arab courteously saluted the com- 
 pany, and, addressing himself to the bishop of 
 Lombes, said, " Welcome, illustrious cavaliero, and 
 your worthy followers. It would delight me if 
 you would please to accept the hospitality which 
 I can offer you, and refresh yourselves in my cas- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 71 
 
 tie." " I admire your courtesy," answered the 
 bishop, " and your hospitality, which is not re- 
 stricted to those of your own faith, but extended 
 also to the followers of Christ. I see the truth 
 of what was often told me by my father. In the 
 course of his misfortunes and wanderings he met 
 with men of opposite creeds, that seem calculated 
 to cherish the deadliest hatred between them ; 
 but he found that this circumstance could not era- 
 dicate that sense of humanity and brotherhood 
 which Nature has planted in the hearts of men." 
 Comparing this circumstance with the live burial 
 of poor Augustin, it forms a sad contrast between 
 Christian and Saracenic charity. 
 
 When the Arab learnt the bishop's name and 
 family, he exclaimed, " The son of Stefano Co- 
 lonna! I knew that great man at the court of 
 Paris, and he related to me himself the terrible 
 persecutions that he underwent from the injustice 
 of Pope Boniface." 
 
 James Colonna told the Arab that he and his 
 party would visit him with the greatest pleasure 
 on their return from the mountain top ; and he 
 kept his word. The guests were received in a 
 spacious saloon, and found a table covered Mith 
 
72 
 
 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 the richest viands, and silver tankards foaming 
 with exquisite wines.* " How is this ?" said the 
 Colonna smiling. " In the mansion of a Mussul- 
 man there is an overflow of wine, which is so 
 rigidly forbidden by the prophet of Mecca." The 
 Mussulman answered him, " Sir, the law of Ma- 
 homet which prohibits vnne is accommodated to 
 the climate of Arabia, where water is the natural 
 and ordinary beverage. In warm climates, the 
 aqueous part of the blood soon dissipates itself by 
 perspiration ; hence they drink the simple element, 
 and not strong liquors, which make the globules 
 of the blood coagulate. When the Arab there- 
 fore comes to a colder region, he may dispense 
 with this law," 
 
 * Levati Viaggi di Petrarca. 
 
LIFE OF PETEAECH. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Petrarch returns with the Bishop of Lombes to his diocese 
 — Strong attachment formed by the Poet for two Friends whom 
 he met under James Colonna's roof, and whom he afterwards 
 distinguished by the names of Lselius and Socrates — Cardinal 
 John Colonna arrives at Avignon — Petrarch is introduced to 
 him, and takes up his abode with him— Sketch of the History 
 of the Colonna Family — Concourse of learned and distinguished 
 Strangers at John Colonna's House — Arrival of Richard de 
 Bury at Avignon — Petrarch's acquaintance with him — The 
 Education of Agapito Colonna, son of the younger Stefano, is 
 entrusted to our Poet — His passion for Laura continues un- 
 prosperous, but undiminished. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 On the 26tli of May, 1330, the bishop of Lombes 
 and Petrarch quitted Toulouse, and arrived at the 
 mansion of the diocese. Lombes — in Latin, Lom- 
 barium — lies at the foot of the Pyrenees, only eight 
 leagues from Toulouse. It is small and ill-built, 
 and offers no allurement to the cunosity of the 
 traveller. Till lately it had been a simple abbey 
 of the Augustine monks. The whole of the clergy 
 of the little city, singing psalms, issued out of 
 Lombes to meet their new pastor, who, under a rich 
 canopy, was conducted to the principal church, 
 and there, in his episcopal robes, blessed the people, 
 and delivered an eloquent discourse. Petrarch 
 beheld with admiration the dignified behaviour 
 of the youthful prelate. James Colonna, though 
 accustomed to the wealth and luxury of Rome, 
 came to the Pyrenean rocks with a pleased conn- 
 
76 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 tenance. " His aspect," says Petrarch, " made it 
 seem as if Italy had been transported into Gascony." 
 ^Nothing is more beautiful than the patient en- 
 durance of our destiny ; yet there are many 
 priests who would suffer translation to a well paid, 
 though mountainous bishopric, with patience and 
 piety. 
 
 The vicinity of the Pyrenees renders the cli- 
 mate of Lombes very severe ; and the character 
 and conversation of the inhabitants Mere scarcely 
 more genial than their climate. But Petrarch 
 found in the bishop's abode friends who consoled him 
 in this exile among the Lombesians. Two young 
 and familiar inmates of the bishop's house attracted 
 and returned his attachment. The first of these 
 was Lello di Stefani, a youth of a noble and ancient 
 family in Rome, long attached to the Colonnas. 
 Lello's gifted understanding was improved by 
 study ; so Petrarch tells us ; and he could have 
 been no ordinary man M'hom our accomplished 
 poet so highly valued. In his youth he had 
 quitted his studies for the profession of arms ; 
 but the return of peace restored him to his lite- 
 rary pursuits. Such was the attachment between 
 Petrarch and Lello, that Petrarch gave him the 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 77 
 
 name of Loeliiis, the most attached companion 
 of Scipio, The other friend to whom Petrarch 
 attached himself in the house of James Colonna 
 was a young Grerman, extremely accomplished in 
 music. De Sade says that his name was Louis, 
 without mentioning his cognomen. He was a 
 native of Ham, near Bois le Due, on the left bank 
 of the Ehine between Brabant and Holland. Pe- 
 trarch, with his Italian prejudices, regarded him 
 as a barbarian by birth ; but he was so fascinated 
 by his serene temper and strong judgment, that 
 he singled him out to be the chief of all his 
 friends, and gave him the name of Socrates, noting 
 him as an example that T^ature can sometimes 
 produce geniuses in the most unpropitious re- 
 gions. 
 
 After having passed the summer of 1330 at 
 Lombes, the bishop returned to Avignon, in order 
 to meet his father, the elder Stefano Colonna, and 
 his brother the cardinal. 
 
 The Colonnas were a family of the first distinc- 
 tion in modern Italy. They had been exceedingly 
 powerful during the popedom of Boniface VIII., 
 through the talents of the late Cardinal James 
 Colonna, brother of the famous old Stefano, so well 
 
78 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 known to Petrarch, and whom he used to call a 
 phoenix sprung up from the ashes of Kome. Their 
 house possessed also an influential public charac- 
 ter in the Cardinal Pietro, brother of the elder 
 Stefano. They were formidable from the terri- 
 tories and castles ^vhich they possessed, and by 
 their alliance and friendship with Charles, king of 
 Naples. The power of the Colonna family became 
 offensive to Boniface, who besides hated the two 
 cardinals for having opposed the renunciation of 
 Celestine V., which Boniface had fraudulently ob- 
 tained. Boniface procured a crusade against them. 
 They w^re beaten, expelled from their castles, 
 and almost exterminated ; they implored peace, 
 but in vain ; they were driven from Home, and 
 obliged to seek refuge, some in Sicily, and others 
 in Prance. During the time of their exile, Boni- 
 face proclaimed it a capital crime to give shelter 
 to any of them. Meanwhile, the pontiff was 
 informed that the wife of Agapito, the elder 
 Stefano's brother, was with child, and he therefore 
 conjectured that his enemy was in Eome. In his 
 wrath he summoned her before him, and, seeing 
 her modestly trying to hide her condition, he ex- 
 claimed, " Shew yourself, strumpet, and say by 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 79 
 
 whom jou are pregnant !" " Oh, holy father," 
 she answered, " you took away from me my hus- 
 band, and what could I do ? I yielded to the 
 impulse of youth and nature. Among the many 
 pilgrims whom the jubilee brought hither, there 
 came a man resembling my husband. I noticed 
 him ; he pleased me ; and, in memory of my ba- 
 nished husband, I received him at night. He left 
 me next morning to become in the plight you 
 see." Boniface laughed at the woman's ready 
 reply. 
 
 The Colonnas finally returned to their digni- 
 ties and property, and afterwards made success- 
 ful war against the house of their rivals, the 
 Orsini. 
 
 John Colonna, the cardinal, brother of the bishop 
 of Lombes, and son of old Stefano, was one of the 
 very ablest men at the papal court. He insisted 
 on our poet taking up his abode in his own palace 
 at Avignon. " What good fortune was this for 
 me !" says Petrarch. " This great man never 
 made me feel that he was my superior in station. 
 He was like a father or an indulgent brother ; and 
 I lived in his house as if it had been my own." 
 At a subsequent period, we find him on somewhat 
 
80 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 cooler terms Mitli John Colonna, and complaining 
 that his domestic dependence had, by length of 
 time, become wearisome to him. But great allow- 
 ance is to be made for such apparent inconsistencies 
 in human attachment. At different times our feel- 
 ings and language on any subject may be different 
 without being insincere. The truth seems to be 
 that Petrarch looked forward to the friendship of 
 the Colonnas for promotion, which he either re- 
 ceived scantily, or not at all ; so it is little mar- 
 vellous if he should have at last felt the tedium of 
 patronage. 
 
 For the present, however, this home was com- 
 pletely to Petrarch's taste. It was the rendezvous 
 of all strangers distinguished by their knowledge 
 and talents, whom the papal court attracted to 
 Avignon, which was now the great centre of all 
 political negociations. 
 
 This assemblage of the learned had a powerful 
 influence on Petrarch's fine imagination. He had 
 been engaged for some time in the perusal of 
 Livy, and his enthusiasm for ancient Home was 
 heightened, if possible, by the conversation of old 
 Stefano Colonna, who dwelt on no subject with so 
 much interest as on the temples and palaces of the 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 81 
 
 ancient city, majestic even in their ruins. Stefano 
 Colonna was a veteran inured to the practice of 
 arms from his very infancy ; he possessed an un- 
 daunted intrepidity that supported him under 
 every reverse of fortune. 
 
 During the bitter persecution raised against his 
 family by Boniface VIII,, old Stefano had been 
 the chief object of the pope's implacable resent- 
 ment. Though oppressed by the most adverse 
 circumstances, his estates confiscated, his palaces 
 levelled with the ground, and himself driven into 
 exile, the majesty of his appearance, and the mag- 
 nanimity of his character, attracted the respect of 
 strangers wherever he went. He had the air of 
 a sovereign prince rather than of an exile, and 
 commanded more regard than monarchs in the 
 height of their ostentation. 
 
 In the picture of his times, Stefano makes a 
 noble and commanding figure. If the reader, 
 however, happens to search into that period of 
 Italian history, he will find many facts to cool 
 the romance of his imagination respecting all 
 the Colonna family. They were, in plain truth, 
 an oppressive aristocratic family. The portion of 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Italy which they and their tyrannical rivals pos- 
 sessed was infamously governed. The highways 
 M^ere rendered impassable by banditti, who were in 
 the pay of contesting feudal lords ; and life and 
 property were every where insecure. 
 
 Stefano, nevertheless, seems to have been a man 
 formed for better times. He improved in the 
 school of misfortune — the serenity of his temper 
 remained unclouded by adversity, and his faculties 
 unimpaired by age. 
 
 Among the illustrious strangers who came to 
 Avignon at this time, was our countryman, Eichard 
 de Bury, then accounted the most learned man of 
 England. He arrived at Avignon in 1331, having 
 been sent to the pope by Edward III. De 
 Sade conceives that the object of his embassy 
 was to justify his sovereign before the pontiff for 
 having confined the queen-mother in the castle of 
 Risings, and for having caused her favourite, Roger 
 de Mortimer, to be hanged. It was a matter of 
 course that so illustrious a stranger as Richard de 
 Bury should be received with distinction by Car- 
 dinal Colonna. Petrarch eagerly seized the op- 
 portunity of forming his acquaintance, confident 
 that De Bury could give him valuable information 
 
I 
 
 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 83 
 
 Oil many points of geography and history. They 
 had several conversations. Petrarch tells us that 
 he intreated the learned Englishman to make him 
 acquainted with the true situation of the isle of 
 Thule, of which the ancients speak with much un- 
 certainty, but which their best geographers place 
 at the distance of some days' navigation from the 
 north of England. De Bury was, in all proba- 
 bility, puzzled with the question, though he did 
 not like to confess his ignorance. He excused him- 
 self by promising to inquire into the subject as 
 soon as he should get back to his books in Eng- 
 land, and to write to him the best information he 
 could afford. It does not appear, however, that 
 he performed his promise.* 
 
 De Bury's stay at the court of Avignon was 
 very short. King Edward, it is true, sent him a 
 second time to the pope, two years afterwards, on 
 important business. The seeds of discord between 
 France and England began to germinate strongly, 
 
 * D'Anville considers the Shetland Isles to have been the 
 ancient Thule. Some German geographers place it at Thyle, 
 or Theil, in Norway ; others suppose it to have been Iceland, 
 or even Greenland : and there are scholars who conjecture 
 that Thule was an indefinite term, similar to our " World's- 
 end." 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 and that circumstance probably occasioned De 
 Bury's second mission. Unfortunately, however, 
 Petrarch could not avail himself of his return so 
 as to have further interviews with the English 
 scholar. 
 
 Petrarch wTOte repeatedly to De Bury for his 
 promised explanations respecting Thule ; but, whe- 
 ther our countryman had found nothing in his 
 library to satisfy his inquiries, or was prevented 
 by his public occupations, there is no appear- 
 ance of his having ever answered Petrarch's 
 letters. 
 
 Stefano Colonna the younger had brought with 
 him to Avignon his son Agapito, who was destined 
 for the church, that he might be educated under 
 the eyes of the cardinal and the bishop, who were 
 his uncles. These two prelates joined with their 
 father in intreating Petrarch to undertake the 
 superintendence of Agapito's studies. Our poet, 
 avaricious of his time, and jealous of his indepen- 
 dence, was at first reluctant to undertake the 
 charge ; but, from his attachment to the family, at 
 last accepted it. De Sade tells us that Petrarch 
 was not successful in the young man's education ; 
 And, from a natural partiality for the hero of his 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 83 
 
 biography, lays the blame on his pupil. At the 
 same time he acknowledges that a man with poetry 
 in his head and love in his heart was not the most 
 proper mentor in the world for a youth who was 
 to be educated for the church. At this time, Pe- 
 trarch's passion for Laura continued to haunt his 
 peace with incessant violence. She had received 
 him at first with good humour and affability ; but 
 it was only while he set strict bounds to the expres- 
 sion of his attachment. He had not, however, 
 sufficient self-command to comply with these 
 terms. His constant assiduities, his eyes continu- 
 ally riveted upon her, and the wildness of his 
 looks, convinced her of his inordinate attachment ; 
 her virtue took alarm ; she retired whenever he 
 approached her, and even covered her face with a 
 veil whilst he was present, nor would she conde- 
 scend to the slightest action or look that might 
 seem to countenance his passion. 
 
 Petrarch complains of these severities in many 
 of his melancholy sonnets. Meanwhile, if fame 
 could have been a balm to love, he might have been 
 happy. His reputation as a poet was increasing, 
 and his compositions were read with universal ap- 
 probation. 
 
86 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 His affection for Italy was still fervid, and 
 passing events kept it painfully alive. But, as our 
 subject is that of an individual and not of Italy, 
 let us defer noticing Italian politics, till we take a 
 farther view of our poet's travels. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Petrarch makes a journey through the north of France, 
 and visits Flanders as well as a part of Germany — Baldelli's 
 correction of De Sade's mistake as to the date of this journey 
 — His Letter from Paris to the Cardinal Colonna — His De- 
 scription of the Parisians — He makes acquaintance with Ro- 
 berto di Bardi — University of Pai-is — He proceeds to Ghent, 
 where he complains of the high price of ^Yine, and thence 
 to Liege, where, in spite of a vast number of Clergy, there 
 was a great scarcity of Ink — Journeys on to Aix-la-Chapelle 
 — His Letter from thence to Cardinal Colonna — He visits 
 Cologne, and relates in a Letter a Superstitious Custom of the 
 Inhabitants — He returns homeward, arrives at Lyons, and 
 learns there that the Bishop of Lombes had gone to Rome — 
 Writes to him in an irritated state of mind — Gets back to 
 Avignon, and finds the cause of James Colonna's absence ex- 
 plained by his Brother the Cardinal. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 89 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The next interesting event in our poet's life was 
 a larger course of travels, which he took tlirough 
 the north of France, through Flanders, Brabant, 
 and a part of Germany, subsequently to his tour 
 
 in Languedoc. But his biographers are not agreed 
 as to the date of the latter journey. De Sade 
 and Tiraboschi place it in the year 1333, whilst 
 Baldelli contends that he set out two years earlier, 
 namely, in 1331. 
 
 Baldelli shows, from the poet's Senile Epistles 
 (Lib. 10, Ep. 11), that he journeyed into Languedoc 
 four years after he had quitted Verona, which was 
 in 1326, and that no great length of time could 
 have elapsed between his Languedocian and his 
 larger tour, since Petrarch says, in the above- 
 mentioned epistle, " inde (that is, from Languedoc) 
 autem re versus, quarto idem anno, juvenili ardore, 
 
90 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 videiidique cupidine Parisioriini iirbem petii .... 
 extremos regni angulos, Flandriamque, et Hanno- 
 niam et inferiorem Germaniam circumivi." In 
 another place Petrarch mentions that he under- 
 took this journey about the twenty-fifth year of 
 his age, " circa vigesimum quintum vitae annum 
 inter Belgas Helvetiosque festinans cum Leodium 
 pervenissem" — Sen. Ep., Lib. 15, Ep. 5. 
 
 Petrarch was prompted to travel not only by his 
 own natural curiosity to observe men and manners, 
 by his desire of seeing monuments of antiquity, 
 and his hopes of discovering the MSS. of ancient 
 authors, but also, we may believe, by his wish, if 
 it were possible, to escape from himself, and to 
 forget Laura. He imparted his intention to the 
 bishop of Lombes and Cardinal Colonna, who both 
 approved of it. The latter requested him to-write 
 him an account of whatever he heard or saw, 
 quoting the words of Cicero to Atticus, " quod in 
 biiccam venerit scribito." 
 
 From Paris Petrarch wrote as follows to the car- 
 dinal. " I have visited Paris, the capital of the 
 whole kingdom of France. I entered it in the 
 same state of mind that was felt by Apuleius when 
 he visited Hypata, a city of Thcssaly, celebrated for 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 91 
 
 its magic, of which such wonderful things were re- 
 lated, looking again and again at every object, in 
 solicitous suspense, to know whether all that he 
 had heard of the far-famed place was true or false. 
 Here I pass a great deal of time in observation, 
 and, as the day is too short for my curiosity, I add 
 the night. At last, it seems to me that, by long 
 exploring, I have enabled myself to distinguish 
 between the true and the false in what is related 
 about Paris. But, as the subject would be too 
 tedious for this occasion, I shall defer entering 
 fully into particulars till I can do so viva voce. 
 My impatience, however, impels me to sketch for 
 you briefly a general idea of this so celebrated 
 city, and of the character of its inhabitants. 
 
 " Paris, though always inferior to its fame, and 
 much indebted to the lies of its own people, is un- 
 doubtedly a great city. To be sure, I never saw^ a 
 dirtier place, except Avignon. At the same time, 
 its population contains the most learned of men, 
 and it is like a great basket in which are collected 
 the rarest fruits of every country. From the time 
 that its university was founded, as they say, by 
 Alcuin, the teacher of Charlemagne, there has not 
 been, to my knowledge, a single Parisian of any 
 
92 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 fame. The great luminaries of the university were 
 all strangers ; and, if the love of my country does 
 not deceive me, they were chiefly Italians, such as 
 Pietro Lombardo, Tomaso d' Aquino, Bonaven- 
 tura, and many others. 
 
 " The character of the Parisians is very sin- 
 gular. There was a time when, from the ferocity 
 of ,their manners, the French were reckoned bar- 
 barians. At present the case is wholly changed. 
 A gay disposition, love of society, ease, and playful- 
 ness in conversation now characterise them. They 
 seek every opportunity of distinguishing them- 
 selves ; and make war against all cares mth joking, 
 laughing, singing, eating, and drinking. Prone, 
 however, as they are to pleasure, they are not 
 heroic in adversity. The French love their country 
 and their countrymen ; they censure with rigour 
 the faults of other nations, but spread a propor- 
 tionably thick veil over their own defects. 
 
 " Still, amidst the noise and infinite variety of 
 objects which this magic capital offers at every in- 
 stant to the view, my thoughts turn towards Rome 
 and you. What joy would it not give me to be 
 with the bishop of Lombes, seated together on the 
 Tarpeian Rock ! Farewell." 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 93 
 
 At Paris our poet visited Roberto di Bardi,* 
 chancellor of the University of Paris, and con- 
 versed with him respecting the disorders that pre- 
 vailed in the court of Avignon. With no small 
 joy Petrarch met his illustrious fellow-citizen, for 
 Roberto was a Florentine, distinguished in philo- 
 sophy and theology. Levati gives a long account 
 of conversations between Petrarch and De Bardi, 
 which may be probable, but which seem to me to 
 be confirmed by no authentic quotations. I do 
 not mean that Levati has falsified historical facts ; 
 but he has given dialogues between the poet and 
 the university chancellor respecting those facts, 
 whilst, in the epistles of Petrarch, I find no record 
 of such dialogues. 
 
 Whilst Petrarch was at Paris, he must have 
 
 * Roberto Bardi, according to Philip Villani, who has 
 written a life of him. published by Mazzucchelli, was of an 
 illustrious and ancient family in Florence. After studying 
 hard from his earliest youth, he went to Paris for theological 
 instruction, where he gradually rose to the dignity of Chan- 
 cellor in that university, and held it for several years, until 
 his death in 1349. He collected several sermons of St. Au- 
 gustin, and composed many himself, which ai'e preserved in 
 the Riccai'dian Library. In 1333, at the instance of Philip of 
 Valois, he entered profoundly into the question so much 
 debated in that age, namely, whether, at the day of judgment, 
 the just will be permitted to see •' the Beatific Vision." 
 
94 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 looked with interest at its university, which was 
 at that time the most important school of Europe, 
 and the most numerously attended. 
 
 So vast a number of young men, different in 
 dress and language, studied here, that the place 
 seemed more like a city than a university. The 
 best teachers that could be found in a semi-bar- 
 barous age came hither, secure of honours and 
 rewards; and students, attracted by the fame of 
 those professors, came from England, from Ger- 
 many, and all the north, as well as from Italy and 
 Spain. The grand object to which all the young 
 learners aspired, was to obtain a doctorship in 
 theology ; but, before attending theological lec- 
 tures, they were obliged to acquire grammar, rhe- 
 toric, logic, and moral philosophy. This concourse 
 of youth was, however, unfavourable to their man- 
 ners and discipline. It is true that some of the 
 more favoured scholars of the university served as 
 pages to the professors, in whose houses were to be 
 seen the sons of some of the best families in Eu- 
 rope spreading the professor's table-cloth, and 
 handing food and drink to his guests. Over these 
 pages their teachers could easily hold beneficent 
 domestic authority; and the conversation at the 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 95 
 
 tables at which they served might have been in- 
 structive to them. But the number of such pages 
 must have been small, compared with the great 
 mass of the students who lived independently in 
 lodgings, and it appears that most of them led 
 dissolute lives. They were prone to intoxication, 
 and fond of cudgelling. The embryo doctors of 
 divinity entered into controversy with whomsoever 
 they met, and settled their disputes with sticks, 
 and not with syllogisms. Towards the end of the 
 twelfth century, they had broken so many heads 
 of Parisian citizens, that Philip Augustus, in 1190, 
 ordered the university to be surrounded by a deep 
 moat, a high wall, and a hundred well-guarded 
 gates, to confine the disciples of theology. It 
 seems, however, that neither walls, gates, nor 
 ditches were sufficient to protect the public against 
 them. The students committed nuisances, and even 
 crimes ; the civil power interfered to punish them ; 
 but the professors shamefully took their part. In 
 1304, the provost of Paris caused a student con- 
 victed of outrageously criminal offences to be 
 hanged. The clergy took up the cause, the professors 
 complained of their privileges being violated, and 
 they exhorted all the parsons to join them in attack- 
 
96 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 ing the house of the provost with showers of stones. 
 In their assault, those disciples of the benevolent 
 Saviour cried out to the provost, " Get thee gone, 
 accursed Satan ! Confess thy rascality ; honour 
 thy mother church, the liberty of Mhich thou hast 
 injured; otherwise thy fate shall be like that of 
 Dathan and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed up 
 alive." All the schools were shut up ; and this 
 public-spirited magistrate was obliged to make an 
 humble apology to the university, and perform a 
 pilgrimage to Eome for absolution. 
 
 The discipline of the university, I fear, was not 
 much better at the time when Petrarch paid it a 
 visit ; but he was received with honour, and saw 
 the ceremony of students who had obtained the 
 doctorial degree being saluted by the title of divine 
 masters in divitiity. 
 
 From Paris Petrarch proceeded to Ghent, of 
 which only he makes mention to the cardinal, 
 without noticing any of the towns that lie between. 
 It is curious to find our poet out of humour with 
 Flanders on account of the high price of wine, 
 which was not an indigenous article. In the latter 
 part of his life, Petrarch was certainly one of the 
 most abstemious of men ; but, at this period, it 
 
1331.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 97 
 
 would seem that he drank good liquor enough to 
 be concerned about its price. 
 
 From Grhent he passed on to Liege. " This 
 city is distinguished," he says, " by the riches and 
 the number of its clergy. As I had heard that 
 excellent MSS. might be found there, I stopped in 
 the place for some time. But is it not singular 
 that in so considerable a place I had difficulty 
 to procure ink enough to copy two orations of 
 Cicero's, and the little that I could obtain was as 
 yellow as saffron !" 
 
 From Liege he proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 and, in a letter to Cardinal Colonna, he writes 
 thus : "I have arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle, where 
 Charlemagne fixed his residence. He was buried 
 in a temple of marble, the priests of which edifice 
 showed me an ancient manuscript, in which the 
 following anecdote of that illustrious emperor was 
 related; the story is curious and entertaining, 
 though I do not vouch for its truth. 
 
 " Charlemagne was deeply in love with one of 
 his mistresses, and so taken up with her charms, 
 that he passed his whole time with her, regardless 
 of every other concern. He sacrificed his honour 
 and reputation ; he neglected the government of 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
98 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 his kingdom ; he despised the exhortations of his 
 friends, and the remonstrances of his subjects. 
 During this state of his infatuation his mistress 
 died suddenly. Death, however, was not able to 
 extinguish his passion ; for his love became more 
 extravagant, and rose to absolute madness. The 
 dead body was embalmed, clothed with pui-jjle 
 robes, and adorned with jewels. In this state the 
 emperor continued to embrace it day and night, 
 when he was overheard by his attendants speaking 
 to his mistress as if she were alive, relating all his 
 distresses, uttering sighs and groans, and shedding 
 tears of affection, while he bestow^ed upon the putrid 
 carcase every mark of the most endearing tenderness. 
 *' The bishop of Cologne, a man of reputed wis- 
 dom and sanctity, from repeated acts of devotion 
 and constant prayers, was at length informed, by a 
 voice from heaven, that the cause of his master's 
 infatuation w^as contained under the tongue of the 
 dead mistress. The bishop hastened to the apart- 
 ment, which he entered, the emperor being fortu- 
 nately absent, and, finding a small ring under the 
 tongue of the deceased, took it out, and carried it 
 away with him. The emperor, at his return, went 
 as usual to embrace the dead body, but, upon his 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 99 
 
 near approach, was seized with horror at the sight 
 of an object which now appeared in its real defor- 
 mity. The passion of the emperor was trans- 
 ferred to the bishop. Charlemagne received him 
 into the highest favour, consulted him on the most 
 important affairs, and loaded him with continual 
 caresses. The bishop disliked these imperial en- 
 dearments, but was apprehensive that, if he should 
 destroy the ring, some evil might happen to the 
 emperor ; and, to prevent it from falling into the 
 possession of any other person, he threw it into 
 a deep morass at Aix-la-Chapelle. Charlemagne 
 immediately became devoted to that place; he 
 fixed his residence there, and was so charmed with 
 the odour of the morass, that he built in the midst 
 of it a church and a palace at an immense expence. 
 He passed there the remainder of his days, and 
 was buried in the church. His affection for his 
 favourite place of residence survived, in a manner, 
 his decease, for he bound his successors in the em- 
 pire to hold their coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 I have dwelt longer on this anecdote than it de- 
 serves ; but, as I had nothing more serious to 
 divert your attention, I have filled my letter with 
 trifling and common occurrences." 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1331. 
 
 Petrarch was received at most of the places he 
 visited, and more particularly at Cologne, with 
 great marks of respect ; and he was agreeably sur- 
 prised to find that his reputation had acquired him 
 the partiality and acquaintance of several inhabi- 
 tants.* He was conducted by his new friends to 
 the banks of the Khine, where the inhabitants were 
 engaged in the performance of a superstitious an- 
 nual ceremony, which, for its singularity, deserves 
 to be recorded. 
 
 ** The banks of the river were crowded with a con- 
 siderable number of women, their persons comely, 
 and their dress elegant. This great concourse of 
 people seemed to create no confusion. A number 
 of these women, with cheerful countenances, 
 crowned with flowers, bathed their hands and arms 
 in the stream, and they uttered, at the same time, 
 some harmonious expressions in a language which 
 I did not understand. I inquired into the cause 
 of this ceremony, and was informed that it arose 
 from a tradition among the people, and particularly 
 among the women, that the impending calamities 
 of the year were carried away by this ablution, 
 
 * " Ibi amicos prius mihi fama pepererat quam meritura." 
 — Fani. Epist. 
 
1331]. LIFE OF PETRARCH. 101 
 
 and that blessings succeeded in their place. Hence 
 this ceremony is annually renewed, and the ablu- 
 tion performed with unremitting diligence." 
 
 The ceremony being finished, Petrarch smiled 
 at their superstition, and exclaimed, " Oh ! happy 
 inhabitants of the Ehine, whose w^aters wash out 
 your miseries, whilst neither the Po nor the Tiber 
 can cleanse out our's. You transmit your evils to 
 the Britons by means of this river, whilst we send 
 off our's to the lUyrians and the Africans. It 
 seems that our rivers have a slower course." 
 
 Petrarch shortened his excursion that he might 
 return the sooner to Avignon, where the bishop of 
 Lombes had promised to await his return, and 
 take him to Eome. 
 
 When he arrived at Lyons, however, he was 
 informed that the bishop had departed from Avig- 
 non for Eome. In the first paroxysm of his disap- 
 pointment he wrote a letter to his friend, which 
 portrays strongly affectionate feelings, but at the 
 same time an irascible temper. When he came 
 to Avignon, the Cardinal Colonna relieved him 
 from his irritation by acquainting him with the 
 real cause of his brother's departure. The flames 
 of civil dissension had been kindled at Rome 
 
J 02 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1331 . 
 
 between the rival families of Colonna and Orsini. 
 The latter had made great preparations to carry 
 on the war with vigour. In this crisis of affairs, 
 James Colonna had been summoned to Eome to 
 support the interests of his family, and, by his 
 courage and influence, to procure them the succour 
 which they so much required. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 State of Affairs in Italy from 1314 to 1333 — Competition 
 for the Imperial Crown between Frederic of Austria and Lewis 
 of Bavaria — Frederic supported by the Pope, the King of 
 Naples, and the Guelphs of Italy, whilst the Italian Ghibel- 
 lines, the Swiss Cantons, and John, King of Bohemia, support 
 Lewis of Bavaria — Character of John of Bohemia — Death 
 of Pope Clement V. — Is succeeded by John XXII. — Matteo 
 Visconti excommunicated by the Pope — His Dotage and Death 
 — Is succeeded in power by his son, Galeazzo Visconti — 
 The Battle of Miihldorf — Lewis of Bavaria begins to rule 
 the empire as an independent and legitimate sovereign — 
 He releases his captive rival, Frederic of Austria, from the 
 prison to which he had been consigned, but, from his in- 
 gratitude to the Ghibellines, Lewis begins to decline in popu- 
 larity among the Italians — John of Bohemia becomes a 
 favourite throughout Germany and Italy — He approaches 
 the frontiers of Italy, and is invited by several of its States 
 
104 LIFE OF PETILVRCH. 
 
 to protect them — Comes to a perfidious understanding with 
 Pope John XXII. to suppress the Liberties of all Italy — 
 Awakens the Jealousy of all the Italians, who unite, Guelph 
 and Ghibelline, foil the Pope, and oblige the Bohemian monarch 
 to retire. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 105 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 I NOW revert to the affairs of Italy, which, from 
 Petrarch's love of his country, were the constant 
 objects of his intense interest ; and, to be silent 
 respecting these in his biography would be to omit 
 a part of the history of his mind. 
 
 Ever since the death of the emperor, Henry 
 VII., in 1314, Grermany had been divided into 
 two great political parties, in supporting two rival 
 claimants of the imperial crown. One of these 
 was Frederic,-^ Duke of Austria, grandson of the 
 famous Eodolph of Hapsburg. The other aspi- 
 rant was Lewis, the son of the duke of Bavaria, 
 who succeeded to his father's power. Lewis was 
 crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle as emperor, and re- 
 ceived the same compliment from the bishop of 
 Cologne. 
 
 Out of ten electors, representing the German 
 
106 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 empire, six voted for Lewis, and four for Frederic, 
 so that the former was the legally elected empe- 
 ror. A civil war, however, ensued in GeiTaany, 
 and battles were fought, in which Lewis had gene- 
 rally the advantage. Meanwhile, though there 
 were two emperors and two kings of the Romans, 
 neither of the rivals could carry his authority be- 
 yond the Alps. Italy, however, profited little by 
 the cessation of imperial authority which followed 
 the vigorous government of Henry VII., for the 
 Italians, like the Grermans, were divided in their 
 attachment to one or other of the competitors. 
 The pope, the French party, the Guelphs, and, 
 at their head, the king of Naples, took the side 
 of Frederic ; whilst the princes of Lombardy and 
 the Grhibellines embraced the cause of Lewis. Pope 
 Clement V. was very truculent on this occasion. 
 He cited to his tribunal at Avignon both of the 
 aspirants to the Csesarship, declaring that the em- 
 pire depended on the Eoman church, though his 
 holiness himself durst not at that time set his foot in 
 Rome, Clement appointed Robert, king of Naples, 
 vicar of the empire in Italy, with the provision that 
 his Neapolitan majesty should consider himself as 
 the pope's vassal. He informed the world that, 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 107 
 
 during the vacancy of the imperial throne, he was 
 the natural successor of the Csesars, in virtue of the 
 gift of Jesus Christ. It might have occurred to 
 his holiness that, if tlie Messiah had anticipated 
 and sanctioned such a claim on the part of Simon 
 Peter's successors, he never would have said, " My 
 kingdom is not of this world." 
 
 On the other hand, the majority of the Germans, 
 a portion of the Italians, and the whole of the 
 Swiss cantons, who covered themselves with glory 
 by the victory of Morgarten, took up arms for 
 Lewis, and a still more illustrious auxiliary pre- 
 sented himself in John, king of Bohemia. This 
 extraordinary personage, who was chivalry itself 
 personified, was the son of the German emperor, 
 Henry VII., and might have been expected to 
 be himself a candidate for the imperial crown. 
 But, as he had an opponent in his succession to 
 the kingdom of Bohemia in the duke of Carin- 
 thia, he was more anxious to secure his own 
 dominions than to obtain the German throne. To 
 that dignity he absolutely conducted Lewis of 
 Bavaria, and for many years supported him as em- 
 peror, contributing even with his own arm to his 
 victories over the Austrian Frederic. 
 
108 LIFE OF PETRxVRCII. 
 
 The cliaracter of John of Bohemia, as I have 
 said, was eminently chivalrous. He had often de- 
 feated his enemies of the north, and driven them 
 back into their Polish and Prussian boundaries. 
 It was not till late in his life, and long after the 
 period when he first supported the Ghibellines, 
 that he totally lost his sight. It is, therefore, 
 anticipating an historical date to record at present 
 the last act of his military valour. The events at 
 which we have glanced occurred between 1314 
 and 1331. Eighteen years later was fought the 
 battle of Cressy, in which John of Bohemia was 
 present in person, as an ally of the French king. 
 His state of blindness was then complete ; but, at 
 his desire, the reins of his horse were fastened to the 
 head-stalls of two of his bravest knights. When 
 the enemy came close to him, his knights directed 
 him where to cut and thrust, and he is said to have 
 wounded more than one antagonist whom he could 
 not see. Next day he was found dead upon the 
 field, with all his military attendants slain around 
 him. 
 
 In the mean time, long before the Bohemian 
 warrior had entered Italy, Clement Y., the fore- 
 most ecclesiastical opponent of Lewis of Bavaria, 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 109 
 
 had paid the debt of Nature. The bulls which he 
 had issued, declaratory of his right to decide on 
 the election of a German emperor, were the last 
 acts of his papal government. This pontiff, who 
 had basely sold the interests of the church and his 
 own conscience to Philip of France, and who had 
 sacrificed the entire order of the Templars, died on 
 the 20th of February, 1314, in the same year with 
 Philip himself. Among the Templars whom the 
 French king had put to death, there was one 
 who was cruelly burnt, and, before he expired 
 in the flames, he summoned both of the tyrant 
 potentates, Pope Clement and Philip of France, to 
 appear with him before the tribunal of God. The 
 death of both soon afterwards seemed in the eye 
 of popular superstition to be in obedience to this 
 citation. 
 
 A tradition in Italy reported that Clement, 
 anxious to know the secrets of the other Avorld, 
 consulted one of his most faithful chaplains. This 
 religious confidant, who appears to have been as 
 complaisant as the character of whom Pope says, 
 
 " And bid him go to hell, to hell he goes," 
 procured a necromancer, who took him down to the 
 infernal reaions, and there showed him a red hot 
 
110 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1316. 
 
 habitation which the devils were constructing for 
 his master, Clement. After this intelligence it is 
 said that the pope never smiled during the rest of 
 his life. It is certain that he died with a troubled 
 conscience. 
 
 Clement V., during his feeble and profligate 
 reign, amassed enormous riches by the sale of 
 ecclesiastical benefices and by other scandalous 
 means. He had enriched his relations and his 
 dependents ; but he had not secured their grati- 
 tude. The moment that his death was announced 
 in the papal palace, all its inmates rushed upon his 
 treasures as if they had been their lawful booty. 
 Amongst his numerous household, not a single 
 servant remained to watch the dead body of their 
 master. The wax candles that lighted his bed of 
 state fell upon the bed-clothes, and set them on 
 fire. The flames spread over the whole apartment, 
 but the palace and wardrobe were so plundered, 
 that only a miserable cloth could be found to 
 cover the half-burnt remains of one of the richest 
 popes who had ever governed the church. 
 
 Two years elapsed before a successor was ap- 
 pointed to the chair of St. Peter. At last, at the 
 instance of Philip, count of Poitou, afterwards 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 1 1 1 
 
 known as king of France by the name of Philip 
 le Long, a new pope was elected by the cardi- 
 nals, namely, James d'Euse, at that time cardinal 
 bishop of Porto. He took the papal name of 
 John XXII. He had been the chancellor of 
 Eobert, king of Naples, and was his creature - 
 He was of low origin, but certainly redeemed 
 it by his talents. His partiality for the Tra- 
 montanes, his base dependence on the courts of 
 Paris and N^aples, his determination to fix and to 
 continue the seat of the church in Provence, and the 
 evils which his ambition and venality brought upon 
 Italy, excited so much hatred against him among 
 the Italians, that perhaps we should take the most 
 scandalous reports of him given by his contempo- 
 raries with a grain of allowance. 
 
 After the death of the emperor, Henry VII., 
 Robert, king of Naples, remained by far the most 
 potent prince in Italy. To the kingdom of Apulia 
 he joined the sovereignty of several cities of 
 Piedmont, and the alliance of all the Guelphs of 
 the Ecclesiastical State, as well as of Tuscany and 
 of Lombardy, who recognized him as the imperial 
 vicar, according to the concession of Clement V. 
 Robert was at the same time sovereign of Pro- 
 
I 12 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 vence ; he held the pope in absolute dependence, 
 and had unlimited influence at the court of France. 
 His bond of union with all these states was their 
 interest in the cause of the Guelphs, which Robert 
 appeared to have at heart above all things ; and he 
 profited by the interregnum in the empire and the 
 civil war in Germany to crush the Ghibellines in 
 Italy. 
 
 But the Ghibelline party had now at their head 
 men of rare talents and determined zeal ; men whom 
 the certainty of ruin, if their implacable enemies 
 should prevail, bound over to union and consis- 
 tency. Those chiefs had raised themselves to sove- 
 reignty in their respective states. Among them 
 was Matteo Visconti, lord of Milan and of a part 
 of Lombardy ; Cane de la Scala, lord of Yerona 
 and of a part of the Venetian territory ; Passerino 
 Bonacossi, lord of Mantua ; Castruccio Castracani ; 
 and Frederic of Montefeltro, lord of Urbino, and 
 captain of the Ghibellines in the March of Ancona 
 and the duchy of Spoleto. Other noblesf, less cele- 
 brated and powerful, were attached to the cause, 
 though they had not supreme dominion in their 
 fortified castles and villages, which they held as 
 dependents of the Ghibelline league. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 113 
 
 Matteo Visconti, on account of his advanced 
 age and of his superior forces and military talents, 
 was regarded as the chief of all the Ghibellines of 
 Italy. He was the first, therefore, whom Robert of 
 Naples attacked. In 1314, Robert's general, Hugh 
 de Baux, gained a victory over the army of Vis- 
 conti — but it was a fruitless victory. The Guelphs 
 of Provence and Lombardy quarrelled ; they af- 
 flicted the peasants of the Milanese territory by 
 many oppressions, till the whole population, joining 
 Visconti's army, drove them with disgrace out of 
 the country. 
 
 In the same year hostilities were continued, but 
 with disadvantage to the Guelphic cause. The 
 subsequent year, 1315, began with promises of 
 success to the Gruelphs ; but it ended otherwise, 
 and saw the Ghibellines triumphant almost over 
 the whole of Lombardy. 
 
 Such was the state of factions in Italy when 
 James d'Euse was elected pope at Lyons, and took 
 the name of John XXII. Robert of Naples sup- 
 ported him, but the Italian princes who opposed 
 him seemed likely to be more than his match. The 
 latter declared themselves invested with the autho- 
 rity of the empire. In order to frustrate this 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 claim, John XXII. declared by a pontifical bull 
 that he was paramount sovereign as head of the 
 church over all earthly powers. " Grod has given 
 liie," he said, " authority in this world as well as 
 in heaven." At this time the lower world was so 
 disloyal to John XXII., that he durst not have 
 shown himself in the streets of Eome. 
 
 Matteo Visconti was unwilling to declare him- 
 self an enemy of the church, yet he was at the 
 same time loth to be despoiled of his authority. 
 He renounced the title of imperial vicar, which 
 the emperor Henry VII. had bestowed upon him, 
 and which Clement V. had transferred to Eobert 
 of I^aples, but he obtained from the people whom 
 he governed the confirmation of his authority, and, 
 Avith their approbation, he took the new title of 
 captain and defender of the liberty of the Mila- 
 nese. 
 
 This act of deference, however, in renouncing the 
 title of the imperial vicar, could not save the Vis- 
 conti from the wrath of the pope, who, in 1317, 
 pronounced against him a sentence of excommuni- 
 cation, and put the city of Milan under interdict. 
 In the mean time, Genoa had for many years 
 been a scene of discord, two of their four chief 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 115 
 
 families, those of Doria and of Spinola, being Ghi- 
 bellines, and the two others, the houses of Grimaldi 
 and Fieschi, being Guelphs. The former two, 
 namely, the houses of Doria and Spinola, were at 
 first successful in expelling the Grimaldi and 
 Fieschi, but they quarrelled between themselves, 
 and the Dorias, calling back the exiled Guelphs, 
 drove the Spinolas out of the city. The Guelphs, 
 on their return, showed the Dorias that they had 
 brought in auxiliaries stronger than themselves, 
 and obliged them to be reconciled with the Spi- 
 nolas, and to re-admit them into Genoa. The re- 
 stored Spinolas, however, soon found themselves 
 as uncomfortable under Guelphic reconcilement as 
 their friends, the Dorias. The two Ghibelline fami- 
 lies, therefore, withdrew from the city in disgust, 
 and left the sole dominion of it to the Grimaldis 
 and Fieschis. 
 
 The exiled Dorias and Spinolas were now re- 
 conciled in earnest. They seized and fortified 
 Savoua and Albenga, and reunited their troops. 
 Other Ghibellines from the mountains of Lio-uria 
 joined those emigrants from Genoa. Early in the 
 following year, Marco Visconti, the son of the lord 
 of Milan, approached the gates of Genoa with a 
 
 I 2 
 
1 ] 6 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 besieging army, whilst a Ghibelline fleet, armed 
 by the emigrants at Savona, appeared before the 
 port, and Visconti pushed on to the suburbs. The 
 affrighted Gruelphs sent prayers for assistance to 
 Robert of I^aples. To Eobert the possession of 
 Genoa was an object of vast importance, as it in 
 some sort commanded the whole Tuscan Sea and 
 the communication between his dominions in Pro- 
 vence and IN^aples. He therefore came in person 
 to the relief of Genoa, with a fleet of twenty-five 
 galleys, and so charmed the assembled people by 
 his declaration that he had come to save them, 
 that they gave to him, conjointly with the pope, 
 the sovereignty of the city for ten years, and swore 
 fealty to that effect. 
 
 All this, however, discouraged not the besiegers, 
 whose camp soon received the auxiliar banners of 
 Montferrat, of Lucca, of Pisa, of Frederic, king of 
 Sicily, and even of the emperor of Constantinople. 
 Robert was superior to his foes in cavalry ; but 
 those heavy armed troops, though they decided the 
 fate of battles on level plains, were of little use in 
 a war of posts amidst steep and savage mountains, 
 so that Robert determined on a bold sally, and was 
 successful. He got between the besiegers and 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. Il7 
 
 their head-quarters at Savona, and, routing the 
 Visconti, chased him to the gorges of the Apen- 
 nines. 
 
 Robert encouraged the Gruelphs of Genoa to 
 abuse this victory. He permitted the furious 
 multitude to set fire to the magnificent palaces of 
 the Ghibellines, which had been the ornaments of 
 the city, and to raze them to the ground. Their 
 country-houses, girt \\ith delicious gardens, in the 
 rich valleys of Bisagno and Polsevera, were pillaged 
 and destroyed ; and, after this work of destruction, 
 the king, clergy, and citizens carried in procession 
 the relics of John the Baptist, and offered up thanks 
 to God in their churches for the blood which they 
 had shed. 
 
 When his Neapolitan majesty quitted Genoa, 
 the besiegers came back and renewed the siege, 
 whilst their party pursued the war with activity in 
 other quarters. Amidst these hostilities, the pope 
 remained in perfect security at Avignon, where his 
 tranquillity Avas disturbed only by his wrath against 
 the Ghibellines. He sent the prelate, Bertrand 
 de Poiet, cardinal of St. Marcel, commonly sup- 
 posed to be the son of Pope John XXII., as 
 legate into Lombardy, with a commission to pro- 
 
118 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 secute all the Ghibellines as heretics, to summon 
 Matteo Visconti to Avignon, and to bid him resign 
 the government of Milan, a proposal Avhich Matteo 
 of course declined. Finding his spiritual fidmina- 
 tions unavailing, his holiness invited Philip of 
 Valois, cousin of the king of France, to bring an 
 army into Italy, and attack the heretics ; and the 
 French, as well as Robert of Naples, supported 
 the invasion. But Philip, mth all his counts, 
 knights, bannerets, men-at-arms, and numerous 
 forces, suffered himself to be shut up between the 
 Po and the Tesino, made a sorry treaty with the 
 Visconti, and retired with shame from the scene 
 where he had promised himself glory. 
 
 Soon afterwards, Raimond of Cardona, another 
 general of the Guelphs, was defeated by the Vis- 
 conti. 
 
 The pope had then recourse to Frederic of 
 Austria, offering to recognize his election as em- 
 peror, if he would assist him against the Ghibel- 
 lines. He had so far succeeded as to induce Fre- 
 deric to collect an army for this purpose, when the 
 Visconti enlightened the Austrian prince as to the 
 crafty policy of the pontiff, and dissuaded him from 
 supporting him. 
 
1322.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 119 
 
 It was now twenty years since Matteo Visconti 
 had been at war with the church ; indeed, he owed 
 the attachment of his followers chiefly to their 
 hatred of priestly government. He had been 
 every other year excommunicated as a heretic and 
 an enemy to Grod and Christianity. All this he 
 bore with calm dignity, and contrived to keep well 
 with Catholics even while combating the pope. 
 But all of a sudden, in his old age, he was seized 
 with a panic about the salvation of his soul, and 
 thought to eschew hell flames by coming to an un- 
 derstanding with the pope. His dotage, however, 
 was not of long duration ; he died at Monza, on 
 the 22nd of June, 1322. His friends concealed 
 his death, as well as the place of his sepulture, 
 fearing that it might be violated, and his ashes 
 scattered to the wind, according to the sentence of 
 the pope. His eldest son, Graleazzo, in the mean 
 time, sought eagerly for partizans, both in the city 
 and the army, and assumed the title of captain- 
 general of the Milanese. He was at first forced 
 out of Milan by a rebellion that broke out on the 
 8th of October, when the streets resounded with 
 cries of " Peace, and long live the church ! " but 
 his party put down the insurgents, and he was 
 
120 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1322. 
 
 enabled to return and resume his authority at the 
 end of a month. 
 
 Hitherto, the two claimants of the empire, Fre- 
 deric of Austria and Lewis of Bavaria, had main- 
 tained war only by the agency of their respective 
 partizans. It was not till the 8th of September, 
 1322, that they came to personal encounter at 
 Miihldorf on the Danube. The country is level, 
 and well fitted for the movements of cavalry, of 
 which both armies almost entirely consisted ; so 
 that they mutually broke lances, retired, and re- 
 turned to the charge, with all the regularity of 
 a tournament. The imagination, if we could for- 
 get the guiltiness of war, might be allowed to 
 take an admiring interest in so splendid a spec- 
 tacle as this combat must have been, when we 
 picture to ourselves the double league-long array 
 of warriors clad in armour from head to heel, with 
 their banners, plumage, and panoply flashing in 
 the sunrise, and their hearts glowing with chivalry 
 within, their visors and beavers dovra, a lance or 
 battle-axe in every hand, whilst the trampling 
 and neighing of their horses were heard as they 
 bounded to the first onset. Morning saw their 
 battle begun, and the noon-day heard their trum- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 121 
 
 pets still sounding the reiterated charge. It was 
 not till the end of ten hours that the tragic tourna- 
 ment ceased, when four thousand chevaliers lay 
 dead on the field, the blood issuing from their 
 visors or their cloven mail. 
 
 Frederic of Austria was defeated in this battle, 
 made prisoner, together with his brother Henry, 
 and confined in the fortress of Trausnitz, where 
 he lingered a couple of years ; nor were all the 
 efforts of his Austrian brothers efficient to relieve 
 him, till his deliverance came from a quarter whence 
 it was least expected. 
 
 John of Bohemia, who had not yet lost his 
 sight, took a part in this battle, and much contri- 
 buted to the victory. 
 
 After the battle of Miihldorf, Lewis of Bavaria 
 began to rule the empire as an independent and 
 legitimate sovereign. He sent immediate notice 
 of his victory to Pope John XXII. at Avignon, 
 and his holiness answered him in friendly terms ; 
 but the pope suddenly displayed very different 
 feelings towards the victor of Miihldorf. In 1321, 
 Raimond of Cordona had besieged Milan with an 
 army of Gruelphs. The city was but slightly for- 
 tified, but the Milanese showed him that brave 
 
122 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1323. 
 
 men are better defenders of places than ramparts 
 of stone; and Raimond was beaten back by the 
 Visconti. When Pope John discovered that Lewis 
 had sent succours to the besieged, he flew into a 
 passion, excommunicated the emperor, and deposed 
 him, as far as a papal bull could effect that object. 
 This pontific fulmination was launched in 1323. 
 It failed either to dethrone or terrify Lewis of 
 Bavaria, whose party was still strong among the 
 Ghibellines of Italy, although the Guelphs too had 
 had their successes, from the support of Robert, 
 king of Naples, as well as from the Florentines, 
 and from Bologna opening its gates to the pope's 
 legate. Cardinal Poiet. 
 
 Still, upon the whole, the advantage was on the 
 side of Lewis, and he improved it by a conduct 
 towards his rival which was certainly politic, and 
 may be called magnanimous, if we consider those 
 barbarous times, when murders sat lightly on men's 
 consciences. Frederic of Austria had been im- 
 mured after the battle of Miihldorf in the fortress 
 of Trausnitz. Lewis visited him in the prison, 
 where he might have caused him to die a pretended 
 natural death with no great scandal ; but he offered 
 him his liberty, asking in return only his friend- 
 
1327.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 123 
 
 ship and alliance. Frederic was touched by this 
 treatment ; they shook hands ; the Austrian recog- 
 nized Lewis as his emperor, and pledged himself 
 to defend his deliverer against all his enemies, 
 " even against him who gave himself the title of 
 pope !" He sanctioned the marriage of his own 
 daughter with the son of Lewis. They became 
 sincere friends. In vain the old fox at Avignon 
 tried to annul their treaty ; in vain Leopold, bro- 
 ther of the Austrian duke, continued the war ; 
 their friendship remained inviolable. 
 
 In 1327, Lewis of Bavaria arrived at Trent, and 
 presided at a congress of the Ghibellines of Italy. 
 He took the iron croAra as king of the Romans at 
 Milan, and seemed secure against the pope and all 
 his Guelphs. 
 
 But in Italy, Lewis relaxed from the frank and 
 honourable conduct which he had so often shewn 
 in the German wars. He was ungrateful to the 
 Ghibellines, who had supported him, and, above 
 all, to Galeazzo Visconti, the most intrepid cham- 
 pion of their party. To Galeazzo he behaved in 
 the most shameful manner, at the very time when 
 he was receiving his hospitality. In a public as- 
 sembly, on the 6th of July, 1327, he reproached 
 
121 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1328. 
 
 him bitterly for having withheld contributions 
 "vvhich he had promised to pay ; he arrested the 
 Milanese chief himself, his son, and two of his 
 brothers. He extorted from Galeazzo by threats 
 the keys of all his fortresses, and sent him with all 
 his family to a frightful prison.* He afterwards 
 gave Milan the semblance of a republic ; but he 
 retained in his own hands the power of oppressively 
 taxing the people. Lewis held a popular diet, and 
 pretended to justify himself by blackening the cha- 
 racters of the Visconti. Against that house he 
 certainly raised an animosity in many of his hearers 
 that would have been latent if the unfortunate 
 chiefs had been still in power ; and, as Sismondi 
 happily says, he exculpated himself in the eyes of 
 those who wished to find him innocent. But his 
 proceedings were little calculated either to com- 
 mand the Ghibellines or to conciliate the Guelphs. 
 In 1328, two deaths occurred that were unpro- 
 pitious to the prospects of Lewis. The first was 
 that of Castruccio Castracani, the lord -usurper and 
 tyrant of Lucca. Castruccio had a bold, intelli- 
 
 • It is but justice to notice that Lewis, at the request of the 
 Duke of Lucca, released Galeazzo and his family from prison. 
 The ex-lord of Milan served in the pay of Lewis till his death, 
 the next year, in 1328. 
 
1328.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 125 
 
 gent, indefatigable spirit burning within him, ^hich, 
 conspiring with the incessant weight of armour 
 outside his body, made him an old man at forty- 
 seven, and disabled his constitution for resisting 
 an epidemic fever. He was, with all his talents, 
 a merciless character, who thought little of bury- 
 ing alive twenty of his enemies at one time with 
 their heads downward. Lewis, however, had cause 
 to be sorry for losing Castruccio as an ally, for he 
 was the first Italian chief who had invited him into 
 Italy, and he was the inveterate foe of the Floren- 
 tines, who, being generally attached to the Guelphs, 
 were, even more than Eobert of Naples, the for- 
 midable opponents of the new emperor. Another 
 death, in the same year, which might be reckoned 
 a misfortune to Lewis, was that of Cane de la Scala, 
 the lord of Verona, whom, for twelve years, the 
 Ghibelline confederates assembled at Soncino had 
 elected as their chief. Cane, at an epoch when 
 Lombardy was rich in great commanders, merited 
 the first rank among them. To unfailing bravery 
 he added constancy in his principles, frankness in 
 his intercourse, and faith in his engagements. The 
 first of the Lombard princes, he protected the arts 
 and sciences ; his court Mas the asylum of the 
 
126 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 exiled Ghibellines, among whom were some of the 
 first poets, painters, and sculptors of Italy ; and 
 several noble monuments, with which he adorned 
 Verona, still attest the patronage which he afforded 
 to architecture. 
 
 The Emperor Lewis returned to Germany just 
 at the time when those Italian chiefs of the Ghi- 
 bellines, who had so nobly defended him against 
 the pope and King Robert of Naples, had been 
 either laid in their graves, or were hard pressed by 
 their enemies ; and the cause of the Ghibellines 
 had been still farther compromised by Lewis's con- 
 duct in Italy. He had shamelessly sacrificed his 
 partizans to his avarice and to the interests of the 
 passing day. He had been a true friend to nobody, 
 and left no friends behind him. 
 
 The party of the church, which was opposed to 
 Lewis, had chiefs who were equally odious. Pope 
 John XXII. was a creature and tool of the French 
 king. Luxurious, avaricious, and revengeful, he 
 made ambitious pretensions, the injustice of which 
 his own party confessed. He troubled the peace 
 of the church by idle disputes with the Franciscan 
 friars about the poverty of Jesus Christ, and with 
 the cardinals and Sorbonne about the Beatific 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 127 
 
 Vision. He sold the dignities of the church, en- 
 couraged corrupt manners, and made his court the 
 scandal of Christianity. His representative in 
 Italy, the legate. Cardinal de Poiet, called his 
 nephew, but believed to be his son, was a bad sol- 
 dier and a worse priest, whose perfidy occasioned 
 the revolt of the principal cities of Cispadane 
 Lombardy. The Italians, in fact, were now grown 
 weary both of the emperor and the pope, though 
 they still preserved the names of their factions, the 
 Ghibellines and the Guelphs. 
 
 At this crisis, a chivalrous prince, already men- 
 tioned, whose only objects seemed to be glory and 
 the public good, appeared on the frontiers of Italy. 
 This was John, king of Bohemia, the son of the 
 late emperor, Henry VII., and hereditary prince 
 of the states of Luxemburg. John of Bohemia 
 had conducted Lewis of Bavaria to the imperial 
 throne, and defended his possession of it with all 
 his might. Lewis owed the victory of Miihldorf 
 in some degree to his bravery. He reconciled 
 the dukes of Austria with Lewis, and undertook 
 to pacify Germany, and to obtain from the pope 
 the absolution of the emperor. He was now come 
 to the zenith of his reputation, when, at the end 
 
128 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1330. 
 
 of the year 1330, he arrived at Trent, in order to 
 espouse his son to the heiress of the duke of Ca- 
 rinthia and the Tyrol, who had been his competitor 
 for the kingdom of Bohemia. 
 
 While John was at Trent, he received an invi- 
 tation from one of the cities of Italy, Brescia, to 
 accept the sovereignty of their state, and to pro- 
 tect them from Mastino de la Scala, with whom 
 they were at war. 
 
 The king of Bohemia gladly seized on this open- 
 ing to shine on a new theatre of glory, and he re- 
 paired to Brescia on the last day of December, 
 1330; he induced Mastino de la Scala to with- 
 draw his troops, and restored peace and prosperity 
 to Brescia. The people of Bergamo, neighbours 
 of the Brescians, followed their example in request- 
 ing John of Bohemia to adjust their quarrels, and 
 he restored peace. These w^ere Guelphic states ; 
 but the Grhibelline states were not slower in show- 
 ing their obedience. In short, the king of Bohe- 
 mia was every where popidar, and party spirit itself 
 would have seemed to be extinguished before his 
 progress, if the cities that submitted to him, both 
 Guelphic and Ghibelline, had not bargained with 
 him, before submitting, that their exiled enemies 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 129 
 
 of the opposite party should not be re-admitted to 
 their respective cities. All this time it was not 
 exactly known for what particular object John of 
 Bohemia had come into Italy. Some said that he 
 intended to support the Ghibellines ; whilst others 
 thought that he had been invited by the pope to 
 protect the Guelphs. 
 
 Whatever was his object, it is certain that his 
 entry into Italy had at first the most brilliant 
 success. He made himself master of many con- 
 siderable cities almost without striking a blow. 
 Bergamo, Cremona, Parma, Pavia, and others, 
 welcomed him across their drawbridges. He made 
 the Florentines raise the siege of Lucca. All 
 those states were so infatuated as to believe that, 
 by surrendering themselves to this prince, they 
 could put an end to their agitations. 
 
 These rapid successes gave great uneasiness 
 to the pope and the Emperor Lewis, who both 
 disavowed having authorized the king of Bohemia 
 to enter Italy. The pope was in terror lest he 
 should totally overwhelm the Guelphs, and make 
 himself master of many places over which the papal 
 chair held rights or pretensions. He therefore 
 directed his legate in Lombardy by all sorts of 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 means to bring John of Bohemia into the interests 
 of the holy see. 
 
 The legate succeeded with great adroitness in 
 this commission. He dissuaded the Bohemian 
 monarch from making war for the interests of 
 Lewis of Bavaria, and exhorted him to labour for 
 himself, and for the aggrandizement of his o^^^l 
 house ; and it may be guessed that this advice was 
 easily inculcated, as John had evidently entered 
 Italy more \nth a view to his own advantage than 
 to suppress either Guelphs or Ghibellines. The 
 legate further told him that the pope m ould con- 
 sent to his retaining, but only under the sove- 
 reignty of the holy chair, the places of which he 
 had made himself master. The king of Bohemia 
 entered easily into these ideas of the legate ; and, 
 according to a plan that was distinctly traced, they 
 agreed to unite their forces for the entire subjuga- 
 tion of Italy, and for destroying the feeble rem- 
 nants of the imperial authority. But the secret 
 conferences of the legate and the king of Bohemia 
 were discovered, and spread a general alarm among 
 the Italians, who feared that they were about to 
 be devoted to new fetters. A spectacle was then 
 exhibited which had never been witnessed before, 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 131 
 
 namely, that of the Guelphs and Ghibellines uniting 
 to defend their common country. A league was 
 formed between the factions of Italy. Fear pro- 
 duced in a moment what the popes had vainly tried 
 to effect during two ages. Robert, king of l^aples, 
 the chief of the Guelphic party, the Florentines, 
 and the lords of Mantua and Ferrara, in forming 
 this confederacy, bound themselves to unite their 
 forces for recovering the cities of which the king 
 of Bohemia had taken possession. It was decided 
 that Cremona should belong to Azzo Visconti, lord 
 of Milan, Parma to Martino della Scala, lord of 
 Verona, Modena to Obizzo d'Est^, lord of Ferrara, 
 Reggio to Ludovico di Gonzagua, lord of Mantua, 
 and Lucca to the Florentines. 
 
 John of Bohemia left his son, Charles of Luxem- 
 burg, to manage the wars of Italy, and repaired to 
 Paris, in order to confirm his alliance with France 
 by marrying his daughter to the heir to the French 
 cro^Yn. In passing through France he paid his 
 respects to the pope at Avignon, although that 
 city belonged to Robert of IN^aples, his principal 
 enemy. He had there several conferences with 
 the pope about the means of destroying the Italian 
 league ; and that there was an understanding be- 
 
 K 2 
 
132 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1333, 
 
 tween them could not be kept a secret, in spite of 
 all the pontiff's profound dissimulation. 
 
 The old knave intimated in confidence to the 
 king of Bohemia that he wished for the success of 
 his enterprize, and he was probably in so far sincere; 
 but he wished the public to believe that he was ini- 
 mical to his Bohemian majesty. He received him 
 before witnesses with affected coldness, and even 
 reproached him for having brought war into Italy. 
 But the Italians were not to be duped by his holi- 
 ness's hypocrisy, and least among them was Pe- 
 trarch. The poet's eyes were ever open to the 
 destinies of his countrymen, and he never forgave 
 the pope for this attempt to crush their liberty. 
 
 The king of Bohemia, after passing a fortnight 
 at Avignon, went to Paris to demand troops from 
 the king of France, w^ho granted him the auxiliary 
 forces which he demanded. 
 
 The king of Bohemia re-entered Italy at the be- 
 ginning of the year 1333, bringing with him the con- 
 stable of France and the flower of the French nobility. 
 
 Upon the first news of his invasion, Petrarch 
 gave vent to his indignation, in an epistle in Latin 
 verse, addressed to iEneas Tolomei of Siena, a 
 ])oet who had considerable reputation in his day. 
 
1333.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. . 133 
 
 Pired with enthusiasm, Petrarch enumerates the 
 former conquests of the Romans over those very 
 nations who were now preparing to subdue their 
 orig-inal masters. The conquest of Italy by the 
 French and Germans seemed to him as unnatural 
 a circumstance as if the stars should sink into per- 
 petual obscurity, and night usurp the place of day. 
 He lamented the fatal divisions between the several 
 cities ; he wished to rouse their ancient spirit and 
 magnanimity, and he exhorted all the powers of 
 Italy to lay aside their rival animosities, and to 
 unite against those insolent invaders. 
 
 On this occasion, the rival powers acted as if 
 they had been influenced by the spirit of Petrarch. 
 The several parties united in the common cause of 
 Italy. The standards of states so lately hostile 
 were hoisted in friendly array to fight the dispirited 
 hosts of the legate and the king of Bohemia's 
 French auxiliaries. The red and azure armorials 
 of Guelph and Ghibelline,* the viper of Milan, f 
 
 * Azure was the colour generally used by the Guelphs in 
 their devices. That of the Ghibellines was mostly red. 
 
 t The device of the Visconti of Milan was an enormous 
 viper swallowing a man. It was copied from a standard which 
 they had taken from the Saracens. The Visconti were called» 
 and not always very unjustly, the Vipers of Milan. 
 
J 34 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1333. 
 
 and the lions rampant and crowned eagles of Cor- 
 reggio, stood victorious on the same side of the 
 battle. The legate was defeated, and John of 
 Bohemia, putting his chivalric valour in abeyance, 
 and selling his sovereignty over several states to 
 their respective chieftains for as much money as he 
 could obtain, determined on quitting Italy. He sent 
 his son Charles to govern Bohemia, while he repaired 
 to Paris to amuse himself with its tournaments. 
 
 This was a glorious, though, alas ! a transitory 
 triumph for Italy. Who that has ever felt Virgil's 
 electrifying apostrophe to that mighty land, ''^ Salve 
 magna parens rerum Sattimia tellus " — who that 
 thinks of her arts, her monuments, and her men of 
 genius, can forbear to lament her present prostra- 
 tion, and to exclaim with Petrarch, " Unite, 
 Italy ! and be once more free." But the day of 
 her emancipation cannot be for ever deferred. She 
 has a common language, the most beautiful in the- 
 world. She has a robust population, whose forms 
 afforded models to Raphael and Michael Angelo- 
 She has fires within her which, like those of her 
 ^tna and Vesuvius, are not to be repressed by 
 human power. Italy will one day, and ere long, be 
 a great commonwealth to defy the invading world. 
 
LIFE OF PETKARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER VII . 
 
 Petrarch remains at Avignon — Illness of Laura in the year 
 1334 — His Sonnets on the subject— Projects of the old Pope, 
 John XXII. — He wishes to revive the Crusades — Petrarch's 
 zeal for the absurd scheme is kindled, and he inveighs against 
 the Christian Powers for their inactivity against the Moslems 
 — The Kings of France and Bohemia pledge themselves to an 
 Expedition to the Holy Land, but it never takes place — The 
 Pope talks of replacing the Holy Chair at Rome — He enters 
 Italy ; but, fearing to trust himself in the Roman Capital, re- 
 pairs to Bologna to wait for quieter times — Petrarch writes 
 with enthusiasm on this subject also — Endeavour of the Pope 
 to establish a New Doctrine respecting the " Beatific Vision," 
 namely, that we shall not see God face to face till after the 
 Resurrection — John, finding his Doctrine universally con- 
 demned, recants it — His Death — He is succeeded by Benedict 
 XII. — Letter of Petrarch to the new Pope in the Character of 
 the Citv of Rome — Benedict declines old Mother Rome's 
 
13G LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Invitation, but praises Petrarch, and gives him the Canonicate 
 of Lombes — Azzo da Correggio comes to Avignon with an 
 appeal to the Pope's Tribunal — His Cause is pleaded by Pe- 
 trarch, and triumphantly carried — Satirical Letter of the Bishop 
 of Lombes to Petrarch, and the Poet's answer. 
 
1334J LIFE OF PETRARCH. 137 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 In spite of his dislike of Avignon, Petrarch con- 
 tinued to reside in that phice for several years 
 after returning from his travels in France and 
 Flanders. It does not appear from his sonnets,^ 
 during those years, either that his passion for 
 Laura had abated, or that she had given him any 
 more encouragement than heretofore. But in the 
 year 1334, an accident renewed the utmost tender- 
 ness of his affections. A terrible affliction visited 
 the city of Avignon. The heat and the drought 
 were so excessive that almost the whole of the com- 
 mon people went about naked to the waist, and, 
 with frenzy and miserable cries, implored Heaven 
 to put an end to their calamities. Persons of both 
 sexes and of all ages had their bodies covered with 
 scales, and changed their skins like serpents. 
 
 Laura's constitution was too delicate to resist 
 this infectious malady, and her illness greatly 
 
138 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1334. 
 
 alanned the fears of Petrarch. One day he asked 
 
 her physician how she was, and was told by him 
 
 that her condition was very dangerous ; on that 
 
 occasion he composed the following sonnet. 
 
 This lovely spirit, if ordained to leave 
 
 Its mortal tenement before its time, 
 
 Heaven's fairest habitation shall receive 
 
 And welcome her to breathe its sweetest clime. 
 
 If she establish her abode between 
 
 Mars and the planet-star of Beauty's queen. 
 
 The sun will be obscured, so dense a cloud 
 
 Of spirits from adjacent stars will crowd 
 
 To gaze upon her beauty infinite. 
 
 Say that she fixes on a lower sphere. 
 
 Beneath the glorious sun, her beauty soon 
 
 Will dim the splendour of inferior stars — 
 
 Of Mars, of Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. 
 
 She'll chuse not Mars, but higher place than Mars ; 
 
 She will eclipse all planetary light. 
 
 And Jupiter himself will seem less bright. 
 
 I trust that I have enough to say in favour of Pe- 
 trarch to satisfy his rational admirers ; but I quote 
 this sonnet as an example of the worst style of 
 Petrarch's poetry. I make the English reader 
 welcome to rate my poAver of translating it at the 
 very lowest estimation. He cannot go much fur- 
 ther down than myself in the scale of valuation, 
 especially if he has Italian enough to know that 
 * Quest' anima gentil che si disparte, Sonnet xxiii. 
 
 I 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 189 
 
 the exquisite mecliauical harmony of Petrarch's 
 style is beyond my reach. But, giving my English 
 critic every advantage on that score, and even sup- 
 posing him to be a lover as deeply in love as I ever 
 Avas myself, I would ask him whether, in predict- 
 ing that the beauty of a pale poor woman, after 
 supporting herself on her bolster, and swallowing 
 anti-febrile draughts from her apothecary, was 
 likely to eclipse the light of the stars, be not a 
 language bordering on that of insanity. It has been 
 alleged that this sonnet shows how much the mind 
 of Petrarch had been influenced by his Platonic 
 studies ; but if Plato had T\Titten he would never 
 have been so extravagant. One might imagine that 
 the poet got it among the mummies of Egypt, with 
 which it is equally destitute of life and nature. 
 
 Petrarch, on his return from Germany, had 
 found the old pope, John XXII., intent on a 
 speculation, which, though engendered by his 
 dotage, for he was now between eighty and ninety, 
 would have required all the vigour of his freshest 
 years. This was an attempt to renew the crusades. 
 
 Europe had reposed from those pious insanities 
 for a hundred years. Indeed, ever since the cap- 
 ture of Acre by the sultan of Babylon, in 1291, 
 
140 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 the Cliristians had been chased out of the Holy 
 Land ; and there remained not a single place where 
 invaders from the west could land with safety, so 
 that crusading ought now to have appeared a chi- 
 merical project to any sensible person. 
 
 Petrarch himself was not blind to the difficulties 
 of such an enterprize ; but his enthusiasm carried 
 away his judgment, and his imagination co-operated 
 with his wishes. Accordingly, we find him in his 
 writings bitterly reproaching the Christian powers 
 for their inactivity against the common foe. In 
 the course of the year 1333, the kings of France, 
 Bohemia, and Arragon, together with many barons, 
 princes, and even prelates, shewed symptoms of 
 preparation for invading the Holy Land. But, 
 in spite of all this display of zeal, the projected 
 crusade never took place. Europe had too many 
 troubles at home to require oriental amusements. 
 
 Another project was talked of by Pope John, 
 though it was suggested by others, and not the 
 offspring of his own wishes. This was the transfer 
 of the holy seat to Rome. The execution of this 
 plan, for which Petrarch sighed as if it were to bring 
 about the millennium, and which, as we shall see, 
 was not accomplished by another pope without 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 14J 
 
 embroiling him M'ith his cardinals, was nevertheless 
 more practicable than capturing Jerusalem. We are 
 told by several Italian writers that the aged pon- 
 tiff, moved by repeated entreaties from the Romans, 
 as well as by the remorse of his conscience, thought 
 seriously of effecting this restoration ; but the sin- 
 cerity of his intentions is made questionable by 
 the fact that he never fixed himself at Rome. He 
 wrote, it is true, to Rome in 1333, ordering his 
 palaces and gardens to be repaired ; but the trou- 
 bles which continued to agitate the city were alleged 
 by him as too alarming for his safety there, and he 
 repaired to Bologna to wait for quieter times. 
 
 On both of the above subjects, namely, the insane 
 crusades and the more feasible restoration of the 
 papal court to Rome, Petrarch wrote with devoted 
 zeal ; they are both alluded to in his twenty-second 
 sonnet* 
 
 II successor di Carlo, che la chioma 
 Con la corona del suo antico adorna ; 
 Prese ha gia I'arme per fiaccar le corna 
 A Babilonia, e chi da lei si noma : 
 II vicario di Christo con la soma 
 Delle chiavi, e del manto al nido torna. 
 
 One of this pontiff's projects, quite unconnected 
 with political ambition, was to establish, entirely by 
 * De Sade, i., 243. 
 
142 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 his own papal authority, a new theory respecting 
 the period after death at which the souls of the just 
 obtain a sight of their Maker. His opinion was 
 that we shall not see God, face to face, according 
 to the apostle's expression, till after the day of 
 judgment and the resurrection of the body. In 
 the interval between death and the day of judg- 
 ment we shall remain. Pope John alleged, under 
 the protection of the human nature of Jesus 
 Christ. One can see nothing in this doctrine that 
 either invades the moral spirit of Christianity, or 
 point-blank contradicts the Scriptures ; for, though 
 the malefactor on the cross was promised by Christ 
 that he should be that night in Paradise, an ex- 
 ception might be made in his case to the general 
 rule ; and, to the pious man, the unconscious 
 interval of a million years would not abate the 
 joy of his hope in a resurrection. How far the 
 inferred doctrine, that those who are to see the 
 devil face to face will have so long a respite, might 
 be too consolatory to impenitent sinners, is a diife- 
 rent question, the prospect of prompt punishment 
 being a cogent argument.* Yet, upon the whole, 
 
 * I remember, when I was a young student of divinity at the 
 University of Glasgow, that an old man, by his own confession 
 and by general reputation a great sinner, called upon me, and 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 143 
 
 a great deal may be said in defence of this opinion, 
 and I suspect that Petrarch leaned to it. 
 
 But John XXII. took the old and wrong way 
 of enforcing his doctrine — he erred right and left 
 as a prosyletizer — he petted and promoted those 
 who embraced his creed, and he punished those 
 who rejected it, forgetting that men's rewarded 
 belief is never half so conscientious as their per- 
 secuted disbelief. The bishop of Meaux, one of 
 the most learned churchmen of the age, was cited 
 and examined as a doubter of the new doctrine ; 
 and a poor Dominican friar was put into a dungeon, 
 that he might arrive at a better understanding of 
 the beatific vision in solitude and darkness. The 
 result of all this was that the king of France, 
 
 begged me to explain the scripture doctrine as to future punish- 
 ments. His anxiety was to ascertain whether they were to 
 commence immediately after death, or only after the day of 
 judgment. I told him that I was but a raw student of theology, 
 but I conceived it to be the general opinion of divines that no 
 punishments would commence till after the day of judgment, or 
 the general destruction of the world. " And how long will it 
 be," he asked, " till that period comes ?" — " Why, I cannot 
 positively tell you," said I, " but I believe astronomers con- 
 jecture that our globe will be safe for a million years." — " Oh, 
 come then," said the old sinner, " I shall have a million years 
 to rest in my grave — and there is no saying what may happen in 
 that time." 
 
144 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 alarmed by a general outcry against Pope John's 
 theory, assembled his doctors of theology, by whom 
 it was condemned. 
 
 This decision of the Parisian divines, together 
 with the remonstrances of John's cardinals and the 
 exhortations of the king of Naples, compelled onr 
 pontiff, before his death, to make a solemn recan- 
 tation of his so-called heresy. 
 
 The death of John XXII. left the cardinals di- 
 vided into two great factions. The first was that of 
 the French, at the head of which stood Cardinal 
 Taillerand, son of the beautiful Brunissende de 
 Foix, whose charms were supposed to have de- 
 tained Pope Clement V. in France. 
 
 The Italian cardinals, who formed the opposite 
 faction, had for their chief the Cardinal Colonna. 
 The former, or French party, being the more nume- 
 rous, were, in some sort, masters of the election ; 
 they offered the tiara to Cardinal de Commenges, 
 on condition that he would promise not to transfer 
 the papal court to Kome. That prelate showed 
 himself M^orthy of the dignity, by refusing to ac- 
 cept it on such terms. 
 
 To the surprise of the Avorld, the choice of the 
 conclave fell at last on James Fournier, said to be 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 145 
 
 the son of a baker at Saverdiin, who had been bred 
 as a monk of Citeaux, and always wore the dress 
 of the order. Hence he was called the White 
 Cardinal. He was wholly unlike his portly pre- 
 decessor John in figure and address, being small in 
 stature, pale in complexion, and weak in voice. 
 He expressed his own astonishment at the honour 
 conferred on him, saying that they had elected an 
 ass. If we may believe Petrarch, he did himself no 
 injustice in likening himself to that quadruped ; but 
 our poet was somewhat harsh in his judgment of 
 this pontiff. He took the name of Benedict XII. 
 Shortly after his exaltation, Benedict received 
 ambassadors from Rome, earnestly imploring him 
 to bring back the sacred seat to their city ; and 
 Petrarch thought he could not serve the embassy 
 better than by publishing a poem in Latin verse, 
 exhibiting Eome in the character of a desolate 
 matron imploring her husband to return to her. 
 He makes Rome, I think rather injudiciously, con- 
 fess herself to be a tottering old lady, with dis- 
 hevelled hair* and faded beauty, for runaway hus- 
 bands are hard to be won back by aged wives. 
 
 * Squalida .... 
 
 raultisque malis lassata senectus. 
 
 Epistol. Lib. 1. 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1335. 
 
 Benedict applauded tlie author of the epistle, but 
 declined complying with the prayer of old lady 
 Rome. The majority of the cardinals dissuaded 
 him from trusting himself among the Italians. 
 Instead of revisiting Italy, his holiness ordered 
 a magnificent and costly palace to be constructed 
 for him at Avignon. Hitherto, it would seem, 
 that the popes had lived in hired houses. In 
 imitation of their pontiff, the cardinals set about 
 building superb mansions, to the unbounded indig- 
 nation of Petrarch, who saw in these new habita- 
 tions not only a graceless and unchristian spirit of 
 luxury, but a sure indication that their owners had 
 no thoughts of removing to Rome. 
 
 In the January of the following year. Pope 
 Benedict presented our poet with the canonicate 
 of Lombes, with the expectancy of the first pre- 
 bend which should become vacant. This prefer- 
 ment Petrarch is supposed to have owed to the in- 
 fluence of Cardinal Colonna. In the bull which 
 conferred this appointment, his holiness expresses, 
 in the most marked manner, his respect for the 
 literary and personal character of our poet ; but, 
 from what Petrarch says of Benedict, it would not 
 appear that the esteem was reciprocal. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 147 
 
 The troubles which at this time agitated Italy 
 drew to Avignon, in the year 1335, a personage 
 who holds a pre-eminent interest in the life of Pe- 
 trarch, namely, Azzo da Correggio, who was sent 
 thither by the Scaligeri of Parma. The state of 
 Parma had belonged originally to the popes ; but 
 two powerful families, the Eossis and the Cor- 
 reggios, had profited by the quarrels betw^een the 
 church and the empire ; and, having usurped the go- 
 vernment, began to quarrel about the possession of it. 
 
 During five and twenty years, Gilberto Cor- 
 reggio and Eolando Rossi alternately lost and won 
 the sovereignty, till, at last. Cardinal Poiet, the 
 legate of Lombardy, under pretence of reconciling 
 the two families, took possession of Parma, in the 
 name of the church, in 1329 ; and, fearing that 
 Rolando's influence with the inhabitants might in- 
 duce them to revolt, he invited him to Bologna, 
 that he might make peace between him and the 
 children of the lately deceased Gilbert Correggio. 
 The Rossi, trusting to the legate's honour, repaired 
 to Bologna ; but, instead of being led to amicable 
 embraces with the family of his rival, he w^as 
 clapped into prison, and embraced within strong 
 walls. Having contrived to get out of these, he 
 
 L 9 
 
148 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 vowed vengeance on the perfidious legate, and in- 
 duced the city to surrender itself to John of Lux- 
 emburg, king of Bohemia, when he entered Italy 
 in 1330. That monarch's failure among the Ita- 
 lians has been already described. When he quitted 
 Italy, he left the sovereignty of Parma to Eolando 
 Eossi and his brothers, upon their engaging to 
 pay him thirty-five thousand florins of gold. 
 
 After the departure of the Bohemian, the con- 
 federate princes took the city, and conferred the 
 government of it on Guido Correggio, the greatest 
 enemy of the Rossis. 
 
 Gilbert Correggio left at his death a widow, the 
 sister of Cane de la Scala, and four sons, Guido, Si- 
 mone, Azzo, and Giovanni. It is only mth Azzo 
 that we are particularly concerned in the history 
 of Petrarch. 
 
 Azzo was born in the year 1303, being thus a 
 year older than our poet. Originally intended for 
 the church, he preferred the sword to the crozier, 
 and became a distinguished soldier. He married 
 the daughter of Luigi Gonzagua, lord of Mantua. 
 He was a man of bold original spirit, and so inde- 
 fatigable that he acquired the name of Iron-foot ; 
 nor was his energy merely physical, but equally 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 149 
 
 intellectual. He read much, and forgot nothing — 
 his memory was a library. Azzo's character, to be 
 sure, even with allowance for turbulent times, is not 
 invulnerable at all points to a rigid scrutiny ; and, 
 notwithstanding all the praises of Petrarch, who 
 dedicated to him his treatise on a solitary life in 
 1366, his political career contained some acts of 
 perfidy. But we must inure ourselves, in the bio- 
 graphy of Petrarch, to his over-estimation of favou- 
 rites in the article of morals. 
 
 Azzo's judgment, however, was acute, and, con- 
 sidering his accomplishments, it is not surprising 
 that he should have been a favourite both with John 
 Colonna and our poet, whose reputation made him 
 ambitious of his acquaintance ; and it matured into 
 friendship. 
 
 It was not long ere Petrarch was called upon to 
 give a substantial proof of his regard for Azzo. 
 After the seizure of Parma by the confederate 
 princes, Marsilio di Eossi, brother of Eolando, went 
 to Paris to demand assistance from the French king. 
 The king of Bohemia had given over the government 
 of Parma to him and his brothers, and the Eossi 
 now saw it with grief assigned to his enemies, 
 the GorreofO'ios. Marsilio could obtain no succour 
 
150 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 from the French, who were now busy in preparing 
 for war with the English ; so he carried to the 
 pope at Avignon his complaints against the alleged 
 injustice of the lords of Verona and the Correggios 
 in breaking an express treaty which they had made 
 with the house of Rossi. 
 
 Azzo had the threefold task of defending, before 
 the pope's tribunal, the lords of Verona, whose 
 envoy he was, the rights of his family, which were 
 attacked, and his own personal character, which 
 was charged with some grave objections. Revering 
 the eloquence and influence of Petrarch, he impor- 
 tuned him to be his public defender. Our poet, as 
 we have seen, had studied the law, but had never 
 followed the profession. " It is not my vocation," 
 he says, in his preface to his Familiar Epistles, " to 
 undertake the defence of others. I detest the 
 bar ; I love retirement ; I despise money ; and, if 
 I tried to let out my tongue for hire, my nature 
 would revolt at the attempt." 
 
 But what Petrarch would not undertake either 
 from taste or motives of interest, he undertook at 
 the call of friendship. He pleaded the cause of 
 Azzo before the pope and cardinals ; it was a finely 
 interesting cause, that aftbrded a vast field for his 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 151 
 
 eloquence. He brought off his client triumphantly ; 
 and the Rossis were defeated in their demand. 
 
 At the same time, it is a proud trait in Petrarch's 
 character that he showed himself on this occasion 
 not only an orator and a lawyer, but a perfect 
 gentleman. In the midst of all his zealous plead- 
 ing, he stooped neither to satire nor personality 
 against the opposing party. He could say, with 
 all the boldness of truth, in a letter to Ugolino di 
 Eossi, the bishop of Parma, " I pleaded against 
 your house for Azzo Correggio, but you were pre- 
 sent at the pleading ; do me justice, and confess 
 that I carefully avoided not only attacks on your 
 family and reputation, but even those raille ries in 
 which advocates so much delight." 
 
 On this occasion, Azzo had brought to Avignon, 
 as his colleague in the lawsuit, Guglielmo da Pas- 
 trengo, who exercised the office of judge and no- 
 tary at Yerona. He was a man of deep know- 
 ledge in the law ; versed, besides, in every branch 
 of elegant learning, he was a poet into the bar- 
 gain. In Petrarch's many books of epistles, there 
 are few, if there be any, letters addressed by him 
 to this personage ; but it is certain that they 
 contracted a friendship at this period which en- 
 
152 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 (lured for life. Guglielmo was a gay and gallant 
 man, fond of the ladies, as well as the muses — 
 and wooed neither of them without success ; yet 
 his erudition was so great that he conceived, even 
 in that obscure age, the bold design of a universal 
 library ; and compiled from the most original au- 
 thorities an historical and geographical dictionary, 
 the MS. of which is still preserved in the library 
 of St. John and St. Paul, at Venice.* 
 
 All this time the Bishop of Lombes still con- 
 tinued at Rome ; and, from time to time, solicited 
 his friend Petrarch to join him. " Petrarch would 
 have gladly joined him," says De Sade ; " but he 
 was detained at Avignon by his attachment to 
 John Colonna and his love of Laura ;" a whimsical 
 junction of detaining causes, in which the fascina- 
 tion of the cardinal my easily be supposed to have 
 been weaker than that of Laura. In wiiting to 
 our poet, at Avignon, the bishop rallied Petrarch 
 on the imaginary existence of the object of his 
 passion. Some stupid readers of the bishop's 
 letter, in subsequent times, took it into their heads 
 that there was a literal proof in the prelate's 
 
 " Balclelli says that it saw the light (I suppose that it was 
 printed) at Venice, in 1547. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 153 
 
 jesting epistle of our poet's passion for Laura being 
 a phantom and a fiction. But, possible as it may be, 
 that the bishop in reality suspected him to exag- 
 gerate the flame of his devotion for the two great 
 objects of his idolatry, Laura and St. Augustine, he 
 writes, in a vein of pleasantry that need not be 
 taken for grave accusation. *' You are befooling 
 us all," says the prelate, " my dear Petrarch ; and 
 it is wonderful that at so tender an age (Petrarch's 
 tender age was at this time 31) you can deceive 
 the world with so much art and success. And, not 
 content with deceiving the world, you would fain 
 deceive Heaven itself. You make a semblance of 
 loving St. Augustine and his works ; but, in your 
 heart, you love the poets and the philosophers. 
 Your Laura is a phantom created by your ima- 
 gination for the exercise of your poetry. Your 
 verse, your love, your sighs, are all a fiction ; or, if 
 there is any thing real in your passion, it is not for 
 the Lady Laura, but for the laurel — that is, the 
 crown of poets. I have been your dupe for some 
 time, and, whilst you shewed a strong desire to visit 
 Rome, I hoped to welcome you there. But, my 
 eyes are now opened to all your rogueries, which 
 nevertheless, will not prevent me from loving you." 
 
154 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Petrarch, in his answer to the bishop,* says, 
 " My father, if I love the poets, I only follow, in 
 this respect, the example of St. Augustine. I take 
 the sainted father himself to witness the sincerity 
 of my attachment to him. He is now in a place 
 where he can neither deceive nor be deceived. I 
 flatter myself that he pities my errors, especially 
 when he recalls his own." St. Augustine had 
 been somewhat profligate in his younger days. 
 
 " As to Laura," continues the poet, " would to 
 Heaven that she were only an imaginary per- 
 sonage, and my passion for her only a pastime ! 
 Alas ! it is a madness which it would be difficult 
 and painful to feign for any length of time ; and 
 what an extravagance it would be to affect such a 
 passion ! One may counterfeit illness by action, by 
 voice, and by manner, but no one in health can 
 give himself the true air and complexion of disease. 
 How often have you yourself been witness of my 
 paleness and my sufferings ! I know very well that 
 you speak only in irony : it is your favourite 
 figure of speech, but I hope that time will cica- 
 trize these wounds of my spirit, and that Augustine, 
 whom I pretend to love, will furnish me with a 
 defence against a Laura who does not exist." 
 
 * Dated 2151 December, 1335. 
 
LIFE OF PETEARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Petrarch, hopeless of appeasing his passion for Laura, re- 
 solves once more to travel — Difference of his Biographers 
 respecting the date of his First Journey to Rome — Baldelli, 
 the most likely to be right, fixes it in 1335 — The state of his 
 mind borders on distraction before he can wind up his resolu- 
 tion to depart — His emotion at seeing a Country Girl washing 
 the veil of Laura — Leaves Avignon ; embarks at Marseilles 
 for Civita Vecchia — The friends whom he expects to see in 
 his travels ; among whom were Dionisio dal Borgo and Roberto 
 Bardi — Allusion to the History of the latter — Lands on the 
 Coast of Tuscany ; sees a Laurel Tree, and is thrown into 
 ecstasies — Difficulty of getting to Rome — He takes refuge in 
 the Castle of Capranica — Writes to the Bishop of Lombes, at 
 Rome, and to Cardinal Colonna, at Avignon, describing to the 
 latter the Dreadful State of the Country — The Bishop of 
 Lombes, and his brother Stephano Colonna, come to Capranica, 
 and conduct our poet to Rome — He is lodged in the Capitol — 
 Caressed by the whole Colonna Family, and shewn the Anti- 
 quities of the City by Giovanni da S. Vito, brother of the 
 
156 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 elder Stephano Colonna — Leaves Rome, and voyages even 
 into the British Seas — Flatters himself that he has conquered 
 his Passion — Returns to Avignon and finds his mistake — Has 
 a Son born to him by a Woman whose Name and History are 
 unknown — Retires to live at Vaucluse. 
 
1335.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 157 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Years had now elapsed since Petrarch had 
 conceived his passion for Laura ; and it was obvi- 
 ously doomed to be a source of hopeless torment 
 to him as long as he should continue near her ; 
 for she could breathe no more encouragement on 
 his love than what was barely sufficient to keep it 
 alive ; and, if she had bestowed more favour on 
 him, the consequences might have been ultimately 
 most tragic to both of them. His own reflections, 
 and the advice of his friends, suggested that 
 absence and change of objects were the only means 
 likely to lessen his misery ; he determined, there- 
 fore, to travel once more. 
 
 As to the date of his commencing the new 
 course of his travels which brought him to Rome, 
 his biographers disagree. La Bastie places that 
 
158 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1335. 
 
 date in 1334, De Sade corrects La Bastie, and 
 makes Petrarch set out for Rome in 1337- Bal- 
 delli again corrects De Sade, and fixes the date of 
 our poet's first journey to Kome in 1335. In the 
 first place, Baldelli observes that this journey of 
 Petrarch's into Italy was earlier than his excursion 
 to Mount Ventoux, which was made in 1336. 
 Petrarch's own words regarding the latter ex- 
 cursion are these : " This day concludes the 
 tenth year since I left my youthful studies at 
 Bologna (Fam. Epist. Lib. iv. Ep. 1)." Further 
 he says, (Sen. Lib. x. Ep. 11), "four years after 
 returning from my first gallican peregrination." 
 Now, his gallican journey took place in 1331, 
 which agrees with Baldelli's date. 
 
 Moreover, in ^Titing to Boccaccio, during the 
 year of the jubilee 1350, Petrarch says " it is now 
 the fourteenth year since I first visited Home ;" 
 and Baldelli remarks, that if he had first gone to 
 Rome in 1337, only thirteen years would have 
 elapsed between his Roman journey and the jubilee. 
 
 The wish to assuage his emotions towards Laura, 
 by means of absence, was his principal motive for 
 going again upon his travels ; but, before he could 
 wind up his resolution to depart, the state of his 
 
[1335. LIFE OF PETRARCH. 159 
 
 mind bordered on distraction. One day he ob- 
 served a country girl washing the veil of Laura ; 
 a sudden trembling seized him — and, though the 
 heat of the weather was intense, he grew cold and 
 shivered. For some time he was incapable of ap- 
 plying to study or business. His soul, he said, 
 was like a field of battle, where his passion and 
 reason held continual conflict. In his calmer 
 moments, many agreeable motives for travelling 
 suo-o-ested themselves to his mind. He had a 
 strong desire to visit Eome, where he was sure of 
 finding the kindest welcome from the Bishop of 
 Lombes. He was to pass through Paris also ; 
 and there he had left some valued friends, to whom 
 he had promised that he would return. At the 
 head of those friends were Dionisio dal Borgo and 
 Boberto Bardi, the latter of whom the pope had 
 lately made chancellor of the Church of Paris, and 
 given him the canonship of N^otre Dame. 
 
 Dionisio dal Borgo San Sepolcro was a native 
 of Tuscany, and one of the Roberti family. His 
 name in literature was so considerable that Fi- 
 lippo Villani thought it worth while to write his 
 life. He became an Augustine friar, and taught 
 theology at Paris. Leaving that place, he re- 
 
 ♦ 
 
160 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 paired to Avignon, and contracted a friendship 
 with Petrarch, who had known him before by cor- 
 respondence. From King Kobert he obtained the 
 bishopric of Monopole, in the kingdom of Naples ; 
 but the cares of his diocese did not prevent him 
 from being a constant attendant at the I^eapolitan 
 court, where he edified King Robert by his skill in 
 astrology. Petrarch wrote his funeral eulogy, and 
 alludes to Dionisio's power of reading futurity by 
 the stars. If our poet could have divined the 
 future by the light of common sense, he would 
 have foreseen that he was lowering his o^nl cha- 
 racter by this part of his praises of Dionisio. 
 Petrarch had not a grain of faith in astrology ; on 
 the contrary, he has himself recorded that he 
 derided it. After having obtained, with some 
 difficulty, the permission of Cardinal Colonna, he 
 took leave of his friends at Avignon, and set out 
 for Marseilles. Embarking there in a ship that was 
 setting sail for Civita Vecchia, he concealed his 
 name, and gave himself out for a pilgrim going to 
 worship at Rome. Great was his joy when, from 
 the deck, he could discover the coast of his beloved 
 Italy. It was a joy, nevertheless, chastened by one 
 indomitable recollection — that of the idol he had 
 
1335.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 161 
 
 left behind. On his landing he perceived a laurel 
 tree ; its name seemed to typify her who dwelt for 
 ever in his heart : he flew to embrace it ; but in 
 his transports overlooked a brook that was between 
 them, into which he fell — and the accident caused 
 him to swoon. Always occupied with Laura, he 
 says, " on those shores washed by the Tyrrhene sea, 
 I beheld that stately laurel which always warms 
 my imagination, and, through my impatience, fell 
 breathless into the intervening stream. I was 
 alone, and in the woods, yet I blushed at my own 
 heedlessness ; for, to the reflecting mind, no wit- 
 ness is necessary to excite the emotion of shame." 
 It was not easy for Petrarch to pass from the 
 coast of Tuscany to Eome ; for war between the 
 Ursini and Colonna houses had been renewed with 
 more fury than ever, and filled all the surrounding 
 country with armed men. As he had no escort, he 
 took refuge in the castle of Capranica, where he 
 was hospitably received by Orso Count of Anguil- 
 lara, who had married Agnes Colonna, sister of 
 the Cardinal and the Bishop. In his letter to the 
 latter, Petrarch luxuriates in describing the ro- 
 mantic and rich landscape of Capranica, a country 
 believed by the ancients to have been the first 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
162 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1335. 
 
 that was cultivated under the reign of Saturn. 
 He draws, however, a frightful contrast to its rural 
 picture in the horrors of war which here prevailed. 
 " Peace," he says, " is the only charm which I 
 could not find in this beautiful region. The shep- 
 herd, instead of guarding against wolves, goes 
 armed into the woods to defend himself against 
 men. The labourer, in a coat of mail, uses a 
 lance instead of a goad, to drive his cattle. The 
 fowler covers himself with a shield as he draws 
 his nets ; the fisherman carries a SAvord whilst 
 he hooks his fish ; and the native draws water 
 from the well in an old rusty casque, instead of a 
 pail. In a word, arms are used here as tools and 
 implements for all the labours of the field, and all 
 the wants of men. In the night are heard dread- 
 ful bowlings round the walls of towns, and in the 
 day terrible voices crying incessantly to arms. 
 What music is this compared with those soft and 
 harmonious sounds which I drew from my lute at 
 Avignon ! " 
 
 On his arrival at Capranica, Petrarch despatched 
 a courier to the Bishop of Lombes, infonning him 
 where he was, and of his inability to get to Eome, 
 all the roads to it being beset by the enemy. The 
 
1335.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 163 
 
 bishop expressed great joy at his friend's arrival 
 in Italy, and directed him to wait his coming. 
 
 The bishop, accordingly, went to Capranica, with 
 Stephano Colonna, his brother, senator of Rome. 
 They had with them only a troop of one hundred 
 horsemen ; and, considering that the enemy kept 
 possession of the country with five hundred men, 
 it is wonderful that they met with no difficulties on 
 their route ; but the reputation of the Colonnas 
 had struck terror into the hostile camp. 
 
 They entered Rome ^^•ithout having had a single 
 skirmish with the enemy. Stefano Colonna, in 
 his quality of senator, occupied the Capitol, where 
 he assigned apartments to Petrarch ; and the poet 
 was lodged on that famous hill which Scipio, 
 Metellus, and Pompey, had ascended in triumph. 
 Petrarch was received and treated by the Colonnas 
 like a child of their family. The venerable old 
 Stephano, who had known him at Avignon, loaded 
 our poet with kindness. But, of all the family, it 
 would seem that Petrarch delighted most in the 
 conversation of Giovanni da S. Vito, a younger 
 brother of the aged Stefano, and uncle of the 
 cardinal and bishop. Their tastes were congenial. 
 Giovanni had made a particular study of the anti- 
 
 M 2 
 
164 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1336. 
 
 quities of Rome ; he was, therefore, a most wel- 
 come cicerone to our poet, being, perhaps, the 
 only Roman then alive, who understood the sub- 
 ject deeply, if we except Cola di Rienzo, of whom 
 we shall soon have occasion to speak. 
 
 In company with Giovanni, Petrarch inspected 
 the relics of the " eternal city :" the former was 
 more versed than his companion in ancient history, 
 but the other surpassed him in acquaintance with 
 modern times, as well as with the objects of anti- 
 quity that stood immediately before them. 
 
 What an interesting object is Petrarch con- 
 templating the ruins of Rome ! He wrote to the 
 Cardinal Colonna as follows : — " I gave you so 
 long an account of Capranica that you may natu- 
 rally expect a still longer description of Rome. 
 My materials for this subject are, indeed, inex- 
 haustible ; but they will serve for some future 
 opportunity. At present, I am so wonder-struck 
 by so many great objects that I know not where 
 to begin. One circumstance, however, I cannot 
 omit, which has turned out contrary to your sur- 
 mises. You represented to me that Rome was a 
 city in ruins, and that it would not come up to the 
 imagination I had formed of it ; but this has not 
 
1336. J LIFE OF PETRARCH. 165 
 
 happened — on the contrary, my most sanguine ex- 
 pectations have been surpassed." By the M'ay, the 
 poet Gray made the same remark : — " High as 
 my expectations were," says Gray, in one of his 
 letters, " the magnificence of Eome infinitely sur- 
 passed them." " Eome," continues Petrarch, " is 
 greater, and her remains are more awful, than my 
 imagination had conceived. It is not matter of 
 wonder that she acquired universal dominion. I 
 am only surprised that it was so late before she 
 came to it. 
 
 In the midst of his meditations among the relics 
 of Eome, Petrarch was struck by the ignorance 
 about their forefathers, with which the natives 
 looked on those monuments. The veneration which 
 they had for them was vague and uninformed. 
 " It is lamentable," he says, " that no where in 
 the world is Eome less known than at Eome." 
 
 It is not exactly known in what month Petrarch 
 left the Eoman capital ; but, between his departure 
 from that city, and his return to the banks of the 
 Ehone, he took an extensive tour over Europe. He 
 made a voyage along its southern coasts, passed 
 the straits of Gibraltar, and sailed as far northward 
 as the British shores. During his wanderings, he 
 
166 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1336. 
 
 wrote a letter to Tommaso da Messina, containing- 
 a long, geographical dissertation on the island of 
 Thule. 
 
 Petrarch approached the British shores ; why 
 were they not fated to have the honour of re- 
 ceiving him ? Ah ! but who was there, then, 
 in England that was capable of receiving him? 
 Chaucer was but a child. We had the names of 
 some learned men, but our language had no litera- 
 ture ; and, in Petrareh*s eyes, the English were 
 barbarians, who had lately been beaten by the " vile 
 Scotch" as he called my countrymen. Time works 
 wonders in a few centuries ; and England, now 
 proud of her Shakespeare and her Verulam, looks 
 not with envy on the glory of any earthly nation. 
 Buring his excitement by these travels, a singular 
 change took place in our poet's habitual feelings. 
 He recovered his health and spirits ; he could bear 
 to think of Laura with equanimity, and his coun- 
 tenance resumed the cheerfulness that was natural 
 to a man in the strength of his age. Nay, he became 
 so sanguine in his belief that he had overcome his 
 passion as to jest at his past sufferings ; and, in 
 this gay state of mind, he came back to Avignon. 
 This was the crowninfi: misfortune of his life. He 
 
1336.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 167 
 
 saw Laura once more ; he was enthralled anew ; 
 and he might now laugh in agony at his late self- 
 congratulations on his delivery from her enchant- 
 ment. With all the pity that we bestow on 
 unfortunate love, and with all the respect that 
 we owe to its constancy, still we cannot look but 
 with a regret amounting to impatience on a man 
 returning to the spot that was to rekindle his 
 passion as recklessly as a moth to the candle, and 
 binding himself over for life to an affection that 
 was worse than hopeless, inasmuch as its success 
 would bring more misery than its failure. It is 
 said that Petrarch, if it had not been for this 
 passion, would not have been the poet that he was. 
 I^ot, perhaps, so good an amatory poet ; but I 
 firmly believe that he would have been a more 
 various and masculine, and, upon the whole, a 
 greater poet, if he had never been bewitched by 
 Laura. However, he did return to take possession 
 of his canonicate, at Lombes, and to lose pos- 
 session of his peace of mind. 
 
 In the April of the following year, 1336, he 
 made an excursion, in company with his brother 
 Gherardo, to the top of Mount Ventoux, in the 
 neighbourhood of Avignon ; a full description of 
 
168 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 which he sent in a letter to Dionisio dal Borgo a 
 San Sepolcro ; but there is nothing peculiarly 
 interesting in this occurrence. 
 
 A more important event in his life took place 
 during the following year, 1337 — namely, that he 
 had a son born to him, whom he christened by the 
 name of John, and to whom he acknowledged his 
 relationship of paternity. With all his philosophy 
 and platonic raptures about Laura, Petrarch was 
 still subject to the passions of ordinary men, and 
 had a mistress at Avignon who was kinder to him 
 than Laura. Her name and history have been 
 consigned to inscrutable obscurity : the same woman 
 afterwards bore him a daughter, whose name was 
 Francesca, and who proved a great solace to him 
 in his old age. His biographers extol the mag- 
 nanimity of Laura for displaying no anger at our 
 poet for what they choose to call this discovery of 
 his infidelity to her ; but, as we have no reason to 
 suppose that Laura ever bestowed one favour on 
 Petrarch beyond a pleasant look, it is difficult to 
 perceive her right to command his unspotted faith. 
 At all events, she would have done no good to her 
 ovm reputation if she had stormed at the lapse of 
 her lover's virtue. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 169 
 
 Whatever charity we may extend to Petrarch's 
 violation of his clerical vow, his frailty ought to 
 have taught him charity to that of others, and 
 softened his asperity in speaking of the western 
 Babylon. Even in that sink of iniquity there 
 were moralists who descanted on the difference 
 between his theory and practice of virtue, and 
 made little allowance for the instincts of nature, 
 which scorn artificial restraints. 
 
 I am more inclined to blame him for his total 
 silence respecting this mother of his children, than 
 for the lapse of his purity. His unnatural obliga- 
 tion to celibacy, as a churchman, is at least some 
 palliation for the latter fault. But who knows 
 what sacrifice of reputation this unknown frail one, 
 who made him twice a father, may have incurred 
 by her connection with him ! There is a heartless- 
 ness on the part of Petrarch, in consigning her 
 very name to oblivion, which I dislike worse than 
 all the conceits of his poetry. It may be alleged 
 that he was ashamed of his illegitimate paternity ; 
 but, on the same principle, he ought to have been 
 equally averse to publishing his distraction for a 
 woman who was already the mother of an increa- 
 sing family. 
 
170 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Laura, as I have said, from regard for her own 
 character, if not from indifference, abstained from 
 reproaching him ; but, in a small city like Avignon, 
 the scandal of his intrigue would naturally be a 
 matter of regret to his friends and of triumph to 
 his enemies. Petrarch felt his situation, and, un- 
 able to calm his mind either by the advice of his 
 friend Dionisio dal Borgo, or by the perusal of his 
 favourite author St. Augustine, he resolved to seek a 
 rural retreat, where he might at least hide his tears 
 and his mortification. Unhappily, he chose a spot 
 not far enough from Laura — namely, Vaucluse, 
 which is fifteen Italian, or about fourteen English, 
 miles from Avignon.. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Description of Vaucluse, where Petrarch buys a Cottage 
 and Field, and settles — His account of his Mode of Living — 
 His friends come seldom to see him, but he is visited some^ 
 times by Philip of Cabassoles, Bishop of Cavaillon, and by 
 Guido Settimo, his friend from Boyhood — His Literary Un- 
 dertakings — He makes the Acquaintance of Humbert IL, 
 Dauphin of Vienne — They Visit the Cavern at Beaume, said 
 to have been the Residence of Mary Magdalene — His Letter 
 to the Dauphin — His friends Azzo da Correggio and Gug- 
 lielmo da Pastrengo come to Avignon — Petrarch's passion for 
 Laura continues unabated — Mention of the Sonnets which he 
 wrote to her in 1339 — Simone of Siena comes to Avignon, 
 and executes for him a Portrait of Laura — Bernardo Bar- 
 laamo, a Greek Monk, arrives in Avignon, and, either on his 
 first or more probably on his second visit to Avignon, becomes 
 Petrarch's Teacher in the Greek Language — Barlaamo is, un- 
 fortunately for our poet, recalled from Provence — Dionisio dal 
 
172 
 
 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Borgo passes through Avignon, and has an interview with 
 the Poet — Petrarch's Letter to Dionisio, with complimentary 
 allusions to Robert King of Naples — The King writes to 
 Petrarch — Petrarch's Answer. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 173 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Vaucluse, or Vallis Clausa, the shut-up valley, 
 is a most beautiful spot, watered by the windings 
 of the Sorgue. Along the river there are on one 
 side most verdant plains and meadows, here and 
 there shadowed by trees. On the other side are 
 hills covered with com and vineyards. Where the 
 Sorgue rises, the view terminates in the cloud-capt 
 ridges of the mountains Luberoux and Ventoux. 
 This was the place which Petrarch had visited with 
 such delight when he was a schoolboy, and at the 
 sight of which he exclaimed " that he would prefer 
 it as a residence to the most splendid city." 
 
 It is, indeed, one of the loveliest seclusions in 
 the world. It terminates in a semicircle of rocks 
 of stupendous height, that seem to have been hewn 
 down perpendicularly. At the head and centre of 
 the vast amphitheatre, and at the foot of one of its 
 enormous rocks, there is a cavern of proportional 
 
174 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 size, hollowed out by the hand of Nature. Its 
 opening is an arch sixty feet high; but it is a 
 double cavern, there being an interior one with an 
 entrance thirty feet high. In the midst of these 
 there is an oval basin, having eighteen fathoms for 
 its longest diameter, and from this basin rises the 
 copious stream which forms the Sorgue. The sur- 
 face of the fountain is black, an appearance pro- 
 duced by its depth, from the darkness of the rocks, 
 and the obscurity of the cavern ; for, on being 
 brought to light, nothing can be clearer than its 
 vvater. Though beautiful to the eye, it is harsh 
 to the taste, but is excellent for tanning and dye- 
 ing ; and it is said to promote the growth of a plant 
 which fattens oxen and is good for hens during 
 incubation. Strabo and Pliny the naturalist both 
 speak of its possessing this property. 
 
 The river Sorgue, which issues from this cavern, 
 divides in its progress into various branches ; it 
 waters many parts of Provence, receives several 
 tributary streams, and, after reuniting its branches, 
 falls into the Rhone near Avignon. 
 
 Resolving to fix his residence here, Petrarch 
 bought a little cottage and an adjoining field, and 
 repaired to Vaucluse with no other companions than 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 175 
 
 his books. To this day the ruins of a small house are 
 shown at Vaucluse, which tradition says was his 
 habitation. 
 
 If his object was to forget Laura, the composi- 
 tion of sonnets upon her in this hermitage was un- 
 likely to be an antidote to his recollections. It 
 would seem as if he meant to cherish rather than 
 to get rid of his love. But, if he nursed his pas- 
 sion, it was a dry-nursing ; for he led a lonely, 
 ascetic, and, if it were not for his studies, we might 
 say a savage life. I find some of his biographers 
 treating with contempt all who presume to doubt 
 his supreme felicity in this shut-up valley. One of 
 them remarks that " those who are employed upon 
 trifles, who are engag'^d in a circle of everlasting 
 amusements, and whose abilities stagnate without 
 company, look with wonder upon a man retiring 
 from the world to lead a solitary life. Their little 
 understandings cannot comprehend the infinite re- 
 sources which an imaginative and instructed mind 
 can derive from its own resources, from reading 
 and from meditation." * 
 
 I abominate all this slang about solitude ; if the 
 
 * I copy this twaddle from Archdeacon Coxe, though even 
 with him it was not original. Perhaps the Doctor cannot 
 
176 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 word means a man living without wife, child, or 
 domestic society, or the accessible conversation 
 of friends. I have no doubt that Petrarch had 
 great resources in his own imagination ; and his 
 seclusion, having been voluntary, is a proof that it 
 was not intolerable to him. But I regard this fact 
 rather as a phenomenon in the history of a man of 
 genius, than a proof that the love of protracted 
 solitude indicates genius itself. I have generally 
 found the devotees of loneliness among the most 
 stupid of their species. Nature never meant us to 
 live in solitude. It is against her laws. She com- 
 pels the very atoms of matter to congregate, and 
 gives her spiritual creation the same bond of social 
 attraction from the gregarious insect to the noblest 
 animal. How beautiful is the sentiment which 
 Cowper ascribes to Alexander Selkirk in his De- 
 sert Island : — 
 
 Society ! Friendship, and Love ! 
 
 Divinely bestowed upon men ; 
 Oh ! had I the wings of a dove, 
 
 How soon would I find you again ! 
 
 exactly be called Petrarch's biographer, as he made an attempt 
 on the life of the poet, but did not finish him. Yet, as his MSS. 
 are still in the British Museum, let him have the title by cour- 
 tesy. It is well for him to talk of little minds. 
 
1336.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 177 
 
 It is but fair, however, to take Petrarch's ac- 
 count of his own condition. In one of his letters, 
 written not long after his settling at Vaucluse, he 
 says, " Here I make war upon my senses, and 
 treat them as my enemies. My eyes, which have 
 drawn me into a thousand difficulties, see no longer 
 either gold or precious stones, or ivory, or purple ; 
 they behold nothing save the water, the firmament, 
 and the rocks. The only female who comes within 
 their sight is a swarthy old woman, dry and parched 
 as the Lybian deserts. My ears are no longer 
 courted by those harmonious instruments and voices 
 which have so often transported my soul : they hear 
 nothing but the lowing of cattle, the bleating of 
 sheep, the warbling of birds, and the murmurs of 
 the river, 
 
 " I keep silence from noon till night. There is no 
 one to converse with ; for the good people, em- 
 ployed in spreading their nets, or tending their 
 vines and orchards, are no great adepts at conver- 
 sation. I often content myself with the brown 
 bread of the fisherman, and even eat it with plea- 
 sure, l^ay, I almost prefer it to white bread. 
 This old fisherman, who is as hard as iron, ear- 
 nestly remonstrates against my manner of life ; and 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1336. 
 
 assures me that I cannot long hold out. I am, on 
 the contrary, convinced that it is easier to ac- 
 custom one's-self to a plain diet than to the luxu- 
 ries of a feast. But, still I have my luxuries — figs, 
 raisins, nuts, and almonds. I am fond of the fish 
 with which this stream abounds, and I sometimes 
 amuse myself with spreading the nets. As to my 
 dress, there is an entire change ; you would take 
 me for a labourer, or a shepherd. 
 
 " My mansion resembles that of Cato or Fabri- 
 cius. My whole house-establishment consists of 
 myself, my old fisherman and his wife, and a dog. 
 My fisherman's cottage is contiguous to mine ; 
 when I want him I call, when I no longer need 
 him, he returns to his cottage. 
 
 " I have made two gardens that please me won- 
 derfully. I do not think they are to be equalled 
 in all the world. And I must confess to you a 
 more than female weakness with which I am 
 haunted. I am positively angry that there is any 
 thing so beautiful out of Italy. 
 
 " One of these gardens is shady, formed for con- 
 templation, and sacred to Apollo. It overhangs 
 the source of the river, and is terminated by rocks, 
 and by places accessible only to birds. The other 
 
1337.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 179 
 
 is nearer my cottage, of an aspect less severe, and 
 devoted to Bacchus ; and, what is extremely sin- 
 gular, it is in the midst of a rapid river. The ap- 
 proach to it is over a bridge of rocks ; and there 
 is a natural grotto under the rocks, which gives 
 them the appearance of a rustic bridge. Into this 
 grotto the rays of the sun never penetrate. I am 
 confident that it much resembles the place where 
 Cicero sometimes went to declaim. It invites to 
 study. Hither I retreat during the noontide hours ; 
 my mornings are engaged upon the hills, or in the 
 garden sacred to Apollo. Here I would most wil- 
 lingly pass my days, were I not too near Avignon, 
 and too far from Italy. For why should I con- 
 ceal this weakness of my soul ? I love Italy, and 
 I hate Avignon. The pestilential influence of this 
 horrid place empoisons the pure air of Vaucluse, 
 and will compel me to quit my retirement." 
 
 Here Petrarch confessed the weakness of his 
 soul, but, probably, unconscious of what consti- 
 tuted his own debility, namely, a perpetual belief 
 that he should be happier in some other place than 
 where he chanced to be. To talk of Avignon 
 fourteen miles off poisoning the pure air of Vau- 
 cluse, in a moral sense, is inconsistent with his own 
 
 N 2 
 
180 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1337. 
 
 account of the simple rustics around him ; or, if 
 he means that the conception of impurities which 
 were passing in the western Babylon haunted him 
 with horror, this was squeamish sensibility in a 
 priest who had an illegitimate child at nurse, and 
 who lived to be the father of another. 
 
 From this last expression of fear that the pesti- 
 lential influence of Avignon would compel him to 
 leave his retirement, it is clear that he was not 
 supremely contented in his solitude with those self- 
 drawn mental resources which the great mind of 
 Archdeacon Coxe conceives to be incommunicable 
 to little minds. His friends at Avignon came 
 seldom to see him. Travelling even short distances 
 was difficult in those days. Even we, in the pre- 
 sent day, who can travel by steam as swiftly as the 
 wind, can remember when the distance of fourteen 
 miles presented a troublesome journey. The few 
 guests who came to him could not expect very ex- 
 quisite dinners, cooked by the brown old woman 
 and her husband the fisherman ; and, though our 
 poet had a garden consecrated to Bacchus, he had 
 no cellar devoted to the same deity. His few 
 friends, therefore, who visited him, thought their 
 angel visits acts of charity. If he saw his friends 
 
1337.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 181 
 
 seldom, however, he had frequent visitants in 
 strangers who came to Yaucluse, as a place long 
 celebrated for its natural beauties, and now made 
 illustrious by the character and compositions of our 
 poet. Among these there were persons distin- 
 guished for their rank or learning, who came from 
 the farthest parts of France and from Italy, to see 
 and converse with Petrarch. Some of them even 
 sent before them considerable presents, which, 
 though kindly meant, were not acceptable. 
 
 Vaucluse is in the diocese of Cavaillon, a small 
 city about two miles distant from our poet's retreat. 
 Philip de Cabassoles w^as the bishop, a man of high 
 rank and noble family. His disposition, according 
 to Petrarch's usual praise of his friends, was highly 
 benevolent and humane ; he was well versed in lite- 
 rature, and had distinguished abilities, ^o sooner 
 was the poet settled in his retirement, than he 
 visited the bishop at his palace near Vaucluse. 
 The latter gave him a friendly reception, and re- 
 turned his visits frequently. Another much esti- 
 mated, his friend since their childhood, Gruido Sette, 
 also repaired at times to his humble mansion, and 
 relieved his solitude in the shut-up valley. * 
 
 * Guido Sette of Luni, in the Genoese territory, studied law 
 together with Petrarch ; but took to it with better liking. He 
 
182 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1337 
 
 Without some daily and constant occupation 
 even the bright mind of Petrarch would have rusted 
 like the finest steel when it is left unscoured. But 
 he continued his studies with an ardour that com- 
 mands our wonder and respect ; and it was at Vau- 
 cluse that he either meditated or wrote his most 
 important compositions. Here he undertook a his- 
 tory of Eome, from Komulus down to Titus Ves- 
 pasian. This Herculean task he never finished ; 
 but there remain two fragments of it, namely, four 
 books, De Rebus Memorandis, and another tract 
 entitled Vitarum Virorum Illustrium Epitome, be- 
 ing sketches of illustrious men from the founder of 
 Rome down to Fabricius. Now-a-days that clas- 
 sical history has been explored for five centuries by 
 hundreds of writers, we must look on these works 
 of our literary patriarch with every allowance for 
 their being crude and elementary. I must defer 
 the subject, however, till I come to more specific 
 remarks on his writings. 
 
 About his poem, Africa, I shall only say for the 
 
 devoted himself to the business of the bar at Avignon with 
 much reputation. But the legal and clerical professions were 
 then often united ; for Guido rose in the church to be an 
 archbishop. He died in 1368, renowned as a church lumi- 
 nary. 
 
1338.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 183 
 
 present that he began this Latin epic at Vaucluse, 
 that its hero is his idolized Roman, Scipio Afri- 
 caniis, that it gained him a reputation over Europe, 
 and that he was much pleased with it himself, but 
 that his admiration of it in time cooled down so 
 much, that at last he was annoyed when it was 
 mentioned to him, and turned the conversation, if 
 he could, to a different subject. E^ay, it is probable 
 that, if it had not been for Boccaccio and Coluccio 
 Salutati, who, long after he had left Vaucluse, im- 
 portuned him to finish and publish it, his Africa 
 would not have come down to posterity. 
 
 Petrarch alludes in one of his letters to an ex- 
 cursion which he made in 1338, in company with 
 a man whose rank was above his wisdom. He does 
 not name him, but it seems clearly to have been 
 Humbert II., dauphin of the Viennois. * The 
 Cardinal Colonna forced our poet into this pil- 
 grimage to Baume, famous for its adjacent cavern, 
 M^here, according to the tradition of the country, 
 Mary Magdalen passed thirty years of repentance. 
 How old and ugly she must have been when the 
 term of her penitence was finished ! In that holy 
 but horrible cavern, as Petrarch calls it, they re- 
 * De Sade, vol. i., 368. — Amsterdam edition. 
 
184 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1338. 
 
 mained three days and three nights, though Pe- 
 trarch sometimes gave his comrades the slip, and 
 indulged in rambles among the hills and forests ; 
 he composed a short poem, however, on St. Mary- 
 Magdalen, which is as dull as the cave itself. The 
 Dauphin Humbert was not a bright man ; but he 
 seems to have contracted a friendly familiarity with 
 our poet, if we may judge by a letter which Pe- 
 trarch indited to him about this time, frankly re- 
 proaching him with his political neutrality in the 
 affairs of Europe. It was supposed that the Car- 
 dinal Colonna incited him to write it. A struggle 
 that was now impending between Prance and Eng- 
 land engaged all Europe on one side or other. Our 
 English Edward III. meditated war with Prance, 
 because she refused him her throne, and gave it to 
 Philip of Valois ; and he allied himself with the 
 Emperor Lewis of Bavaria. The notes of martial 
 preparation sounded all over Prance and England, 
 and in Germany the clang of arms still continued. 
 The Emperor Lewis had intimated to Humbert that 
 he must follow him in this war, he, the dauphin, 
 being arch-seneschal of Aries and Yienne. l^ext 
 year, the arch-seneschal received an invitation from 
 Philip of Valois to join him with his troops at 
 
1339.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 185 
 
 Amiens as vassal of France. The dauphin had no 
 stomach for fighting ; he had the look and manners 
 of a woman, and a more than feminine dislike of 
 war. He tried to back out of the dilemma between 
 his two suitors by frivolous excuses to both, all the 
 time determining to assist neither. In 1338 he 
 came to Avignon, and the pope gave him his palace 
 at the bridge of the Sorgue for his habitation. 
 Here the poor craven, beset on one side by threat- 
 ening letters from Philip of Valois, and on the 
 other by importunities from the French party at 
 the papal court, remained in Avignon till July, 
 1339, after Petrarch had let loose upon him his 
 epistolary eloquence. 
 
 This letter, dated April, 1339, is, according to 
 De Sade's opinion, full of powerful persuasion. I 
 cannot say that it strikes me as such. After call- 
 ing Christ to witness that he writes to the dauphin 
 in the spirit of friendship, he reminds him that 
 Europe had never exhibited so mighty and inte- 
 resting a war as that which had now sprung up 
 between the kings of France and England, nor one 
 that opened so vast a field of glory for the brave. 
 " All the princes and their people," he says, " are 
 anxious about its issue, especially those between 
 
186 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1339. 
 
 the Alps and the ocean, who take arms at the crash 
 of the neighbouring tumult ; whilst you alone go to 
 sleep amidst the clouds of the coming storm. To 
 say the truth, if there was nothing more than shame 
 to awaken you, it ought to rouse you from this 
 lethargy. I had thought you," he continues, " a 
 man desirous of glory. You are young, and in the 
 strength of life. What, then, in the name of God, 
 keeps you inactive ? Do you fear fatigue ? Re- 
 member what Sallust says — 'Idle enjoyments were 
 made for women, fatigue was made for men.' Do 
 you fear death ? Death is the last debt we owe to 
 nature, and man ought not to fear it ; certainly he 
 ought not to fear it more than sleep and sluggish- 
 ness. Aristotle, it is true, calls death the last of 
 horrible things ; but, mind, he does not call it the 
 most horrible of things." In this manner, our poet 
 goes on moralising on the blessings of an early 
 death, and the great advantage that it would have 
 afforded to some excellent Eoman heroes if they 
 had met with it sooner. The only thing like a 
 sensible argument that he urges is, that Humbert 
 could not expect to save himself even by neutra- 
 lity, but must ultimately become the prey of the 
 victor, and be punished like the Alban Metius, 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 187 
 
 whom Tullus Hostilius caused to be torn asunder 
 by horses that pulled his limbs in different direc- 
 tions. The pedantic epistle had no effect on Hum- 
 bert. 
 
 Meanwhile, Italy had no repose more than the 
 rest of Europe, but its troubles gave a happy occa- 
 sion to Petrarch to see one more his friend, Grugli- 
 elmo Pastrengo, who, in 1338, came to Avignon, 
 from Mastino della Scala, lord of Verona. The 
 power of this prince was now sufficiently established 
 to overawe the surrounding Italian republics. He 
 ruled over nine cities, which had been, at one time, 
 the respective capitals of as many sovereign states. 
 From these he received 700,000 florins of gold, a 
 sum amounting in value probably to nine millions 
 sterling of modern money, and equalling the income 
 of any king in Christendom, except that of France. 
 Mastino naturally added to this revenue the less 
 wished-for tribute of hatred from all his neighbours. 
 The Florentines abhorred him for his competition 
 with their commerce, and the Venetians for his 
 preventing them from making salt on the coast 
 between Padua and Chioggia, which belonged to 
 his dominions. 
 
 For reducing the lord of Verona, his allied ene- 
 
188 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 mies resorted to stratagems that would have done 
 honour to the cunning of an old fox. They cor- 
 rupted Bartholomeo della Scala, bishop of Verona, 
 to open the gates of the city to their army, and 
 leave them to murder Mastino, the bishop's own 
 cousin-german. But Azzo da Correggio discovered 
 the treachery, and revealed it to Mastino, who, re- 
 pairing to the episcopal palace, met Bartolomeo, 
 and plunged a sword into his body. Killing a 
 bishop at that time was held to be almost as irre- 
 ligious as slaughtering a thousand ordinary men 
 would be thought at present. The pope launched a 
 thunderbolt of excommunication against Mastino, 
 who immediately despatched Azzo da Correggio to 
 Avignon, together with Gruglielmo da Pastrengo, 
 to make his apology at the papal court for his 
 episcopicide. The eloquence of those envoys ob- 
 tained absolution for Mastino ; but the pope 
 made Azzo declare himself vicar of Verona, Vi- 
 cenza, and Parma, conditioning that he should 
 pay his holiness five thousand florins of gold, 
 and maintain in his vicariate, for the pope's ser- 
 vice, two hundred horsemen and three hundred in- 
 fantry. 
 
 The moment Petrarch heard of his friend Gugli- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 189 
 
 elmo's arrival in Avignon, he left his hermitage to 
 welcome him ; but scarcely had he reached the fatal 
 city when he saw the danger of so near an approach 
 to the woman he so madly loved, and was aware 
 that he had no escape from the eyes of Laura but by 
 flight. He returned, therefore, all of a sudden to 
 Vaucluse, without waiting for a sight of Pastrengo. 
 Shortly after he had quitted the house of Lselius, 
 where he usually lodged when he went to Avignon, 
 Guglielmo, expecting to find him there, knocked 
 at the door, but no one opened it — called out, but 
 no one answered him. He therefore wrote him a 
 little billet, saying, " My dear Petrarch, where 
 have you hid yourself, and whither have you va- 
 nished ? What is the meaning of all this ?" The 
 poet received this note at Vaucluse, and sent an 
 explanation of his flight, sincere indeed as to good 
 feelings, but prolix as usual in the expression of 
 them. Pastrengo sent him a kind reply, and soon 
 afterwards did him the still greater favour of visit- 
 ing him at Vaucluse, and helping him to cultivate 
 his garden. 
 
 Petrarch's flame for Laura was in reality un- 
 abated. One day he met her in the streets of 
 Avignon ; for he had not always resolution enough 
 
190 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 to keep out of the western Babylon. Laura cast 
 a kind look upon liim, and said, " Petrarch, you 
 are tired of loving me." This incident produced 
 one of his finest sonnets, beginning — 
 
 lo non fu d'amur voi lassato unquanco, 
 Madonna^ ne saro, mentre ch'io viva : 
 Ma d'odiar me medesmo giunta a riva, 
 E del continuo lagrimar son stanco 
 E voglio anzi un sepolcro bello e bianco ; 
 Che'l vostro noma a mio danno si scriva 
 In alcun marrao eve, di spirto priva 
 Sia la mia carne, che puo star seco anco. 
 Pero s'un cor pien d'amoroso fade 
 Puo contertarvi senza fame strazio — 
 Piacciavi omai di questo aver mercede : 
 Se'n altro modo cerca d'esser sazio 
 Vostre sdegno erra ; e non fia quel che crede 
 Di ch'amor, e me stesso assai ringrazio. 
 
 Tir'd, did you say, of loving you ? Oh, no ! 
 I ne'er shall tire of the unwearying flame. 
 But I am weary, kind and cruel dame. 
 With tears that uselessly and ceaseless flow. 
 Scorning myself, and scorned by you. I long 
 For death : but let no gravestone hold in view 
 Our names conjoined ; nor tell my passion strong 
 Upon the dust that glow'd through life for you. 
 And yet this heart of amorous faith demands. 
 Deserves, a better boon ; but cruel, hard 
 As is my fortune, I will bless Love's bands 
 For ever, if you give me this reward. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 191 
 
 111 1339, he composed, among other sonnets, 
 those three, the Ixii., Ixxiv., and Ixxv., which 
 are confessedly masterpieces of their kind, as well 
 as three canzoni to the eyes of Laura, which the 
 Italians call the three sister Graces, and worship 
 as divine.* The critic Tassoni himself could not 
 censure them, and called them the queens of song. 
 At this period, however seldom he may have visited 
 Avignon, he evidently sought rather to cherish 
 than subdue his fatal attachment. A celebrated 
 painter, Simone Martini of Siena, came to Avig- 
 non.f He was the pupil of Giotto, not exquisite 
 in drawing, but famous for taking spirited like- 
 nesses. 
 
 He persuaded Simone to favour him with a mi- 
 niature likeness of Laura; and this treasure the 
 poet for ever carried about with him. In grati- 
 tude he addressed two sonnets to the artist, whose 
 fame, great as it was, was heightened by the 
 poetical reward. Vasari tells us that Simone also 
 painted the pictures of both lovers in the chapel 
 of St. Maria Novella at Florence. Simone was a 
 
 * Canzoni, 8, 9, and 10. 
 
 t I follow De Sade in giving him this name. Levati, after 
 Vasari, calls him Simone Memmi. 
 
] 92 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 sculptor as well as a painter, and that he (Simone) 
 copied those pictures in marble which, according 
 to Baldelli, are still extant in the house of the 
 Signore Pruzzi. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Anecdote illustrating Petrarch's love of Literary Occupation 
 — Arrival of Dionisio dal Borgo at Avignon — The high 
 favour of this ecclesiastic with Robert King of Naples — 
 Petrarch vfrites to Dionisio, evidently hinting his wish to be 
 patronized by his Neapolitan Majesty — His ambition to he 
 crowned as Poet Laureate is gratified — Two letters reach him 
 on the same day, the first from the Roman Senate, inviting 
 him to come and he crowned at Rome ; the other from Roberto 
 Bardi, giving him the same invitation to Paris — He consults 
 Cardinal Colonna on the subject, who advises him to go to 
 Rome -He repairs to Naples — He selects the King of Naples 
 as the Examiner of his competency for the Laurel — King 
 Robert's Qualifications for the office of Examiner— He wishes 
 Petrarch to be Crowned at Naples : but the Poet decides on 
 receiving that honour at Rome — Favours bestowed on him by 
 the King — Petrarch proceeds to Rome— Ceremonies attending 
 his Coronation — He goes to Pisa. 
 
 VOL. I. o 
 
1339.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 195 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 An anecdote relating to this period of Petrarch's 
 life is given by De Sade, which, if accepted with 
 entire credence, must inspire us with astonishment 
 at the poet's devotion to his literary pursuits. 
 He had now, in 1339, put the first hand to his 
 epic poem, the Scipiade ; and one of his friends, De 
 Sade believes that it was the Bishop of Lombes, 
 fearing lest he might injure his health by over- 
 zealous application, went to ask him for the key of 
 his library, which the poet gave up. The bishop 
 then locked up his books and papers, and com- 
 manded him to abstain from reading and writing 
 for ten days. Petrarch obeyed ; but, on the fii-st 
 day of this literary Ramazan, he was seized with 
 ennui, on the second with a severe headache, 
 and on the third with symptoms of fever ; the 
 bishop relented, and permitted the student to re- 
 turn to his books and papers. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1339. 
 
 Petrarch was at this time delighted, in his soli- 
 tude of Vaucluse, to hear of the arrival at Avignon 
 of one of his dearest friends, namely, Dionisio 
 dal Borgo a San Sepolcro. This worthy scholar 
 and ecclesiastic, whose biography Filippo Villani 
 thought it worth while to write, was of the family 
 of the Roberti, and a native of that place in Tus- 
 cany. He was an Augustine monk, and taught 
 theology in Paris. Having left that capital, he 
 came to Avignon, and there contracted a strict 
 friendship with Petrarch, Avhom he had before 
 known only by letters. Long and confidential com- 
 munications Petrarch had had with Dionisio, whom 
 he consulted about the regulation of his mind, 
 under the visitations of its fatal passion. But love 
 laughs at consultations. 
 
 The wise Dionisio, being now advanced in years, 
 had resigned his pulpit in the University of Paris, 
 in order to return to his native country, and came 
 to Avignon with the intention of going by sea to 
 Florence, Petrarch pressed him strongly to visit 
 him at Vaucluse, interspersing his persuasion with 
 many compliments to King Robert of Naples, to 
 whom he knew that Dionisio was much attached ; 
 nor was he without hopes that his friend would 
 speak favourably of liim to his Neapolitan majesty. 
 
1339.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 197 
 
 In a letter from Vaucluse he says : — " Can nothing 
 induce you to come to my solitude ■^ Will not 
 my ardent request, and the pity you must have for 
 my condition, bring you to pass some days with 
 your old disciple ? If these motives are not suffi- 
 cient, permit me to suggest another inducement. 
 There is in this place a poplar tree of so immense 
 a size that it covers with its shade not only the 
 river and its banks, but also a considerable extent 
 beyond them. They tell us that King Eobert of 
 Naples, invited by the beauty of this spot, came 
 hither to unburthen his mind from the weight of 
 public affairs, and to enjoy himself in the shady 
 retreat." The poet added many eulogies on his 
 majesty of Naples, which, as he anticipated, 
 reached the royal ear. It seems not to be clear 
 that Father Dionisio ever visited the poet at Vau- 
 cluse ; though they certainly had an interview at 
 Avignon. To Petrarch's misfortune, his friend's 
 stay in that city was very short. The monk 
 proceeded to Florence, but he found there no 
 shady retreat like that of the poplar at Yaucluse. 
 Florence was more than ever agitated by internal 
 commotions. 
 
 In July, 1339, there was an eclipse of the 
 sun in the sign of Cancer, M'hich happens, says 
 
198 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Villani, only once in a hundred years, and an- 
 nounces, according to astrologers, very heavy 
 calamities. Whether these calamities would have 
 happened or not, if the sun had been pleased to be 
 eclipsed in a different quarter, I presume not to say; 
 but so it was that the city of Florence was this year 
 afflicted by plague and famine. This dismal state 
 of the city determined Dionisio to accept an invi- 
 tation from King Robert to spend the remainder 
 of his days at his court. His royal host gave him 
 apartments in his own palace. 
 
 As the poet so soon afterwards became intimate 
 with this monarch, it is not digressing from our 
 subject to take a brief glance at Eobert's history. 
 
 Robert, King of Naples and Count of Provence, 
 succeeded his father, Charles II. of Anjou, and, 
 in spite of his relation. Carlo Uberto, King of 
 Hungary, who alleged a right to the throne of 
 I^aples, was crowned by the Pope at Avignon, in 
 1309. Robert immediately put himself at the 
 head of the Guelphic faction in Italy, and, keep- 
 ing the papal court as his vassals at Avignon, 
 which was within his Provencal dominions, suc- 
 ceeded in making himself master of several im- 
 perial cities in Monferrato, Romagna, and Tuscany. 
 
 The Emperor Henry VII., incensed at his inva- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 199 
 
 sions, marched into Italy; and, notwithstand- 
 ing Eobert's efforts to the contrary, caused himself 
 to be crowned at Eome, in 1313. Thence he pro- 
 ceeded at the head of a formidable army against 
 Naples ; but his sudden death, in the same year, 
 saved its king from a perilous conflict. 
 
 The warlike Eobert, always intent on enlarging 
 his dominions, attempted several expeditions 
 against Sicily, but without success. By skilful 
 management, however, he contrived to bring Genoa 
 under his protection, that is to say, under his 
 power ; having hastened in person to its defence 
 when it was closely besieged. He occupied the 
 territories of Florence and Brescia, and engaged in 
 vigorous warfare with the Yisconti and the Empe- 
 ror Lewis of Bavaria ; but he was driven out of 
 Florence and Brescia, and was utterly foiled in his 
 design of conquering all Italy. As a warrior, he 
 seems not to deserve the encomiums which historians 
 have lavished upon him, because he attained his 
 ambitious ends by fraud, and by exciting mutinies 
 among his enemies. But he deserves reputation 
 for his love of learning, and for the protection 
 which he gave to the learned. Boccaccio relates 
 that, in his youth, Eoberto shewed rather a dull 
 understanding ; but that he afterwards made such 
 
200 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 proficiency in philosophy, divinity, and the liberal 
 arts, that an ignorant age bestowed on him the 
 YtSimesoi the modern Solomon. Well intentioned in 
 behalf of literature, he collected a copious library, 
 the care ofwhich he entrusted to Paolo da Perugia, 
 ordering him to purchase books wherever he could 
 find them. He invited and remunerated the 
 greatest literary men of the age. 
 
 This monarch had the happiness of giving addi- 
 tional publicity to Petrarch's reputation. That 
 the poet sought his patronage need not be con- 
 cealed ; and if he used a little flattery in doing so, 
 we must make allowance for the adulatory instinct 
 of the tuneful tribe. We cannot live without 
 bread upon bare reputation, or on the prospect of 
 having tombstones put over our bones, prematurely 
 hurried to the grave by hunger, when they shall be 
 as insensible to praise as the stones themselves. 
 To speak seriously, I think that a poet sacrifices his 
 usefulness to himself and others, and an import- 
 ance in society which may be turned to the public 
 good, if he shuns the patronage that can be ob- 
 tained by unparasitical means. As to the diffi- 
 culty of obtaining the patronage of the powerful 
 by honest means, that is another and a more deli- 
 cate question ; and how far Petrarch ducked down 
 
1340.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 201 
 
 from the lofty natural bearing of genius, in ob- 
 taining patronage, is a farther corollary appended 
 to the problem. 
 
 Father Dionisio, upon his arrival at Naples, 
 impressed the king with so favourable an opinion 
 of Petrarch that Robert wrote a letter to our poet, 
 enclosing an epitaph of his majesty's own com- 
 position, on the death of his niece Clementina. This 
 letter is unhappily lost ; but still more unhappily 
 is the answer to it preserved, in which Petrarch 
 tells the monarch that his epitaph rendered his 
 niece an object rather of envy than of lamentation. 
 " happy Clementina !" says the poet, after pas- 
 sing through a transitory life, " you have attained 
 a double immortality, one in heaven, and another 
 on earth." He then compares the posthumous 
 good fortune of the princess to that of Achilles, 
 who had been immortalized by Homer. It is pos- 
 sible that King Robert's letter to Petrarch was so 
 laudatory as to require a flattering answer. But 
 this reverberated praise is too loud for sincerity ; 
 and it might be omitted in the history of his life, 
 if veracity were not the first duty of a biographer. 
 
 Petrarch was now intent on obtaining the honour 
 of Poet Laureate, though he still doated on one, for 
 the possession of whom he would have probably ex- 
 
202 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1340. 
 
 changed a thousand laurels. But the co-existeuce 
 in the human breast of two passions so apparently 
 different as devotion to beauty and desire of glory 
 is by no means unaccountable, and justifies the 
 words of the old song : 
 
 ' Ambition cannot banish love. 
 
 Nor love shut out ambition. 
 
 On the contrar}^, they inflame each other — at 
 least, love makes a man more covetous of distinc- 
 tion in his mistress's eyes ; and our poet's love of 
 Laura, no doubt, heightened his eagerness for the 
 poetic crown. His wishes were at length gratified, 
 and in a manner that made the offer more flatter- 
 mfy; than the crown itself. 
 
 Whilst he still remained at Vaucluse, at nine 
 o'clock in the morning of the 1st of September, 
 1340, he received a letter from the Eoman senate, 
 pressingly inviting him to come and receive the 
 crown of Poet Laureate at Eome.* He must 
 have little notion of a poet's pride and vanity, 
 who cannot imagine the flushed countenance, 
 the dilated eyes, and the joyously throbbing 
 heart of Petrarch, whilst he read this letter. 
 
 * Baldelli corrects De Sade as to the date of the reception 
 of this letter, announcing the proffered honour. Petrarch's 
 answer to it is dated in the kalends of September. 
 
1340.] LIFE OF PETHx\RCII. 203 
 
 To be invited by the Senate of Eome to bucIi an 
 honour might excuse him for forgetting that Rome 
 was not now what she had once been, and that 
 the substantial glory of his appointment was small 
 in comparison with the classic associations which 
 formed its halo. 
 
 As if to keep up the fever of his joy, he re- 
 ceived the same day, in the afternoon, at four 
 o'clock, another letter with the same offer, from 
 Eoberto Bardi, Chancellor of the University of 
 Paris, in which he importuned him to be crowned 
 as Poet Laureate at Paris. 
 
 When Ave consider the poet's veneration for 
 Rome, we may easily anticipate that he would give 
 the preference to that city. That he might not, 
 however, offend his friend Roberto Bardi and the 
 University of Paris, he despatched a messenger to 
 Cardinal Colonna, asking his advice upon the sub- 
 ject, pretty well knowing that his patron's opinion 
 would coincide with his own wishes. The Colonna 
 advised him to be croA^oied at Rome. 
 
 The custom of conferring this honour had, for a 
 long time, been obsolete. In the earliest classical 
 ages, garlands were given as a reward to valour and 
 genius. Virgil exhibits his conquerors adorned 
 with them. The Romans adopted the custom 
 
204 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1340. 
 
 from Greece, where leafy honours were bestowed 
 on victors at public games. This coronation of 
 poets, it is said, ceased under the reign of the Em- 
 peror Theodosius. After his death, during the 
 long subsequent barbarism of Europe, when litera- 
 ture produced only rhyming monks, and when there 
 were no more poets to cro'WTi, the discontinuance 
 of the practice was a natural consequence. 
 
 At the commencement of the thirteenth century, 
 according to the Abbe Eesnel,* the Universities 
 of Europe began to dispense laurels, not to poets, 
 but to students distinguished by their learning. 
 The doctors in medicine, at the famous university 
 of Salerno, established by the Emperor Frederic II., 
 had crowns of laurel put upon their heads. The 
 bachelors also had their laurels, and derived their 
 name from a baculus, or stick, which they carried. 
 
 When there began to be poets in Europe, they 
 put in their claims for the same distinction. Bo- 
 naventura relates that St. Francesco admitted into 
 his cloister an ingenious composer of profane songs, 
 Avho was called the king of song, after recei^nng 
 the poetic crown from the emperor. In 1314, 
 Albertino Mussato, an historian and poet of Padua, 
 
 * Memoires de TAcademie des Inscriptions, vol. 15, p. 238. 
 Amsterdam 12mo. ed. 1741. 
 
1341.] LIFE OF PETILVRCII. 205 
 
 was laurelled iu presence of the uuivei'sity and an 
 immense crowd of other spectators. Bonno di 
 Castione obtained the same honour in Padua ; Con- 
 vennole, the schoolmaster of Petrarch, had his 
 heaJ begirt with laurel in his own country ; but no 
 one had hitherto been crooned at Eome, or in the 
 Capitol. That honour was reserved for Petrarch. 
 
 Cardinal Colouna, as we have said, advised him, 
 " nothing loth,'''' to enjoy his coronation at Rome. 
 Thither accordingly he repaired early in the year 
 1341. He embarked at Marseilles for IS'aples, 
 wishing previously to his coronation to visit King 
 Robert, by M'hom he was received with all pos- 
 sible hospitality and distinction. 
 
 Though he had accepted the laurel amidst the 
 general applause of his contemporaries, Petrarch 
 was not satisfied that he should enjoy this honour 
 without passing through an ordeal as to his learn- 
 ing. Laurels and learning had been for one hun- 
 dred years habitually associated in men's minds ; 
 and Petrarch probably imagined what Buchanan 
 expressed in a subsequent age. 
 
 Sola doctorum monumenta vatum 
 Nesciunt Fati imperium severi ; 
 Sola contemnunt Phlegethonta et Orci 
 Jura superbi. 
 
 Shakespeare and Burns, how durst ye contrive 
 
206 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1341. 
 
 your Falstaff and Tarn o' Shanter without a ves- 
 tijLce of learning ! 
 
 The person whom Petrarch selected for his ex- 
 aminer in erudition was the king of Naples. Ro- 
 bert the Good, as he wa.s in some respects de- 
 servedly called, was, for his age, a well-instructed 
 man, and, for a king, a prodigy. He had also 
 some common sense, unlike our own King James 
 I., whom Sully pronounced to be the most learned 
 fool in Europe. But in classical knowledge he 
 was more fit to be the scholar of Petrarch than 
 his examiner, so that the poet at least made a 
 safe choice. When I conceive the examination, 
 I cannot help comparing its farce to scenes which 
 I have sometimes seen in a poor village theatre, 
 where the paucity of actors compels the manager 
 to allot the parts to performers, just as he can find 
 them. I have seen the gay young lover personated 
 by a fat old man of sixty, who, at the end of the 
 comedy, kneels, along with his bride, before his 
 venerable father for forgiveness of their youthful 
 rashness, the stage father being all the while a 
 palpable stripling, in spite of a wig and face be- 
 smeared with whiting. 
 
 If Petrarch, however, learned nothing from the 
 king, the king learned something from Petrarch. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 207 
 
 Among the other requisites for examining a Poet 
 Laureate which Eobert possessed, was an uttef 
 ignorance of poetry. He was like the algebraist 
 who, after hearing some beautiful verses, asked 
 what they proved. He had been a sound utilita- 
 nan in his faith that poetry was a pretty thing, but 
 of no moral use. But Petrarch couched his blind- 
 ness on the subject, so that Eobert saw, or be- 
 lieved he saw, something useful in the divine art. 
 He had heard of the epic poem, Africa, and re- 
 quested its author to recite to him some part of it. 
 Petrarch at first refused, but at length consented. 
 The king (how could it be otherwise ?) was charmed 
 with the recitation, and requested that the work 
 might be dedicated to him. Petrarch assented, 
 but the poem was not finished or published till 
 after King Robert's death. 
 
 His l^eapolitan majesty, after pronouncing a 
 warm eulogy on our poet, declared that he merited 
 the laurel, and had letters-patent drawn up, by 
 which he certified that, after a severe examination 
 (it lasted three days), Petrarch was judged worthy 
 to receive that honour in the Capitol. Robert 
 wished him to be crowned at Naples; but our 
 poet represented that he was desirous of being dis- 
 tinguished on the same theatre where Virgil and 
 
208 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Horace had shone. The king accorded with his 
 wishes; and, to complete his kindness, regretted 
 that his advanced age would not permit him to go 
 to Rome, and crown Petrarch himself. He named, 
 however, one of his most eminent courtiers, Bar- 
 rilli, to be his proxy. Boccaccio speaks of Barrilli 
 as a good poet; and Petrarch, \dth exaggerated 
 politeness, compares him to Ovid. 
 
 When Petrarch went to take leave of King 
 Robert, the sovereign, after engaging his promise 
 that he would visit him again very soon, took off 
 the robe which he wore that day, and, begging Pe- 
 trarch's acceptance of it, desired that he might wear 
 it on the day of his coronation. He also bestowed 
 on him the place of his almoner-general, an 
 office for which great interest was always made, 
 on account of the privileges attached to it, the 
 principal of which were an exemption from paying 
 the tithes of benefices to the king, and a dispensa- 
 tion from residence. 
 
 In all this kindness of a potentate to a man of 
 genius there is a warmth of heart that relaxes our 
 severity towards the mutual flattery which accom- 
 panied it as a human foible. 
 
 Petrarch proceeded to Rome, where he arrived 
 on the 6th of April, 1341, accompanied by only 
 
1341.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 209 
 
 one attendant from the court of Naples, for Bar- 
 rilli had taken another route, upon some important 
 business, promising, however, to be at Eome before 
 the time appointed. But, as he had not arrived 
 on the 7th, Petrarch despatched a messenger in 
 search of him, who returned without any informa- 
 tion. The poet was desirous to wait for his arri- 
 val; but Orso, count of Anguillara, would not 
 suffer the ceremony to be deferred. Orso Mas 
 joint senator of Rome ^ith Jordano degli Orsini ; 
 and, his office expiring on the 8th of April, he was 
 unwilling to resign to his successor the pleasure of 
 crowning so great a man. 
 
 Petrarch was afterwards informed that Barrilli, 
 hastening towards Rome, had been beset near Ana- 
 guia by robbers, from whom he escaped with diffi- 
 culty, and that he was obliged for safety to return to 
 IS^aples. In leaving that city, Petrarch passed the 
 tomb traditionally said to be that of Virgil. His 
 coronation took place without delay after his ar- 
 rival at Rome. 
 
 The morning of the 8th of April, 1341, was 
 ushered in by the sound of trumpets ; and the 
 people, ever fond of a show, came from all quarters 
 to see the ceremony. Twelve youths, selected from 
 
 VOL. I. P 
 
210 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1341. 
 
 the best families of Rome, and clothed in scarlet, 
 opened the procession, repeating as they went some 
 verses, composed by the poet, in honour of the Ro- 
 man people. They were followed by six citizens 
 of Rome, clothed in green, and bearing crowns 
 wreathed with different flowers. Petrarch walked 
 in the midst of them ; after him came the senator, 
 accompanied by the first men of the council. The 
 streets Avere strewed w^th flowers, and the windows 
 filled with ladies, dressed in the most splendid man- 
 ner, who showered perfumed waters profusely on 
 the poet.* He all the time wore the robe that had 
 been presented to him by the King of l^aples. 
 When they reached the Capitol, the trumpets were 
 silent, and Petrarch, having made a short speech, in 
 which he quoted a verse from Virgil, cried out three 
 times, " Long live the Roman people ! long live the 
 Senators ! may God preserve their liberty ! " At 
 
 * Valery, in his Travels in Italy, gives the following note 
 respecting our poet. I quote from the edition of the work 
 published at Brussels in 1835, " Petrarque rapporte dans ses 
 lettres latines que le laurier du Capitole lui avait attire une 
 multitude d'envieux ; que, le jour de son couronnement, au 
 lieu d'eau odorante qu'il etait d'usage de repandre dans ces 
 solennites, il recut sur la tete une eau corrosive, qui le rendit 
 chauve le reste de sa vie. Son historien Dolce raconte m^me 
 qu'une vieille lui jetta son pot de chambre rempli d'une acre 
 urine, gardee, peut-etre, pour cela depuis sept semaines — 
 {servata in sahhata septemJ') 
 
1341.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 211 
 
 the conclusion of these words, he knelt before the 
 senator Orso, Avho, taking a croAvn of laurel from 
 his own head, placed it on that of Petrarch, say- 
 ing, " This crown is the reward of virtue." The 
 poet then repeated a sonnet in praise of the ancient 
 Romans. The people testified their approbation 
 by shouts of applause, crying, " Long flourish the 
 Capitol and the poet ! " The friends of Petrarch 
 shed tears of joy, and Stefano Colonna, his faYon- 
 rite hero, addressed the assembly in his honour. 
 
 The ceremony having been finished at the Capi- 
 tol, the procession, amidst the sound of trumpets 
 and the acclamations of the people, repaired 
 thence to the church of St. Peter, where Pe- 
 trarch offered up his crown of laurel before the 
 altar. The same day the Count of Anguillara 
 caused letters patent to be delivered to Petrarch, 
 in which the senators, after a flattering preamble, 
 declared that he had merited the title of a great 
 poet and historian ; that, to mark his distinction, 
 they had put upon his head a laurel crown, not 
 only by the authority of King Robert, but by that 
 of the Roman senate and people ; and that they 
 gave him, at Rome and elsewhere, the privilege to 
 read, to dispute, to explain ancient books, to make 
 new ones, to compose poems, and to wear a crown 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LIFE OF PETRARCH. {1341. 
 
 according to his choice, either of laurel, beech, or 
 myrtle, as well as the poetic habit. At that time 
 a particular dress was affected by the poets. Dante 
 was buried in this costume. 
 
 Maffeo exclaims on this subject, " What folly in 
 a poet, who drew his glory from the general suf- 
 frages of mankind, to establish his reputation on 
 the certificate of a notary ! But it is plain that Pe- 
 trarch merits no such reproach. He never dreamt 
 of establishing his celebrity on the certificate of a 
 notary, but only complied with customary forms. 
 If he had revolted against this custom he would 
 have displeased the citizens of Home, as well as its 
 senators, of whom Orso wished for a little nook in 
 popular fame by connecting his name with that of 
 Petrarch. By this certificate Petrarch was made 
 a Roman citizen. 
 
 He continued only a few days at Rome after his 
 coronation ; but he had scarcely departed when he 
 found that there were banditti on the road waiting 
 for him, and anxious to relieve him of any super- 
 fluous wealth which he might have about him. He 
 was thus obliged to return to Rome with all expe- 
 dition ; but he set out the following day, attended 
 by a guard of armed men, and arrived at Pisa on the 
 20th of April. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Petrarch's Letter from Pisa to King Robert of Naples — 
 He goes thence to Parma, and is welcomed by his friend 
 Azzo Correggio — Mark of his popularity in the visit paid to 
 him by the blind old Schoolmaster of Pontremoli — The Poet 
 hires a house at Parma — He has to mourn the loss of his 
 friends Tommaso da Messina, and the Bishop of Lombes — 
 His dream respecting the latter — He is commissioned by the 
 Roman people to go to Avignon as their advocate to Pope Cle- 
 ment VI., the successor of Benedict XII. — Contrast of cha- 
 racter between the two Popes — Petrarch is joined in this com- 
 mission with the subsequently famous Cola di Rienzo — He 
 repairs to Avignon — Speeches of the two advocates to Clement 
 — Petrarch vents his indignation at the Pope's refusal to go to 
 Rome in his Liber Epistolarum sine titulo — Petrarch's brother 
 Gherardo retires to a Monastery — Laura's manner to Petrarch 
 is more complacent — Barlaamo comes again to A.vignon, but 
 remains but for a short space — Petrarch resides chiefly at 
 Avignon, seldom visiting Vaucluse — Birth of his daughter 
 Francesca. 
 
1341.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 215 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 From Pisa Petrarch wrote to King Robert a 
 letter, thanking him for his many favours ; but at 
 the same time comphaining in rather peevish terms 
 of the ignorance and perverseness of the age, and of 
 its superstitious reverence for antiquity, which de- 
 pressed all living merit, and honoured those authors 
 alone whose defects had been softened by time. 
 Surely a complaint of excessive love of the classics 
 came ill from Petrarch, who had been the hiero- 
 phant of classical worship. He taxes, too, with 
 insensibility to living merit, an age in which he had 
 been crowned as its greatest genius, and here he 
 confounds public opinion with the voice of those 
 malignants who have ever been, and for ever will 
 be, detractors from merit. 
 
 It is a strange contradiction in human nature, 
 that men will brave death and danger to acquire 
 enviable distinction, and yet, when they have at- 
 tained it, they will wince at the envy which is as 
 
216 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 inseparable from it as the shadow from a sub- 
 stance illuminated by the sun. At the same time, 
 I give Petrarch credit for sincerity in his doubts 
 whether his coronation was a substantial advantage 
 to him. Real fame, no less than real charity, will 
 find its triumph in public opinion without proces- 
 sions and trumpets. In his later years, he thus 
 expresses himself. " This laurel was conferred on 
 me at an improper time of my life." One would 
 imagine from these words that he had accepted the 
 laurel at the age of eighteen, whereas, he was a 
 boy approaching the age of eight and thirty. " Had 
 I been in more advanced years," he continues, *' I 
 should have refused it, for old men look only to 
 things which are useful; whilst the young seek 
 only what is specious and splendid. This crown 
 has neither made me more learned nor more elo- 
 quent ; it has deprived me of repose, and forced 
 me to be always upon my guard." 
 
 From Pisa he went to Parma, to see his friend 
 Azzo Correggio, and soon after his arrival he was 
 witness to a revolution in that city of which Azzo 
 had the principal direction. The Scalas, who held 
 the sovereignty of Parma, had for some time op- 
 pressed the inhabitants with exorbitant taxes, which 
 excited murmurs and seditions. The Correggios, 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 217 
 
 to whom the city was entrusted in the absence of 
 Mastino della Scala, profited by the public discon- 
 tent, hoisted the flag of liberty, and, on the 22nd of 
 May, 1341, drove out the garrison, and made them- 
 selves lords of the commonwealth. On this occasion, 
 Azzo has been accused of the worst ingratitude to his 
 nephews, Alberto and Mastino. But, if the people 
 were oppressed, he was surely justified in rescuing 
 them from misgovernment. To a great degree, 
 also, the conduct of the Correggios sanctioned the 
 revolution. They introduced into Parma such a 
 mild and equitable administration as the city had 
 never before experienced. Some exceptionable acts 
 they undoubtedly committed ; and when Petrarch 
 extols Azzo as another Cato, it is to be hoped that 
 he did so with some mental reservation. Petrarch 
 had proposed to cross the Alps immediately, and 
 proceed to Avignon ; but he was prevailed upon 
 by the solicitations of Azzo to remain some time at 
 Parma. He was consulted by the Correggios on 
 their most important affairs, and was admitted to 
 their secret councils. In the present instance, this 
 confidence was peculiarly agreeable to him ; as the 
 four brothers were, at that time, unanimous in 
 their opinions ; and their designs were all calculated 
 to promote the welfare of their subjects. 
 
218 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1341. 
 
 Soon after his arrival at Parma, he received one 
 of those tokens of his popularity which are ex- 
 ceedingly expressive, though they come from an 
 humble admirer. The poet Gray, one day chancing 
 to stop with a friend and fellow-traveller at a 
 smith's forge, whilst a horse's shoe was repairing, 
 observed a copy of Thomson's Seasons on the 
 shop-window, blackened, of course, by the thumbs 
 of its dusky perusers. " Look there !" said Gray to 
 his friend, " that is true popularity I" The truth is, 
 that neither sovereigns nor poets can be pronounced 
 great until their popularity has struck its roots 
 among the vulgar. Petrarch experienced this sign 
 of popularity when he was at Parma, from the cir- 
 cumstance of a blind old man, who had been a 
 grammar-school master at Pontremoli arriving at 
 Parma, in order to pay his devotions to the lau- 
 reate. The poor man had already walked to J^a- 
 ples, guided in his blindness by his only son, for the 
 purpose of finding Petrarch. The poet had left 
 that city; but King Robert, pleased with his 
 enthusiasm, made him a present of some money. 
 The aged pilgrim returned to Pontremoli, where, 
 being informed that Petrarch was at Parma, he 
 crossed the Apennines, in spite of the severity of 
 the weather, and travelled thither, having sent 
 
1341.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 219 
 
 before him a tolerable copy of verses. He was 
 presented to Petrarch, M-hose hand he kissed with 
 devotion and exclamations of joy. One day, lie- 
 fore many spectators, the blind man said to Pe- 
 trarch, " Sir, I have come far to see you," The 
 bystanders laughed, on which the old man replied, 
 " I appeal to you, Petrarch, whether I do not see 
 you more clearly and distinctly than these men who 
 have their eyesight." Petrarch gave him a kind 
 reception, and dismissed him with a considerable 
 present. 
 
 The pleasure which Petrarch had in retirement, 
 reading, and reflection, induced him to hire a house 
 on the outskirts of the city of Parma, with a 
 garden, beautifully watered by a stream, a riis in 
 urhe, as he calls it ; and he was so pleased with this 
 locality, that he purchased and embellished it. 
 
 His happiness, however, he tells us, was here 
 embittered by the loss of some friends who shared 
 the first place in his affections. One of these was 
 Tommaso da Messina, with whom he had formed 
 a friendship when they Mere fellow-students at 
 Bologna, and ever since kept up a familiar corre- 
 spondence. They were of the same age, addicted 
 to the same pursuits, and imbued with similar sen- 
 timents. Tommaso Avrote a volume of Latin poems, 
 
220 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 several of which were published after the invention 
 of printing'. Petrarch, in his Triumphs of Love, 
 reckons him an excellent poet. Mongitore, in his 
 Bibliotheca Siculana, thought himself sharp-sighted 
 in discovering that there were two persons of this 
 name, both of them contemporaries and friends 
 of Petrarch's. But Mongitore was only double- 
 sighted ; for Baldelli has shown that the supposed 
 couple were one and the same individual. 
 
 This loss was followed by another which aifected 
 Petrarch still more strongly. Having received fre- 
 quent invitations to Lombes from the bishop, who 
 had resided some time in his diocese, Petrarch 
 looked forward with pleasure to the time when he 
 should revisit him. But he received accounts that 
 the bishop was taken dangerously ill. Whilst his 
 mind was agitated by this news, he had the fol- 
 lowing dream, which he has himself related. " Me- 
 thought I saw the bishop crossing the rivulet of 
 my garden alone. I was astonished at this meet- 
 ing, and asked him whence he came, whither he 
 was going in such haste, and w^hy he was alone. 
 He smiled upon me with his usual complacency, 
 and said, ' Remember that when you were in Gras- 
 eony the tempestuous climate was insupportable to 
 you, I also am tirod of it. I have quitted Gas- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 221 
 
 cony, never to return, and I am going to Eome.' 
 At the conclusion of these words, he had reached 
 the end of the garden, and, as I endeavoured to 
 accompany him, he in the kindest and gentlest 
 manner waved his hand ; but, upon my persevering, 
 he cried out in a more peremptory manner, ' Stay ! 
 you must not at present attend me.' Whilst 
 he spoke these words, I fixed my eyes upon him, 
 and saw the paleness of death upon his counte- 
 nance. Seized with horror, I uttered a loud cry, 
 which awoke me. I took notice of the time. I 
 told the circumstance to all my friends ; and, at 
 the expiration of five-and-twenty days, I received 
 accounts of his death, which happened in the very 
 same night in which he had appeared to me." 
 
 On a little reflection this incident will not ap- 
 pear to be supernatural. That Petrarch, oppressed 
 as he was with anxiety about his friend, should fall 
 into fanciful reveries during his sleep, and imagine 
 that he saw him in the paleness of death, was no- 
 thing w^onderful — nay, that he should frame this 
 allegory in his dream is equally conceivable. The 
 sleeper's imagination is often a great improvisators 
 It forms scenes and stories ; it puts questions, and 
 answers them itself, all the time believing that the 
 responses come from those whom it interrogates. 
 
222 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1341. 
 
 That the bishop should have died so near the time 
 of Petrarch's dream must be attributed to chance. 
 
 It Avas at this period, according to De Sade, that 
 he was presented with the archdeaconry of Parma ; 
 but Baldelli has shown, from the writings of Father 
 Ato, that he did not attain that promotion till the 
 year 1350. 
 
 Petrarch, deeply attached to Azzo da Correggio, 
 now began to consider himself as settled at Parma, 
 where he enjoyed literary retirement in the bosom 
 of his beloved Italy. But he had not resided there 
 a year, when he was summoned to Avignon by orders 
 which he considered that he could not disobey. 
 Tiraboschi, and after him Baldelli, ascribe his re- 
 turn to Avignon to the commission which he 
 received in 1342, to go as advocate of the Eoman 
 people to the new Pope Clement VI., who had suc- 
 ceeded to the tiara on the death of Benedict XII., 
 and Petrarch's own words coincide with what they 
 say.* 
 
 The feelings of joy with which Petrarch revisited 
 Avignon, though to appearance he had wjeaned 
 himself from Laura, may be imagined. He had 
 
 * De Sade makes Pelrarch arrive in Avignon before the 
 death of Benedict XII. ; but the death of Benedict was cer- 
 tainly near, and the prospect of it may have brought our poet 
 to Avignon. 
 
1342.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 223 
 
 friendship, however, if he had not love, to welcome 
 him. Here he met, with reciprocal gladness, his 
 friends, Socrates and Lselius, who had established 
 themselves at the court of the Cardinal Colonna. 
 " Socrates," says De Sade, " devoted himself en- 
 tirely to Petrarch, and even went with him to Vau- 
 cluse." It thus appears that Petrarch had not given 
 up his peculium on the Sorgue, nor had any one 
 rented the field and cottage in his absence. 
 
 Benedict XII. died at Avignon in 1342. He 
 was a man of strict principles, and of an under- 
 standing that was at least fortified by integrity of 
 purpose. That he lacked subtlety of intellect to 
 command the vast machine of ecclesiastical policy 
 which was submitted to him was candidly acknow- 
 ledged by himself ; but he was an honest man, and 
 Petrarch is no where more uncandid than Avhen he 
 rails at his errors without remembering his virtues. 
 It is attested that he was disinterested in promo- 
 ting to benefices. It was a memorable saying of 
 his that a pope has no relations. He was parti? 
 cularly anxious to reform the monastic societies ; 
 for which good wishes the men of the cowl be- 
 stowed on him their boundless execration. Pe- 
 trarch hated him because he would not remove the 
 papal seat to Eome ; and, for the same reason, 
 
224 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1342. 
 
 he was disliked by all the Italian party of the 
 church. Benedict was at times indiscreet in mani- 
 festing his aversion to Italy. He had a present of 
 some fine and prodigiously large eels sent him from 
 the lake of Bolsena, which he distributed among 
 his cardinals, reserving only a small portion for 
 himself. Some days afterwards, when the cardi- 
 nals Maited upon him at court, the eels were talked 
 of — a very natural subject for church-cormorants 
 ■ — and then his holiness remarked that, if he had 
 known how exquisitely the eels tasted, he would 
 not have distributed them so freely ; but that he 
 had no idea of Italy producing any thing so good. 
 This remark, though it might have passed for a 
 joke, roused the wrath of Cardinal Colonna, who 
 exclaimed to the pontiff, " It astonishes me that a 
 man so learned as you are should not know that 
 Italy excels in every thing." 
 
 Benedict's successor, Clement VI., was conversant 
 with the world, and accustomed to the splendour 
 of courts. Quite a contrast to the plain rigidity 
 of Benedict, he was courteous and munificent, but 
 withal a voluptuary ; and his luxury and profusion 
 gave rise to extortions, to rapine, and to boundless 
 simony. His artful and arrogant mistress, the 
 Countess of Turenne, ruled him so absolutely, that 
 
1342.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 225 
 
 all places in his gift, which had escaped the grasp 
 of his relations, were disposed of through her 
 interest ; and she amassed great wealth by the sale 
 of benefices. 
 
 The Eomans applied to Clement VI., as they 
 had applied to Benedict XII., imploring him to 
 bring back the sacred seat to their capital ; and they 
 selected Petrarch to be among those who should 
 present their supplication. Our poet appealed to 
 his holiness on this subject, both in prose and verse. 
 The pope received him with smiles, complimented 
 him on his eloquence, bestowed on him the priory 
 of Migiiorino, but, for the present, consigned his 
 remonstrance to oblivion. 
 
 In this mission to Clement at Avignon there was 
 joined with Petrarch the famous Nicola Gabrino, 
 better known by the name of Cola di Rienzo, 
 who, very soon afterwards, attached the his- 
 tory of Rome to his biography. He was for the 
 present comparatively little known ; but Petrarch, 
 thus coming into connexion with this extraordinary 
 person, was captivated with his eloquence, whilst 
 Clement complimented Rienzo, admitted him daily 
 to his presence, and conversed vrith him on the 
 wretched state of Rome, the tyranny of the nobles, 
 and the sufferings of the people. 
 
 VOL. I- Q 
 
226 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1342. 
 
 Cola and Petrarch were the two chiefs of this 
 Roman embassy to the pope ; and it appears that 
 the poet gave precedency to the future tribune on 
 this occasion. They both pleaded the cause before 
 Clement VI. Cola elaborately exposed the three 
 demands of the Roman people, namely, that the 
 pope, already the acknowledged patron of Rome, 
 should assume the title and functions of its sena- 
 tor, in order to extinguish the civil wars kindled 
 by the Roman barons • that he should return to 
 his pontifical chair on the banks of the Tiber; 
 and that he should grant permission for the jubilee, 
 instituted by Boniface VIII., to be held every fifty 
 years, and not at the end of a century, as its ex- 
 tension to the latter period went far beyond the 
 ordinary duration of human life, and cut off the 
 greater part of the faithful from enjoying the insti- 
 tution. 
 
 Cola's speech was immediately followed by Pe- 
 trarch's. I am sorry that the attorney seems to 
 have been the better speaker of the two, at least if 
 we may trust Levati, who nevertheless gives no 
 reference to any author in whom he had found our 
 poet's harangue to the pope formally given. Levati, 
 without quoting any authority, only says that he 
 modelled his harangue upon an epistle to Benedict 
 
1342.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 227 
 
 XII., which he had indited some years before, a 
 composition which has been already noticed. If 
 this was the case, the speech must have been a bad 
 one, since the arguments employed to induce the 
 popes to leave Avignon are, in Petrarch's poetry 
 at least, sufficiently absurd. The allurements held 
 out to them are the sacred relics which they would 
 see at Eome, among which are enumerated the 
 cradle of Christ, and that part which was sacri- 
 ficed at his circumcision, a lock of hair of the 
 Blessed Virgin, and a piece of her petticoat ; the 
 rod of Aaron, the ark of the covenant, a finger 
 
 of St. Agnes, with the nuptial ring.* 
 
 None of the popes was ever more attached than 
 Clement VI. to the charms of living women ; but he 
 
 * Levati, Viaggi di Petrarca, vol. ii., p. 109. 
 
 Dr. J. B. Friedrich, of Wurzburg, in his elaborate and most 
 useful " General Diagnosis of Mental Diseases," says : " A nun, 
 named Agnes Blanbeckin, was incessantly tormented by the 
 idea what could have become of that part which was cut off at 
 the circumcision of Christ ;" and he quotes as his authority for 
 the fact a publication entitled Agnetis Blanbeckin Vita et 
 Revelationes. Vien. 1731 : " Earn aliquando scire desiderasse 
 cum lacrymis et moerore maximo, ubinam esset preeputium 
 Christi. Ecce vero in instante sensisse earn illud, et dulcis- 
 simi quidem saporis in ore." Whether the poor nun's igno- 
 rance of Petrarch's works tended more to her comfort or 
 annoyance, it would be difficult to decide. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1342. 
 
 was the least likely to be fascinated by the dried 
 fingers of deceased ones, or by rags from their 
 petticoats. He nevertheless praised both orators, 
 and conceded that the Romans should have a jubilee 
 every fifty years ; but he excused himself from 
 going to Rome, alleging that he was prevented by 
 the disputes between France and England. *' Holy 
 father," said Petrarch, " how mucn it were to be 
 wished that you had known Italy before you knew 
 France." " I wish I had," said the pontiff, very 
 coldly. 
 
 Petrarch gave vent to his indignation at the 
 papal court in a writing, entitled, " A Book of 
 Letters without a title," and in several severe son- 
 nets. The " Liber Epistolarum sine Titulo " con- 
 tains, as it is printed in his works, (Basle edit. 
 1581), eighteen letters, fulminating as freely against 
 papal luxury and corruption as if they had been 
 penned by Luther or John Knox. From their 
 contents, we might set down Petrarch as the earliest 
 preacher of the Reformation, if there were not, in 
 the writings of Dante, some passages of the same 
 stamp. If these epistles were really circulated at 
 the time when they were written, it is matter of 
 astonishment that Petrarch never suffered from any 
 
1342.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 229 
 
 other flames than those of love ; for many honest 
 reformers, who have been roasted alive, have uttered 
 less anti-papal vituperation than our poet; nor, 
 although Petmrch would have been startled at a 
 revolution in the hierarchy, can it be doubted that 
 his writings contributed to the Reformation. 
 
 It must be remembered, at the same time, that 
 he wrote against the church government of Avig- 
 non, and not that of Eome. He compares A\^gnon 
 with the Assyrian Babylon, with Egypt under the 
 mad tyranny of Cambyses ; or rp.ther denies that 
 the latter empires can be held as parallels of guilt 
 to the western Babylon ; nay, he tells us that 
 neither Avernus nor Tartarus can be confronted 
 with this infernal place = 
 
 " The successors of a troop of fishermen," he 
 &ays, " have forgotten theii- origin. They are not 
 contented, like the first followers of Christ, who 
 gained their livelihood by the lake of Genesareth, 
 with modest habitations, but they must build them- 
 selves splendid palaces, and go about covered 
 with gold and purple. They are fishers of men, 
 who catch a credulous multitude, and devour them 
 for their prey." This " Liber Epistolarum " in- 
 cludes some descriptions of the debaucheries of the 
 
230 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1342. 
 
 churchmen, which are too scandalous for transla- 
 tion. They are nevertheless curious relics of his- 
 tory. 
 
 In this year, Gherardo, the brother of our poet, 
 retired, by his advice, to the Carthusian monastery 
 of Montrieux, which they had both visited in a pil- 
 grimage to Baume three years before. Gherardo 
 had been struck down with affliction by the death 
 of a beautiful woman at Avignon, to whom he was 
 devoted. Her name and history are quite unknown, 
 but it may be hoped, if not conjectured, that she 
 was not married, and could be more liberal in her 
 affections than the poet's Laura. 
 
 The name of Laura has been little mentioned in 
 the course of the present chapter ; but, amidst all 
 the incidents of this period of his life, the attach- 
 ment of Petrarch to her continued unabated. It ap- 
 pears, too, that, since his return from Parma, she 
 treated him with more than wonted complacency. 
 He passed the greater part of the year 1342 at 
 Avignon, and went to Vaucluse but seldom, and 
 for short intervals. 
 
LTEE OF PETKAECH. 
 
 CHAPTER xn. 
 
 Petrarch commences the Study of the Greek Language — 
 His Instructor Barlaamo — Mission of Barlaarao to the papal 
 court — Proposed union of the Greek and Latin churches — 
 Boccaccio's description of Barlaamo — Petrarch begins to 
 learn Greek by reading Plato — Glance at the Hamiltonian 
 system of learning languages ; its general inutility — Useful- 
 ness of a Latin translation to the Greek student in certain 
 cases — Opinion of Porson and Heyne on the subject — In 
 reading Plato Petrarch imbibes much of his spirit — He assists 
 his instructor to obtain a bishopric — Birth of his daughter 
 Francesca. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 2S3 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 In the mean time, love, that makes other people 
 idle, interfered not with Petrarch's fondness for 
 study. He found an opportunity of com- 
 mencing the study of Greek, and seized it with 
 avidity. That language had never been totally 
 extinct in Italy ; but, at the time on which we are 
 touching, there were not probably six persons in 
 the whole country acquainted with it. Dante had 
 quoted Greek authors, but without having known 
 the Greek alphabet. The person who favoured 
 Petrarch with this coveted instruction was Ber- 
 nardo Barlaamo, a Calabrian monk, who had been 
 three years before at Avignon, having come as 
 envoy from Andronicus, the eastern Emperor, on 
 pretext of proposing a union between the Greek 
 and Roman churches, but, in reality, for the pur- 
 
234 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1342. 
 
 pose of trying to borrow money from the pope for 
 the emperor. Some of Petrarch's biographers date 
 his commencement of the study of Greek from the 
 period of Barlaamo's first visit to Avignon ; but I 
 am inclined to postpone it to 1342-43. 
 
 Barlaamo was born at Seminara, in Calabria, 
 and became a Basilian monk, for the purpose of 
 learning the Greek language. He passed first into 
 ^Etolia, next to Salonicchi : in 1327 he settled 
 at Constantinople, and, through the friendship of 
 Giovanni Cantacuzeno, was made abbot of the 
 church of the Holy Ghost. But, emboldened by 
 the good-will of the emperor, he threw disparage- 
 ment on the knowledge of the Greeks in matters 
 of science ; and this roused against him powerful 
 enemies — among whom he tells us that T^ecefora 
 Gregora vilified him before the public in the bit- 
 terest terms. Barlaamo shut himself up for some 
 time in Salonicchi, but re-appeared at court with 
 fresh credit, when two legates from Pope John 
 XXII. arrived at Constantinople, to treat of a union 
 between the two churches, Greek and Roman ; and 
 Barlaamo was selected to confer with them. But 
 presently a new war was got up against poor Bar- 
 laamo, for having censured the monastic institu- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 235 
 
 tions of the Grreeks. This combat was suspended, 
 however, in consequence of Barlaamo being sent 
 by the Emperor Andronicus on a mission to the 
 western courts, and particularly to that of Avignon, 
 in 1339, under colour of negociating for a re- 
 union of the churches ; but, in reality, to obtain 
 succours for Greece against the Turks.* 
 
 Barlaamo's assumed object, in his mission to the 
 Papal court, was to effect a re-junction of the 
 Greek and Latin churches, which had separated in 
 the ninth century. The great difficulty was their 
 divided opinion about one of the persons of the 
 Holy Trinity ; the Greeks believing that the Holy 
 Ghost proceeded immediately from the Father, 
 whilst the Latins insisted that he came from the 
 
 * Barlaamo's subsequent history was, that, disappointed in 
 the object of his embassy, he returned to Constantinople, and 
 renewed his controversy with the Greeks. His principal ad- 
 versary, one Palana, summoned him as a heretic before the 
 patriarch of Constantinople, who condemned both him and his 
 adversary. He returned to the west, and settled in Avignon, 
 in 1342 ; and, according to Baldelli, gave lessons in Greek to 
 Petrarch. From Baldelli's mode of mentioning these instruc- 
 tions, a reader would imagine that they were the first that 
 Petrarch received from Barlaamo. And I rather distrust De 
 Sade's date when he states that Petrarch studied with Bar- 
 laamo in 1339. 
 
236 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1342. 
 
 Father and Son. Another theological dispute, in 
 which Barlaamo embarked with much zeal^ was one 
 respecting the light that appeared on Mount 
 Tabor at the transfiguration ; namely, whether it 
 was created or uncreated light, or, in other words, 
 God himself. Strange madness of mankind, who, 
 with little more power of comprehending the stu- 
 pendous nature of their Creator than if they were 
 animalcules wriggling in a drop of water, dog- 
 matize as if they had the intellects of archangels I 
 But to return to our Greek envoy: Boccaccio, who 
 knew Barlaamo at Kaples, thus describes him : — 
 " He was a little man, of great knowledge and un- 
 derstanding (by the way, he was a considerable 
 author.) He wrote many works, which are co- 
 piously noticed by Mazzucchelli and Fabricio). 
 Greece had not, for many years, produced so wise 
 a man. He was profoundly versed in history, 
 philosophy, and the Greek language, and perfectly 
 understood Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato. So at 
 least thought John Boccaccio, though he himself 
 miderstood little Greek, and less mathematics ; 
 but he adds that the envoy expressed himself with 
 difficulty. Petrarch courted his acquaintance, and 
 
1342.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 237 
 
 eagerly sought to be instructed in Greek. Bar- 
 laamo, on his side, wished as much to be ac- 
 quainted vdth the Latin tongue. These views 
 soon united them. They began studying Greek by 
 the reading of Plato. One might imagine, from 
 this mode of commencing, that the Hamiltonian 
 system of learning languages, by plunging at once 
 instead of wading into the stream, had been thus 
 early anticipated ; and certainly to plunge the 
 Greek disciple into Plato, was attempting to teach 
 him, at the same time, both to dive and to swim. 
 In point of fact, Petrarch never obtained instruc- 
 tion sufficient to make him a good Grecian. 
 
 I have great doubts if Petrarch, supposing that 
 he had continued tuition in the Greek language, 
 set about learning it in the right way. What- 
 ever disdain he might feel towards grammars and 
 dictionaries, he was no more above the need of 
 them than any other mortal learner of a dead lan- 
 guage. In my humble opinion, the Hamiltonian 
 system is like entering the church by the belfry, 
 instead of the church door. The Hamiltonians 
 say : What time is lost by a poor youth thumbing a 
 dictionary, whilst an English word, placed above a 
 Greek one, would in a few seconds expound its 
 meaning, and allow him, with the lesson full in his 
 
238 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1342. 
 
 memory, to refresh his health by joining his play- 
 fellows on the cricket-ground ! All this seems 
 plausible doctrine, but it is practically unsound. 
 The learner of G reek forgets the English interpre- 
 tation in proportion to the facility with which he 
 obtains it, and remembers a Greek word in pro- 
 portion to the fatigue which it has cost his thumb 
 and fingers to explore his lexicon. I speak with 
 some experience on this subject, having studied 
 Greek both in Scotland and in Germany, and in 
 neither of those countries did I ever find a saga- 
 cious Greek teacher (Heyne's opinion I had from 
 his own mouth), who was not averse to the student 
 of Greek depending on a Latin translation, page 
 by page. I remember, at College, that students 
 who were observed to turn their eyes to the oppo- 
 site Latin page, were infallibly set down as the 
 worst scholars ; and I have no doubt that their 
 squinting at the translation was not only a symptom, 
 but a re-acting cause, of their debility in Greek. It 
 would be a false inference from this misuse of 
 Latin translations to say that they are useless to 
 the Grecian student, or even to the accomplished 
 scholar, ^o ; neither a Porson nor a Heyne 
 ever neglected them as useful sticks with which to 
 
1342.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 239 
 
 poke into some obscurity, and to compare former 
 opinions ; but they never used them as crutches for 
 their daily progress.* 
 
 Petrarch, nevertheless, imbibed much of the spirit 
 of Plato from the labour which he bestowed on his 
 works. He learned from him several important 
 facts ; namely, that when we are strictly in love, 
 personal charms have, corporeally speaking, nothing 
 to do with our admiration, and that we worship 
 them only as typical emanations of the divinity 
 from a human being, and that our souls transmi- 
 grate and take themselves off to the stars when 
 they are disentangled from their bodily bonds. A 
 fondness for this useful knowledge is apparent in 
 the writing's of Plato. 
 
 Petrarch was very anxious to continue his Greek 
 readings "with Barlaamo ; but his stay in Avignon 
 was very short ; and, though it was his interest to 
 detain him as his preceptor, Petrarch, finding 
 that he was anxious for a settlement iu Italy, 
 helped him to obtain the bishopric of Geraci, in 
 Calabria. 
 
 * Person used to say that a Latin translation, in reading 
 Greek, could be useless to no man, unless he was ignorant of 
 J/dtin. 
 
240 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 The next year was memorable in our poet's life 
 for the birth of his daughter Francesca. That the 
 mother of this daughter was the same who pre- 
 sented him with his son John there can be no doubt. 
 Baldelli discovers, in one of Petrarch's letters, an 
 obscure allusion to her, which seems to indicate that 
 she died suddenly after the birth of Francesca, 
 who proved a comfort to her father in his old age. 
 
LIFE OF PETRAECH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Death of Robert King of Naples — Petrarch's Letter to Bar- 
 bate di Sulmona on the subject, predicting the evils likely to 
 result to Naples — The Pope sends Petrarch on an embassy to 
 Naples, where he is at the same time commissioned by the Co- 
 lonna family to plead for the liberation of some of their friends 
 who had been imprisoned by the late King Robert — Petrarch's 
 interview with the Queen Dowager, with Andrew, (the young 
 queen's husband) and with his minister Roberto, an Hunga- 
 rian Monk — Unkindness of Andrew to Giovanna, who suc- 
 ceeds to her grandfather's throne — Insolence of the Hungarian 
 minister and his faction — History of Fillippa the Catanese, 
 the young queen's favourite — Petrarch's Letters to Cardinal 
 Colonna, describing his efforts at negotiation in Naples, and 
 his excursions to the neighbouring scenery. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
1343.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The opening of the year 1343 brought a new loss 
 to Petrarch in the death of Robert King of ISTaples. 
 The character and history of this monarch have 
 been already alluded to. John Villani calls him 
 " the wisest king that Christendom had produced 
 for five hundred years ; as he not only possessed 
 strong natural sense, but the deepest knowledge in 
 theology, an accomplishment that would be little 
 prized in a modern monarch." The royal library of 
 Paris possesses a treatise which he wrote " On the 
 Apostles, and on those who imitate their evange- 
 lical poverty." * 
 
 Petrarch, as we have seen, had occasion to be 
 grateful to this monarch ; and we need not doubt 
 that he was much affected by the news of his death ; 
 but, when we are told that he repaired to Vaucluse 
 
 * Baldelli, p. 282, ed. 1837. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 to bewail his irreparable loss, we may suppose, 
 without uncharitableness, that he retired also with 
 a view to study the expression of his grief no less 
 than to cherish it. He Mrote, however, an inte- 
 resting letter on the occasion to Barbato di Sul- 
 mona, in which he very sensibly exhibits his fears 
 of the calamities which were likely to result from 
 the death of Eobert, adding that his mind was 
 seldom true in prophecy, unless when it foreboded 
 misfortunes ; and his predictions on this occasion 
 were but too well verified. 
 
 Kobert was succeeded by his granddaughter Gio- 
 vanna, a girl of sixteen, already married to Andrew 
 of Hungary, her cousin, who was but a few months 
 older. 
 
 Robert by his will had established a council of 
 regency, which was to continue until Giovonna ar- 
 rived at the age of twenty-five. The Pope, how- 
 ever, made objections to this arrangement, alleging 
 that the administration of affairs during the queen's 
 minority devolved upon him immediately as lord 
 superior. But, as he did not choose to assert his 
 right till he should receive the most accurate in- 
 formation respecting the state of the kingdom, he 
 gave Petrarch a commission for that purpose ; and 
 
1343.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 245 
 
 entrusted him with a negotiation of much import- 
 ance and delicacy. 
 
 Petrarch received an additional commission from 
 the Cardinal Colonna. Several friends of the Co- 
 lonna family were, at that time, confined in prison 
 at l^aples, and the cardinal flattered himself that 
 Petrarch's eloquence and intercession would obtain 
 their enlargement. Our poet accepted the em- 
 bassy. He went to Nice, where he embarked ; but 
 had nearly been lost in his passage. He wrote 
 to Cardinal Colonna the following account of his 
 voyage. 
 
 " I embarked at Nice, the first maritime town 
 in Italy (he means the nearest to Prance). At night 
 I got to Monaco, and the bad weather obliged me 
 to pass a whole day there, which by no means put 
 me into good humour. The next morning we re- 
 embarked, and, after being tossed all day by the 
 tempest, we arrived very late at Port Maurice. 
 The night was dreadful ; it was impossible to get 
 to the castle, and I was obliged to put up at a little 
 village, where my bed and supper appeared tole- 
 rable from extreme weariness. I determined to 
 proceed by land ; the perils of the road appeared 
 less dreadful to me than those by sea. I left my 
 
246 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 servants and baggage in the ship, which set sail, 
 and I remained with only one domestic on shore. 
 By accident, upon the coast of Genoa I found some 
 German horses which were for sale ; they were 
 strong and serviceable. I bought them ; but I was 
 soon afterwards obliged to take ship again ; for war 
 was renewed between the Pisans and the Milanese. 
 IJfature has placed limits to these states, the Po 
 on one side, and the Apennines on the other. I 
 must have passed between their two armies if I had 
 gone by land ; this obliged me to re-embark at 
 Lerici. I passed by Corvo, that famous rock, the 
 ruins of the city of Luna, and landed at Murrona. 
 Thence I went the next day on horseback to 
 Pisa, Siena, and Eome. My eagerness to execute 
 your orders has made me a night-traveller, contrary 
 to my character and disposition. I would not sleep 
 till I had paid my duty to your illustrious father, 
 who is always my hero. I found him the same as 
 I left him seven years ago, nay, even as hale and 
 sprightly as when I saw him at Avignon, which is 
 now twelve years. What a surprising man ! What 
 strength of mind and body ! How firm his voice ! 
 how beautiful his face ! Had he been a few years 
 younger, I should have taken him for Julius Caesar, 
 
1343.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 247 
 
 or Scipio Africanus. Rome grows old ; but not 
 its hero. He was half undressed, and going to bed ; 
 so I staid only a moment, but I passed the whole 
 of the next day with him. He asked me a thou- 
 sand questions about you, and was much pleased that 
 I was going to JN^aples. When I set out from Eome, 
 he insisted on accompanying me beyond the walls. 
 
 " I reached Palestrina that night, and was kindly 
 received by your nephew John. He is a young 
 man of great hopes, and follows the steps of his 
 ancestors. 
 
 "I arrived at IN^aples the 11th of October. 
 Heavens, what a change has the death of one man 
 produced in that place ! N^o one would know it 
 now. Religion, Justice, and Truth are banished. 
 I think I am at Memphis, Babylon, or Mecca. In 
 the stead of a king so just and so pious, a little 
 monk, fat, rosy, barefooted, with a shorn head, and 
 half covered with a dirty mantle, bent by hypocrisy 
 more than by age, lost in debauchery whilst proud 
 of his affected poverty, and still more of the real 
 wealth he has amassed — this man holds the reins 
 of this staggering empire. In vice and cruelty 
 he rivals a Dionysius, an Agathocles, or a Pha- 
 laris. This monk, named Roberto, was an Hun- 
 
248 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 garian cordelier, and preceptor of Prince Andrew, 
 whom he entirely sways. He oppresses the weak, 
 despises the great, tramples justice under foot, and 
 treats both the dowager and the reigning queen 
 with the greatest insolence. The court and city 
 tremble before him ; a mournful silence reigns in 
 the public assemblies, and in private they converse 
 by whispers. The least gesture is punished, and 
 to think is denounced as a crime. To this man I 
 have presented the orders of the sovereign pontiff, 
 and your just demands. He behaved with incredible 
 insolence. Susa, or Damascus, the capital of the 
 Saracens, would have received with more respect 
 an envoy from the holy see. The great lords imi- 
 tate his pride and tyranny. The Bishop of Ca- 
 vaillon is the only one who opposes this torrent ; 
 but what can one lamb do in the midst of so many 
 wolves ? It is the request of a dying king alone 
 that makes him endure so wretched a situation. 
 How small are the hopes of my negotiation ! but 
 I shall wait with patience ; though I know before- 
 hand the answer they will give me." 
 
 It is plain from Petrarch's letter that the king- 
 dom of T^aples was now under a miserable subjec- 
 tion to the Hungarian faction, and that the young 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 249 
 
 queen's situation was any thing but enviable. She 
 had been married by state-command to her Hun- 
 garian cousin, whose coarse mind had had a bar- 
 barous education. Andrew soon let her know his 
 opinion that the throne of ISTaples belonged to him 
 in his own rig-ht, no thanks to his marriage with 
 her. She resented his brutality ; so that Andrew 
 and Joan lived less happily in a palace, than Darby 
 and Joan in a cottage. 
 
 Eew characters in modern history have been 
 drawn in such contrasted colours as that of Gio- 
 vanna, Queen of J^aples. She had been charged with 
 every vice, and extolled for every virtue. Pe- 
 trarch represents her as a woman of weak under- 
 standing, disposed to gallantry, but incapable of 
 gTeater crimes. Her history reminds us much of 
 that of Mary Queen of Scots. 
 
 Beautiful in her person, and lively in her dispo- 
 sition, she was suspected of an intrigue during the 
 lifetime of her loathed husband ; but, placed as 
 she was, the most perfect innocence was no security 
 against detraction. From the circumstances of An- 
 drew's subsequent death, it appears that the brute 
 slept with her on the very night of his assassina- 
 tion, a circumstance which seems to me a presump- 
 
250 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 tion, that, though they might be, like many sleeping 
 partners, on bad terms, he did not regard her as an 
 adultress. 
 
 She was very much governed by a female de- 
 pendent, who was called the Catanese, because she 
 was born at Catanea, in Sicily. Her rise was re- 
 markable. When King Eobert, then Duke of Ca- 
 labria, Avas besieging Trapani, his wife Violante was 
 delivered of a son ; and Filippa, the Catanese, 
 %yho was married to a fisherman, and was laundress 
 to the ducal family, had the child consigned to 
 her care. She soon caught the airs and manners 
 of a court, and so much insinuated herself into the 
 good graces of the duchess, that, upon the death of 
 her husband, the fisherman, her patroness gave her 
 in marriage to a favourite courtier, Eaimondo di 
 Catano, high-steward of Naples. Eaimondo him- 
 self had been originally a Saracen slave, but Fi- 
 lippa made his fortune by her address. Upon their 
 union he was knighted, and made high-steward. 
 After the death of Violante, the Catanese, by her 
 pleasing manners, won the favour of Sancia, the 
 second wife of Eobert, and also the friendship of 
 his son Charles's widow, the Duchess of Calabria, 
 and mother of Giovanna, Mho entrusted her vrith 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 251 
 
 the care of that princess. By Eaimondo the Ca- 
 tanese had a son named Koberto, who succeeded 
 his father in the high-stewardship, and inherited 
 the riches he had amassed. He was in high favour 
 with Giovanna, and, as he was graceful in his 
 person, it was surmised that he was her gallant ; 
 but those suspicions came from a pestilent quarter, 
 and Giovanna's regard for one whom she had known 
 from her infancy might not only be innocent, but 
 amiable. 
 
 It was, no doubt, the interest of both the 
 Catanese and her son to oppose the Hungarian 
 cabal ; and they w^ere not likely to mitigate the 
 queen's known dislike to her spouse. If they tried 
 to inflame it, as they were accused of doing, they 
 certainly undertook a needless trouble, which they 
 might have left to Andrew and his Huns. The 
 former allowed his barefooted monk-minister to 
 insult G iovanna ; he himself insulted her ; and to 
 prejudice an injured wife against her husband is 
 like applying the bellows to a blazing fire. That An- 
 drew's enemies conspired against him was proved 
 by the event ; and, among the many conspirators, 
 the young queen had many friends ; but her pri- 
 vacy to their worst designs is a totally different 
 question. Her youth and her character, gentle 
 
252 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 and interesting in several respects, entitle her to 
 the benefit of our doubts as to her assent to the 
 death of Andrew. Many circumstances seem to 
 me to favour those doubts, and the opinion of Pe- 
 trarch is on the side of her acquittal. 
 
 The liTeapolitan princes of the blood were also 
 violent in their opposition to Andrew and his Hun- 
 garian minister. Of these the two sons of Philip 
 Prince of Tareutum, Roberto and Ludovico, were 
 supposed to entertain a more than kindred par- 
 tiality towards their kinswoman, and the queen, 
 it subsequently appeared, was not indifferent to- 
 wards Ludovico. Nor were the nobles of IN^aples 
 less indignant at the Hungarian cabal. Many of 
 them left the city in disgust, and, offering their 
 services to the Prince of Tarentum, accompanied 
 him in an expedition to Grreece. 
 
 Such was the state of T^aples on Petrarch's 
 arrival. He had an audience Avith the queen 
 dowager ; but her grief and tears for the loss of 
 her husband made this interview brief and fruitless 
 with regard to business. When he spoke to her 
 about the prisoners, for whose release the Colonnas 
 had desired him to intercede, her majesty referred 
 him to the council. She was now, in reality, only 
 a state cipher. 
 
1343.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 253 
 
 The principal prisoners for whom Petrarch was 
 commissioned to plead, were the counts Minervino, 
 di Lucera, and Pontenza, They were brothers, and 
 the grandsons of a public notary of Burletta, who 
 had left them a large fortune. They kept in their 
 pay a number of armed followers, who committed 
 outrages on the family of Mara, with whom they 
 were at variance. King Kobert had them arrested, 
 confiscated their fortunes, and condemned them to 
 perpetual imprisonment. Whether there were any 
 favourable circumstances in their case we know 
 not, but Petrarch pitied them, and thought them 
 innocent ; though they w ere possibly only the 
 chiefs of banditti. 
 
 Petrarch applied to the council of state in their 
 behalf, but he was put off with perpetual excuses. 
 While the affair was in agitation he went to Capua, 
 where the prisoners were confined. " There," he 
 writes, to the Cardinal Colonna, " I saw your 
 friends ; and, such is the instability of Portune, 
 that I found them in chains. They support their 
 situation with fortitude. Their innocence is no 
 plea in their behalf to those who have shared in the 
 spoils of their fortune. Their only expectations 
 rest upon you. I have no hopes, except from the 
 
254 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 intervention of some superior power, as my depen- 
 dence on the clemency of the council is out of the 
 question. The queen dowager, now the most de- 
 solate of widows, compassionates their case, but 
 cannot assist them." 
 
 Petrarch, wearied with the delays of business, 
 sought relief in excursions to the neighbourhood. 
 Of these he writes an account to Cardinal Co- 
 lonna. 
 
 " I went to Bai?e," he says, " with my friends, 
 Barbato and Barrilli. Every thing concurred to 
 render this jaunt agreeable — good company, the 
 beauty of the scenes, and my extreme weariness of 
 the city I had quitted. This climate, which, as 
 far as I can judge, must be insupportable in sum- 
 mer, is delightful in winter. I was rejoiced to be- 
 hold places described by Virgil, and, what is more 
 surprising, by Homer before him. I have seen the 
 Lucrine lake, famous for its fine oysters ; the lake 
 Avernus, with water as black as pitch, and fishes 
 of the same colour swimming in it ; marshes formed 
 by the standing waters of Acheron, and the moun- 
 tain whose roots go down to hell. The terrible 
 aspect of this place, the thick shades with which it 
 is covered by a surrounding wood, and the pesti- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 255 
 
 lent odour which this water exhales, characterize 
 it very justly as the Tartarus of the poets. There 
 wants only the boat of Charon, which, however, 
 would be unnecessary, as there is only a shallow 
 ford to pass over. The Styx and the kingdom of 
 Pluto are now hid from our sight. Awed by what 
 I had heard and read of these mournful approaches 
 to the dead, I was contented to view them at ni}^ 
 feet from the top of a high mountain. The la- 
 bourer, the shepherd, and the sailor, dare not ap- 
 proach them nearer. There are deep caverns, 
 where some pretend that a great deal of gold is 
 concealed ; covetous men, they say, have been to 
 seek it, but they never return ; whether they lost 
 their way in the dark valleys, or had a fancy to 
 visit the dead, being so near their habitations. 
 
 " I have seen the ruins of the grotto of the 
 famous Cumgean sybil ; it is a hideous rock, sus- 
 pended in the Avernian lake. Its situation strikes 
 the mind with horror. There still remain the hun- 
 dred mouths by Avhich the gods conveyed their 
 oracles ; these are now dumb, and there is only 
 one God Avho speaks in heaven and on earth. These 
 uninhabited ruins serve as the resort of birds of 
 unlucky omen. Not far off is that dreadful 
 
256 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 cavern which leads, they say, to the infernal re- 
 gions. Who would believe that, close to the man- 
 sions of the dead, ^Nature should have placed 
 powerful remedies for the preservation of life ? 
 IS^ear Avernus and Acheron are situated that barren 
 land whence rises continually a salutary vapour, 
 which is a cure for several diseases, and those hot 
 springs that vomit hot and sulphureous cinders. I 
 have seen the baths which l^ature has prepared ; 
 but the avarice of physicians has rendered them of 
 doubtful use. This does not, however, prevent 
 them from being visited by the invalids of all the 
 neighbouring towns. These hollowed mountains 
 dazzle us "vvith the lustre of their marble circles, on 
 which are engraved figures that point out, by the 
 position of their hands, the part of the body which 
 each fountain is proper to cure. 
 
 *' I saw the foundations of that admirable reser- 
 voir of ISTero, which was to go from Mount Misenus 
 to the Avernian lake, and to enclose all the hot 
 waters of Baise. 
 
 " At Pozzuoli I saw the mountain of Falernus, 
 celebrated for its grapes, whence the famous Faler- 
 nian wine. I saw likewise those enraged waves 
 of which Virgil speaks in his Georgics, on which 
 
1343.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 257 
 
 Ccesar put a bridle by the mole M-hicli he raised 
 there, and which Augustus finished. It is now 
 called the Dead Sea. I am surprised at the pro- 
 digious expence the Romans were at to build 
 houses in the most exposed situations, in order to 
 shelter them from the severities of the weather ; 
 for in the heats of summer the valleys of the 
 Apennines, the mountains of Viterbo, and the 
 woods of Umbria, furnished them with charming 
 shades ; and even the ruins of the houses which 
 they built in those places are superb." 
 
 Our poet's residence at JiTaples was evidently 
 disagreeable to him, in spite of the company of his 
 friends, Barrilli and Barbato. His friendship with 
 the latter was for a moment overcast by an act of 
 indiscretion on the part of Barbato, who, by dint 
 of importunity, obtained from Petrarch thirty-four 
 lines of his poem of Africa, under a promise that 
 he would shew them to nobody. On entering the 
 library of another friend, the first thing that struck 
 our poet's eyes was a copy of the same verses, 
 transcribed with a good many blunders. Petrarch's 
 vanity on this occasion, however, was touched more 
 than his anger — he forgave his friend's treachery, 
 believinor it to have arisen from excessive admira- 
 
 o 
 
 VOL. I. S 
 
258 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 tion. Barbato, as some atonement, gave him a 
 little MS. of Cicero, which Petrarch found to con- 
 tain two books of the orator's Treatise on the Aca- 
 demics, " a work," as he observes, " more subtle 
 than useful." 
 
 Queen Giovanna, as we have said, was fond of 
 literature. She had several conversations with 
 Petrarch, which increased her admiration of him. 
 After the example of her grandfather, she made him 
 her chaplain and household clerk, both of which 
 offices must be supposed to have been sinecures. 
 Her letters appointing him to them are dated the 
 25th of l^ovember, 1 343, the very day before that 
 nocturnal storm of which I shall speedily quote 
 the poet's description. 
 
 Voltaire has asserted that the young queen of 
 ^Naples was the pupil of Petrarch ; " but of this," 
 as De Sade remarks, " there is no proof." It only 
 appears that the two greatest geniuses of Italy, 
 Boccaccio and Petrarch, were both attached to 
 Giovanna, and had a more charitable opinion of her 
 than most of their contemporaries. 
 
LIFE OF PETRAECH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Tremendous Storm at Naples — The Council of Government 
 are moved by Petrarch to take the case of the prisoners, Co- 
 lonna's friends, into consideration — Cause of one of their 
 sittings being closed by the advance of evening — Atrocious 
 Customs of the Neapolitans — Petrarch obtains the Liberation 
 of the Prisoners — Leaves Naples — Repairs to Parma ; is well 
 received by his friend Azzo Correggio — Hopes to settle at 
 Parma ; but War breaks out between the Correggios and the 
 Lords of j\Iilan — Parma is besieged, and Petrarch, leaving it, 
 sets out for Avignon — He is beset by Robbers near Rheggio — 
 He and his Companions pass a dreadful night in their flight 
 to Scandiano — He proceeds to Bologna, and finally reaches 
 Avignon — Rumours of His Death spread over Italy — Absurd 
 Poem composed on the imagined event — Afiairs of Naples — 
 Murder of Prince Andrew — Laura's kind reception of the Poet 
 on his return to Avignon. 
 
 S 2 
 
I 
 
 
1343.] LIFE OF PETRA.RCH. 261 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Soon after his return from the tour to Baise, 
 Petrarch was witness to a violent tempest at 
 INTaples, which most historians have mentioned, as 
 it was memorable for having threatened the entire 
 destruction of the city. 
 
 It is pretended that a bishop of one of the neigh- 
 bouring islands had foretold that, on the night of 
 the 25th of ;N"ovember, 1343, the city of l^aples 
 would be destroyed by an earthquake. It is 
 added, in tradition, that this prophecy filled the 
 inhabitants with terror, and that streets and 
 churches were filled with supplicants, before the 
 sea and the air had begun their insurrection. But, 
 as I object to miracles on common historical evi- 
 dence, I demur to believing in the fact of the 
 bishop having predicted any thing on the subject ; 
 for his fortelling any mighty convulsion of nature 
 
262 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 would have been miraculous, even though he anti- 
 cipated by mistake an earthquake instead of a 
 storm. 
 
 The night set in with uncommonly still weather ; 
 but suddenly a tempest rose violently, in the direc- 
 tion of the sea, which made the buildings of the 
 city shake to their very foundations. " At the 
 first onset of the tempest (Petrarch writes to the 
 Cardinal Colonna), the windows of the house were 
 burst open. The lamp of my chamber (he was 
 lodged at a monastery) was blown out — I was 
 shaken from my bed with violence, and I appre- 
 hended immediate death. The friars and prior of 
 the convent, who had risen to pay their customary 
 devotions, rushed into my room with crucifixes and 
 relics in their hands, imi^loring the mercy of the 
 Deity. I took courage, and accompanied them 
 to the church, where we all passed the night, ex- 
 pecting every moment to be our last. I cannot 
 describe the horrors of that dreadful night ; the 
 bursts of lightning and the roaring of thunder 
 were blended with the shrieks of the people. The 
 night itself appeared protracted to an unnatural 
 length ; and, when the morning arrived, which we 
 discovered rather by conjecture than by any dawn- 
 
1343.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 263 
 
 ing of light, the priests prepared to celebrate the 
 service ; but the rest of us, not having yet dared to 
 lift up our eyes towards the heavens, threw our- 
 selves prostrate on the ground. At length the 
 day appeared — a day how like to night ! The 
 cries of the people began to cease in the upper 
 part of the city ; but the shrieks were redoubled 
 from the sea-shore. Despair inspired us with 
 courage. We mounted our horses, and arrived at 
 the port. What a scene was there ! the vessels 
 had suffered shipwreck in the very harbour ; the 
 shore was covered with dead bodies, which were 
 tossed about and dashed against the rocks, whilst 
 many appeared struggling in the agonies of death. 
 Meanwhile, the raging ocean overturned many 
 houses from their very foundations. Above a 
 thousand IS^eapolitan horsemen were assembled 
 near the shore to assist, as it were, at the obsequies 
 of their countrymen. I caught from them a spirit 
 of resolution, and was less afraid of death from the 
 consideration that we should all perish together. 
 On a sudden a cry of horror was heard ; the sea had 
 sapped the foundations of the ground on which we 
 stood, and it was already beginning to give way. 
 We immediately hastened to a higher place, where 
 
264 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 the scene was equally impressive. The young 
 queen, with naked feet and dishevelled hair, at- 
 tended by a number of women, was rushing to the 
 church of the Virgin, crying out for mercy in this 
 imminent peril. At sea, no ship escaped the fury 
 of the tempest : all the vessels in the harbour — 
 one only excepted — sunk before our eyes, and 
 every soul on board perished. * * * 
 
 " I must earnestly entreat you never to order me 
 to expose my life to the uncertainty of the winds. 
 Indeed, in the event of such an order, I would 
 obey neither you nor the pope, nor even my own 
 father, were he still alive ; for I have so often 
 narrowly escaped shipwreck that I assent to the 
 proverb — ' He who suffers shipwreck a second 
 time unjustly accuses Neptune.' " 
 
 By the assiduity and solicitations of Petrarch, 
 the council of IS^aples were at last engaged in 
 debating about the liberation of Colonna's im- 
 prisoned friends ; and the affair was nearly 
 brought to a conclusion, Mhen the approach of 
 night obliged the members to separate before they 
 came to a final decision* The cause of this sepa- 
 ration is a sad proof of JSTeapolitan barbarism at 
 tliat period. It Mill hardly, at this day, seem 
 
1343.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 265 
 
 credible, that, in the capital of so flourishing a 
 kingdom, and the residence of a brilliant court, 
 such savage licentiousness could have prevailed. At 
 night, all the streets of the city were beset by the 
 young nobility, who were armed, and who attacked 
 all passengers without distinction, so that even the 
 members of the council could not venture to ap- 
 pear after a certain hour. Neither the severity of 
 parents, nor the authority of the magistrates, nor 
 of Majesty itself, could prevent continual combats 
 and assassinations. 
 
 " But can it be astonishing," Petrarch remarks, 
 " that such disgraceful scenes should pass in the 
 night, when the J^eapolitans celebrate, even in the 
 face of day, games similar to those of the gladiators, 
 and with more than barbarian cruelty? Human 
 blood is shed here with as little remorse as that of 
 brute animals ; and, while the people join madly 
 in applause, sons expire in the very sight of their 
 parents ; and it is considered the utmost disgrace 
 not to die with becoming fortitude, as if they were 
 dying in the defence of their religion and country. 
 I myself, ignorant of these customs, was once 
 carried to the Carbouara, the destined place of 
 butchery. The queen and her husband, Andrev.-, 
 
266 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1343. 
 
 were present ; the soldiery of Naples were present, 
 and the people flocked thither in crowds. I was 
 kept in suspense by the appeamnce of so large and 
 brilliant an assembly, and expected some spectacle 
 worthy of my attention, when I suddenly heard a 
 loud shout of applause, as for some joyous incident. 
 What was my surprise when I beheld a beautiful 
 young man pierced through with a sword, and 
 ready to expire at my feet ! Struck with horror, 
 I put spurs to my horse, and fled from the bar- 
 barous sight, uttering execrations on the cruel 
 spectators. 
 
 " This inhuman custom has been derived from 
 their ancestors, and is now so sanctioned by invete- 
 rate habit, that their very licentiousness is dignified 
 with the name of liberty. 
 
 " You will cease to wonder at the imprisonment 
 of your friends in this city, where the death of a 
 young man is considered as an innocent pastime. 
 As to myself, I Mill quit this inhuman country 
 before three days are past, and hasten to you who 
 can make all things agreeable to me except a sea- 
 voyage." He might have added the barbarities of 
 Naples. 
 
 Petrarch at length brought his nefi'otiations 
 
1344.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 2G7 
 
 respecting the prisoners to a successful issue ; and 
 they were relieved by the express authority of 
 Andrew. Our poet's presence being no longer 
 necessary, he left N^aples in spite of the strong 
 solicitations of his friends Barrilli and Barbato. 
 In answer to their request that he would remain, 
 he said, " I am but a satellite, and follow the 
 directions of a superior planet ; quiet and repose 
 are denied to me." 
 
 From l^aples he went to Parma, where Azzo 
 Correggio, with his wonted affection, pressed him 
 to delay ; and Petrarch accepted the invitation, 
 though he remarked with sorrow that harmony 
 no longer reigned among the brothers of the family. 
 He stopped there, however, for some time, and 
 enjoyed such tranquillity that he could revise and 
 polish his compositions. But, in the following 
 year, 1345, his friend Azzo, ha\^ng failed to keep 
 his promise to Luchino Visconti,* as to restoring to 
 
 * Luchino Visconti was the brother of Giovanni, archbishop 
 of Milan. He succeeded to the Lordship of Milan, in 1339. 
 His disposition was fierce and vindictive ; but he gave the 
 Milanese most useful laws, and exercised severe justice. He 
 made war upon the Estensi and the Pisani, and enlarged his 
 territories by the conquest of Asti, Tortona, and other places. 
 He died of the plague, in 1339. It was surmised, however, that 
 
268 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1345. 
 
 him the Lordship of Parma — Azzo had obtained it 
 by the assistance of the Visconti, who avenged him- 
 self by making war on the Correggios — he invested 
 Parma, and afflicted it with a tedious siege. Pe- 
 trarch, foreseeing little prospect of pursuing his 
 studies quietly in a beleaguered city, left the place 
 with a small number of his companions ; but, about 
 midnight, near Rheggio, a troop of robbers rushed 
 from an ambuscade, with cries of " Kill ! kill !" 
 and our handful of travellers, being no match for 
 a host of brigands, fled and sought to save them- 
 selves under favour of night. Petrarch, during 
 this flight, was thrown from his horse. The shock 
 was so violent that he swooned ; but he recovered, 
 and was remounted by his companions. They had 
 not got far, however, when a violent storm of rain 
 and lightning rendered their situation almost as 
 bad as that from which they had escaped, and 
 
 he was carried off not by the plague, but by poison. His consort, 
 Isabella of Fiesco, went, on pretence of fulfilling a religious 
 vow, to Venice, where she satisfied an irreligious passion ; and, 
 fearing her husband's resentment, gave him a dose on her 
 return, I.uchino cultivated poetry, and Crescimbeni has given 
 a specimen of his sonnets. He was fond of the learned, and 
 requested some verses from Petrarch, which the poet sent to 
 him from Parma. 
 
1345.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 269 
 
 threatened them with death in another shape. They 
 passed a dreadful nig-ht without finding a tree, or 
 the hollow of a rock, to shelter them, and had no 
 expedient for mitigating- their exposure to the 
 storm but to turn their horses' backs to the tem- 
 pest. 
 
 When the dawn permitted them to discern a 
 path amidst the brushwood, they pushed on to 
 Scandiano, a castle occupied by the Gonzaghi, 
 friends of the lords of Parma, which they happily 
 reached, and where they were kindly received. 
 Here they learned that a troop of horse and foot 
 had been waiting for them in ambush near Scan- 
 diano, but had been forced by the bad weather to 
 withdraw before their arrival ; thus " the pelting 
 of the pitiless storm" had been to them a merciful 
 occurrence. Petrarch made no delay here, for he 
 was smarting under the bruises from his fall, but 
 caused himself to be tied upon his horse, and went 
 to repose at Modena. The next day he repaired 
 to Bologna, where he stopped a short time for 
 surgical assistance, and whence he sent a letter 
 to his friend Barbato, describing his misadventure ; 
 but, imable to hold a pen himself, he was obliged 
 to employ the hand of a stranger. He was so im- 
 
270 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1345. 
 
 patient, however, to get back to Avignon, that he 
 took the road to it as soon as he could sit his horse. 
 On approaching that city he says he felt a greater 
 softness in the air, and saw with delight the flowers 
 that adorn the neighbouring woods. Every thing 
 seemed to announce the vicinity of Laura. It was 
 seldom that Petrarch spoke so complacently of 
 Avignon. 
 
 Clement VI. received Petrarch with the highest 
 respect, offered him his choice among several vacant 
 bishoprics, and pressed him to receive the office 
 of pontifical secretary. He declined the proffered 
 secretaryship. Prizing his independence above all 
 things, excepting Laura, he remarked to his friends 
 that the yoke of office would not sit lighter on him 
 for being gilded. 
 
 In consequence of the dangers he had encoun- 
 tered, a rumour of his death was spread over a great 
 part of Italy. The age was romantic with a good 
 deal of the fantastical in its romance. If the news 
 had been true, and if he had been really dead and 
 buried, it would be difficult to restrain a smile at 
 the sort of honours that were paid to his memory 
 by the less brain-gifted portion of his admirers. 
 One of these, Antonio di Beccaria, a physician of 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 271 
 
 Ferrara, when he ought to have been mourning 
 for his own deceased patients, wrote a poetical 
 lamentation for Petrarch's death. The poem, if it 
 deserves such a name, is allegorical ; it represents 
 a funeral, in which the following personages parade 
 in procession and grief for the Laureate's death. 
 Grammar, Ehetoric, and Philosophy are introduced 
 with their several attendants. Under the banners 
 of Rhetoric are ranged Cicero, Geoffrey de Vine- 
 sauf, and Alain de Lisle. It would require all 
 Cicero's eloquence to persuade us that his com- 
 rades in the procession were quite worthy of his 
 company. The ^ine Muses follow Petrarch's 
 body ; eleven poets, crowned with laurel, support 
 the bier, and Minerva, holding the crown of Pe- 
 trarch, closes the procession. 
 
 We have seen that Petrarch left JVaples fore- 
 boding disastrous events to that kingdom. Among 
 these the assassination of Andrew, on the 18th of 
 September, 1345, was one that fulfilled his augury. 
 The particulars of this murder reached Petrarch 
 on his arrival at Avignon, in a letter from his friend 
 Barbato. 
 
 The enmity between Giovanna and her savage 
 husband had continued; and it appears that, though 
 
272 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1345. 
 
 the young queen still shared his bed, she obstinately 
 refused him any share in the government. This 
 made Andrew the more furiously impatient to be 
 crowned king ; and both he and his Hungarian 
 partizans uttered threats that indicated some im- 
 pending enterprise on their part. The pope, at 
 their instance, fixed the coronation of Andrew for 
 the 20th of September, and named the bishop of 
 Chartres to be Internuncio at the ceremony, stipu- 
 lating at the same time that the prince, by obtain- 
 ing royalty, should not acquire any personal and 
 hereditary right to the kingdom of K^aples, which 
 was to descend to the Princess Maria, duchess of 
 Durazzo, if Queen Giovanna should die without 
 an heir. 
 
 Every thing was arranged ; the Internuncio had 
 arrived. The Catanese and her party, seeing that 
 there was no way but one of averting Andrew's 
 coronation, made up their consciences to take him 
 off. They achieved their object at the time that 
 the court was removed to Aversa, a little town, 
 beautifully situated between l^aples and Capua. 
 One fatal night, when the unfortunate monarch 
 was going to bed with the queen, he was called 
 out to a conference, on pretence of a courier having 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 273 
 
 arrived with important despatches. As soon as the 
 queen's chamber- woman had shut the door of the 
 sleeping-room, and the king had passed into an ad- 
 joining chamber, the murderers flew upon him, and 
 whilst one of them, whose hands w^ere armed with 
 gauntlets, tried to stifle his cries, others fastened 
 a rope about his neck, and suspended him from a 
 balcony that looked into the garden. Others, who 
 were in the garden, pulled him by the feet with 
 such force that the blood flowed from his eyes and 
 nostrils. Finally, they let him fall into the gar- 
 den, where they w^ere beginning to inter him, when 
 the cries of an Hungarian woman, the prince's 
 nurse, raised an alarm, and put them to flight. 
 
 Giovanna w^as violently suspected of being an ac- 
 cessory to this deed, from her known antipathy to 
 her husband, her general connexion wdth Andrew's 
 enemies, and her believed attachment to Lewis of 
 Tarento, whom she afterw^ards married. Her ac- 
 cusers even asserted that the rope which strangled 
 Andrew was a tissue of silk and gold, wrought by 
 her own hands ; but it is quite possible that she 
 might make the rope, without intending it for her 
 consort's neck, to pull a bell, or to hoist a curtain. 
 De Sade says that the queen was dilatory in dis- 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 covering and prosecuting the murderers ; but she 
 certainly either would not, or could not, protect 
 those who were accused of being concerned in the 
 murder^ several of whom were publicly executed, 
 and, among these, the Catanese, after she had been 
 put to the torture. 
 
 It is revolting to believe that a young woman of 
 nineteen was an accessory before the fact to an act 
 of atrocity that would seem to require n heart har- 
 dened by habitual crimes, and the rest of whose 
 life displayed no depravity of nature ; accordingly, 
 there was much division of opinion as to her guilt 
 or innocence. The grand consistory, held at 
 Avignon in 1348, in presence of the pope, the 
 •cardinals and the foreign ministers, pronounced her 
 innocent. She made her defence with so many 
 arguments, and with so much pathos, that her ac- 
 cusers, the ambassadors from Hungary, were con- 
 founded ; and her judges unanimously declared that 
 she ought not even to be suspected of the guilt 
 alleged. Sterner advocates against her allege that 
 «he fascinated her judges by the sight of a young 
 and beautiful queen pleading her own cause with 
 tears in her eyes ; and De Sade agrees with Mu- 
 ratori in thinking that an attempt to exculpate her 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 275 
 
 i« like trying to wash a negro M'hite. These are 
 formidable opinions against any that I can offer, if 
 mere doubt can be called an opinion. I cannot, 
 however, but lean to the side of charity in think- 
 ing that, confronted as she was with her accusers, 
 her acquittal makes her guilt considerably apo- 
 cryphal. 
 
 The bishop of Cavaillon, who was the pope's 
 minister at Naples at the time of the assassination 
 of Andrew, was so shocked that he demanded his 
 leave, and embarked on board a galley to return to 
 Avignon. The next day, his vessel was overtaken 
 by a tempest, which drove her back to Herculano ; 
 and there the bishop had scarcely landed, when a 
 courier arrived from the queen, inviting him to 
 come and baptise an infant of which she had been 
 delivered. The prelate immediately set out for 
 Naples, performed the ceremony without delay, 
 departed again by sea, and arrived safely at Avig- 
 non in January 1346. It may be guessed with 
 what joy Petrarch received him, much as they dif- 
 fered about Giovanna's guilt ; but our poet did not 
 long enjoy his friend's society, the bishop being 
 sent by the pope on another embassy. 
 
 Our poet, as I have said, returned to Avignon 
 
 r 2 
 
276 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 towards the end of 1345, and continued to reside 
 there, or at Vaucluse, for more than a year. From 
 his sonnets, which he wrote to all appearance in 
 1345 and 46, he seems to have suffered from those 
 fluctuations of Laura's favour that naturally arose 
 from his own imprudence. When she treated him 
 with affability, he grew bolder in his assiduities, 
 and she was again obliged to be more severe. See 
 Sonnets cviii, cix, cxiv, and ccl. 
 
 During this sojourn, though he dates some of 
 his pleasantest letters from Vaucluse, he was pro- 
 jecting to return to Italy, and to establish himself 
 there, after bidding a final adieu to Provence. 
 When he acquainted his nominal patron, John 
 Colonna, with his intention, the cardinal rudely 
 taxed him with madness and ingratitude. Petrarch 
 frankly told the prelate that he Avas conscious of 
 no ingratitude, since, after fourteen years' delay in 
 his service, he had received no provision for his 
 future livelihood- This quarrel with the proud 
 churchman is, with fantastic pastoral imagery, 
 made the subject of our poet's eighth Bucolic, en- 
 titled Divortium. I suspect that Petrarch's free 
 language in favour of the Tribune Rienzo was not 
 unconcerned with their alienation. 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Petrarch spends the winter of 1346 at Avignon — Witnesses 
 the Fetes given to Charles of Luxemburg — That Prince dis- 
 tinguishes Laura at a Grand Ball — Petrarch's Sonnet upon the 
 incident — Feuds in the Papal Conclave — Danger of a Boxing 
 Match between two Cardinals — Charles's promise to the Pope 
 in the event of his Election to the Empire — He is Elected — 
 Petrarch's Visit to the Bishop of Cavaillon — He commences 
 his Treatise on a " Solitary Life" — His Description of his War 
 with the Water Nymphs of the Sorgue — Petrarch's Sonnet 
 respecting Laura supposed to have been addressed to a Lady 
 who was their mutual friend — Laura is seized with Ophthalmia 
 — He visits her — She recovers — His Sonnet on the occasion — 
 He is made Prebendary of Parma — His Letter to Ugolino de' 
 Rossi — He makes an Excursion to Vaucluse in company with 
 Socrates, and they visit together the Bishop of Cavaillon — 
 His pleasing Letter from Vaucluse to Guglielmo di Pastrengo 
 — Visits his Brother at the Carthusian Convent of Montrieux 
 — Is enthusiastically welcomed by the Monks — Returns to 
 Avignon, and writes his Treatise, " De Otio Religiose." 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 279 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 Notwithstanding Petrarch's declared dislike 
 of Avignon, there is every reason to suppose that 
 he passed the ^-eater part of the winter of 1346 
 in his western Babylon ; and we find that he wit- 
 nessed many interesting scenes between the con- 
 flicting cardinals, as well as the brilliant f^tes that 
 were given to two foreign princes, whom an im- 
 portant affair now brought to Avignon. These 
 were the King of Bohemia, and his son Charles 
 Prince of Moravia ; otherwise called Charles of 
 Luxemburg. 
 
 This subject requires a reference to earlier events. 
 A bitter quarrel between Pope John XXII. and 
 the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria, had been car- 
 ried, on both sides, to the utmost extremities. 
 Lems had made several but fruitless attempts to 
 reconcile himself with the church ; their failure is 
 
280 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 attributed to the influence of Philip of Yalois, 
 King of France. Lewis of Bavaria, on learning 
 the election of Clement VI., sent ambassadors with 
 unlimited powers to effect a reconcilement ; but 
 the pope proposed conditions so hard and humbling 
 that the states of the German Empire, who assem- 
 bled at Frankfort, peremptorily rejected them. On 
 this, his holiness confirmed the condemnations 
 Avhich he had already passed on Lewis of Bavaria, 
 and enjoined the electors of the empire to proceed 
 to a new choice of the King of the Komans. 
 " John of Luxemburg," says Villani, " would have 
 been emperor if he had not been blind." A wish 
 to secure the empire for his son and to further his 
 election brought him to the pope at Avignon. 
 
 Prince Charles, though much will be found 
 blameable in his subsequent conduct with regard to 
 Italy, shewed himself, on every other stage of 
 action, wise and gallant.* He had been educated in 
 
 * Charles had to thank the pontiflf for being elected Empe- 
 ror. Rehdorf, in his Annals, calls him a man of the deepest 
 circumspection in all his views and actions, and commends 
 him as the pacificator of Germany. Matthew Villani tells us 
 that he used to dress in decent clothes, without any ornament ; 
 that he was sparing in expense, a lover of money, and an 
 ungrateful rewarder of those who had served him in arms ; but 
 that he was shrewdly intelligent, and that he always couched 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 281 
 
 France, and had distinguished himself in the Italian 
 wars. Clement VI. had known Charles in France, 
 and, at the time when he was himself a cardinal, 
 had foretold the prince that he should, one day, be 
 king of the Komans. Charles replied, you will be 
 pope before I am king of the Eomans. Both pre- 
 dictions were verified. 
 
 The affair of the election was treated, in the con- 
 clave, with much animosity. The sacred college 
 was divided into two parties ; Cardinal Taillerand,* 
 
 his answers in a few pithy words without delay or hesitation. 
 From what historians have said, it may be generally inferred 
 that he was one of the greatest princes of his age. The 
 failures which he made are not to be attributed to folly or 
 cowardice ; for he made war in Germany with sense, valour, 
 and success. Many are the obligations which the empire pro- 
 fesses to owe him. In 1 356, having succeeded in pacifying Ger- 
 many, he published the famous "Golden Bull," which is still 
 regarded as the basis of public rights among the Germans. He 
 did still more for Bohemia, in reducing its barons to obedience 
 by the severe justice which he administered at the gates of 
 Prague, where he summarily settled the longest litigations. 
 He corrected and arranged the Bohemian laws ; promoted 
 agriculture, planted the first vines in Bohemia, explored the 
 mines of the country, discovered the springs of Carlsbad, and 
 there constructed baths. He promoted the arts, and greatly 
 honoured the learned. 
 
 * Cardinal Taillerand, of the house of the Counts of Perigord, 
 was raised to the purple by Pope John XXH. He was uncle 
 
2S2 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 at the head of the French faction, warmly sup- 
 ported Charles of Luxemburg ; the Cardinals of 
 Gascony as violently opposed him ; their chief 
 was the Cardinal de Commenges. Petrarch com- 
 pares those two prelates to two bulls feeding in the 
 pasturage of St. Peter, who butted each other with 
 their horns, and made the forests resound with their 
 bellowing. In full consistory, and without re- 
 gard to the presence of the pope, they loaded each 
 other with the most scurrilous abuse, reciprocally 
 bestowing such appellations as traitor to the church 
 and patron of cut-throats. De Commenges re- 
 proached Taillerand with having shed the blood of 
 Andrew of Hungary. The opponent bull bellowed 
 out that it was a lie, and, starting up, was about 
 to gore and toss his accuser, not with words, but 
 with blows. The other venerable priest rose in a 
 boxing attitude, and would have given him battle 
 
 fo Carlo di Durazzo, of the royal family of Naples. In 1348 
 he was sent to make up the differences between the kings of 
 France and England. He prevented John Birelli, General of 
 the Carthusians, a holy anchorite, from being raised to the 
 tiara, because he would have curbed the dissolute manners of 
 the cardinals ; but the election of a pope less to his liking made 
 him repent of what he had done. He was present at the 
 defeat of Poitiers, after which he went over to England. He • 
 returned to Avignon, where he died in 1361. 
 
LIFE OF Pf:TRAR('n. 283 
 
 iiianual, if the pope and their brother prehites had 
 not separated them. The same day the dependants 
 and domestics of those imitators of their peaceful 
 Saviour flew to arms ; their hotels were barricaded, 
 and, if a shew of reconciliation had not been effected, 
 blood would have been shed. 
 
 This disturbance prevented not the churchmen 
 from proceeding in the election ; but, before bring- 
 ing it to a conclusion, his holiness wished to 
 make sure of Prince Charles's repaying the honour 
 intended for him by a promise of submission to the 
 church. He, therefore, made him sign, on the 
 22d of April, 1346, in presence of twelve cardinals 
 and his brother William Roger, a declaration of 
 which the following is the substance. 
 
 " If, by the Grace of God, I am elected King 
 of the Romans, I will fulfil all the promises and 
 confirm all the concessions of my grandfather 
 Henry VII. and of his predecessors. I will revoke 
 the acts made by Lewis of Bavaria. I will occupy 
 no place, either in or out of Italy, belonging to 
 the Church. I will not enter Rome before the 
 day appointed for my coronation. I will depart 
 from thence the same day with all my attendants, 
 and I ^^ill never return without the permission of 
 
284 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 the holy see." He might as well have declared 
 that he would give the pope all his power, as king 
 of the Romans, provided he was allowed the profits ; 
 for, in reality, Charles had no other view with 
 regard to Italy than to make money. 
 
 This concession, which contrasts so poorly with 
 the conduct of Charles on many other occasions, 
 excited universal indignation in Germany, and a 
 good deal even in Italy. Petrarch exclaimed 
 against it as mean and atrocious ; for, catholic as 
 he was, he was not so much a churchman as to see 
 mthout indignation the papal tiara exalted above 
 the imperial crown. 
 
 In July, 1346, Charles was elected, and, in de- 
 rision, was called, " the Emperor of the Priests." 
 The death of his rival, Lewis of Bavaria, however, 
 which happened in the next year, prevented a 
 civil war, and Charles IV. remained peaceable pos- 
 sessor of the empire. 
 
 " It is astonishing," De Sade remarks, " that 
 Charles of Luxemburg, who had a cultivated 
 mind, who was fond of letters, and who subse- 
 quently courted the friendship of Petrarch, should 
 not have made his acquaintance during his residence 
 at Avignon. We should not credit the circum- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 285 
 
 stance, if it were not verified in one of Petrarch's 
 Familiar Epistles.* De Sade conjectures that the 
 poet's displeasure at the prince's mean compromise 
 with the pope made him scorn to be presented to 
 him. But, if such were Petrarch's feelings, they 
 seem to have been mollified by a circumstance which 
 he commemorates with many compliments to the 
 prince in his two-hundredth sonnet, beginning — 
 
 Real Natura, angelico intelletto — 
 
 Among the f^tes that were given to Charles, a 
 ball was held at Avignon, in a grand saloon brightly 
 illuminated. Thither came all the beauties of the 
 city and of Provence. The prince, who had heard 
 much of Laura, through her poetical fame, sought 
 her out and saluted her in the French manner. 
 
 Petrarch went, according to his custom, to pass 
 the term of Lent at Yaucluse. The bishop of Ca- 
 •vaillon, eager to see the poet, persuaded him to visit 
 his recluse residence, and remained with Petrarch 
 as his guest for fifteen days, in his own castle, on 
 the summit of rocks, that seemed more adapted for 
 the perch of birds than the habitation of men. 
 There is now scarcely a wreck of its remains. 
 
 It would seem, however, that the bishop's con- 
 * Fam. Ep. L. 15, Ep. 4. 
 
286 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 versation made this retirement very agreeable to Pe- 
 trarch ; for it inspired Inm with the idea of writing 
 a Treatise on a Solitary Ijifi. Of this work he 
 made a sketch in a short time, but did not finish it 
 till twenty years afterwards, when he dedicated 
 and presented it to the Bishop of Cavaillon. 
 
 Our poet spent the greater part of the summer 
 of 1346 at Vaucluse. During his former residence, 
 he had, by confining the stream of the Sorgue, 
 gained a small piece of ground which he converted 
 into a garden; but the river, having lately over- 
 flowed its artificial bank, he now employed himself 
 in forcing back the stream and recovering his 
 ground, which the Naiads of the Sorgue had re- 
 claimed, as if indignant at his delay in Italy. This 
 incident he made the subject of an epistle in Latin 
 verse, describing his war with the nymphs. At 
 the same time he invites his friend, the Bishop of 
 Cavaillon, to come and visit him in his retirement. 
 Petrarch, with all his love of seclusion, was neither 
 an anchorite nor a misanthrope. He seems to have 
 anticipated a sentiment expressed, centuries later, 
 by one of Zimmermann's readers, who, after perusing 
 the German sage's praises of solitude, remarket! — 
 " Yes, solitude is sweet ; particularly so when we 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 287 
 
 have a friend beside iis to whom we can say, ' how 
 sweet is solitude !' " This war of his with the 
 nymphs, who were jealous of his devotion to the 
 Muses, ended, according to Petrarch's own con- 
 fession, in a compromise between the belligerents, 
 which, upon the whole, was favourable to the 
 aquatic ladies. The nymphs, true to their sex, 
 ivould have their icaij^ and, accordingly, in winter 
 they broke down the rampart, which he had built 
 up in summer. The poet, finding it a fruitless at- 
 tempt to confine the stream of the Sorgue, con- 
 tented himself with a small portion of land at the 
 foot of a rock, which, with a little artificial defence, 
 could never be overflowed, unless the river should 
 overturn the rock itself. 
 
 In a second invitation to his friend the Cardinal, 
 he says, " If your momentous engagements will 
 permit you, pray come and see me here. You will 
 find me grown a fisher. Having made peace with 
 the Naiads, I have now no other arms than nets and 
 tridents, with which I harpoon the fishes in a kind 
 of labyrinth, made with canes, into which the water 
 passes, and is detained." It appears that the cardi- 
 nal paid more than one visit to Vaucluse during this 
 season, and, on one occasion, made the poet a pre- 
 sent of a dog, whose playful qualities Petrarch 
 
288 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 describes. This quadruped became his amusing 
 and constant companion. 
 
 It is agreeable to meet, in Petrarch's life at the 
 shut-up valley, with any circumstance, however 
 trifling, that indicates a cheerful state of mind ; for, 
 independently of his loneliness, the inextinguish- 
 able passion for Laura never ceased to haunt him ; 
 and his love, strange to say, had mad, momentary 
 hopes, which only deepened at their departure the 
 returning gloom of despair. Petrarch never wrote 
 more sonnets on his beloved than during the course 
 of this year. Laura had a fair and discreet female 
 friend at Avignon, who was also the friend of 
 Petrarch, and interested in his attachment, which 
 she wished to be successful, as far as virtue and 
 honour would pennit. The ideas which this ami- 
 able confidante entertained of harmonizing success 
 in misplaced attachment with honour and virtue 
 must have been Platonic, even beyond the feelings 
 which Petrarch, in reality, cherished ; for, occa- 
 sionally, the poet's sonnets are too honest for pure 
 Platonism. This lady, however, whose name is 
 unknown, strove to convince Laura that she ought 
 to treat her lover with less severity. " She pushed 
 forward," says De Sade, " and kept back Petrarch." 
 One day she recounted to tlie poet all the proofs 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 289 
 
 of affection, and after these proofs she said, " You 
 infidel, can you doubt. that she loves you ?" It is 
 to this fair friend that he is supposed to have ad- 
 dressed his ninetieth sonnet. 
 
 This year, his Laura was seized with a defluxion 
 in her eyes, which made her suffer much, and even 
 threatened her with blindness. This was enough 
 to bring a sonnet from Petrarch (his xciv), in which 
 he laments that those eyes which were the sun of 
 his life should be for ever eclipsed. He went to 
 see her during her illness, ha-^ang now the privilege 
 of visiting her at her own house, and one day he 
 found her perfectly recovered. Whether the 
 ophthalmia was infectious, or only endemic, T know 
 not ; but so it was, that, whilst Laura's eyes got 
 well, those of her lover became affected with the 
 same defluxion. It struck his imagination, or, at 
 least, he feigned to believe poetically that the 
 inalady of her eyes had passed into his ; and, in 
 one of his sonnets, he exults at this welcome cir- 
 cumstance.* " I fixed my eyes," he said, " on 
 Laura ; and that moment a something inexpres- 
 sible, like a shooting star, darted from them to 
 mine. This is a present from love, in which I 
 
 * Sonnet cxcvi. 
 VOL. I. U 
 
290 LIFE or PETRARCH. 
 
 rejoice. How delightful it is thus to cure the 
 darling object of one's soul !" 
 
 The twentieth year of his devotion to Laura had 
 now elapsed ; and, in viewing an attachment so 
 deep and permanent, our sympathy begins to get 
 ahead of our strict morality, and to admire, at 
 least, the poet's consistency. The philosopher 
 Hume has asserted that violent passions always 
 exhaust themselves speedily ; but Hume had never 
 felt the most exquisite of all passions, and could 
 not be a true judge of it. I have always thought 
 this assertion unphilosophical. There is no saying, 
 to be sure, what furious caprices may burn but for 
 a short time in weak minds, and disappear like 
 shot stars; but, speaking generally of human 
 nature, and of minds even ordinarily constituted, 
 I am convinced that our intense passions alone are 
 of long duration. Still more permanent are the 
 biasses of strong sensibility. Our poet's love was 
 an example of this truth. . . 
 
 Petrarch received some shew of complacency 
 from Laura, which his imagination magnified ; and 
 it was some sort of consolation, at least, that his 
 idol was courteous to him ; but even this scanty 
 solace was interrupted. Some malicious person 
 communicated to Laura that Petrarch was imposing 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 291 
 
 upon her, and that he was secretly addressing his 
 love and his poetry to another lady under a bor- 
 rowed name. Laura gave ear to the calumny, 
 and, for a time, debarred him from her presence. 
 If she had been wholly indifferent to him, this 
 misunderstanding would have never existed ; for 
 jealousy and indifference are a contradiction in 
 terms. I mean true jealousy. There is a pseudo 
 species of it, with which many wives are troubled 
 who care nothing about their husbands' affection ; 
 a plant of ill nature that is reared merely to be a rod 
 of conjugal castigation. Laura, however, disco- 
 vered at last, that her admirer was playing no 
 double part. She was too reasonable to protract so 
 unjust a quarrel, and received him again as usual. 
 I have already mentioned that Clement VI. had 
 made Petrarch canon of Modeua, which benefice 
 he resigned in favour of his friend, Luca Christino, 
 and that this year his holiness had also conferred 
 upon him the prebend of Parma. This preferment 
 excited the envy of some persons, who endeavoured 
 to prejudice Ugolino de' Rossi, the bishop of the 
 diocese, against him. Ugolino was of that family 
 w^hich had disputed for the sovereignty of Parma 
 with the Correggios, and against whom Petrarch 
 had pleaded in favour of their rivals. From this 
 
 u 2 
 
292 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 circumstance it was feared that Ugolino might be 
 inclined to listen to those maligners, who accused 
 Petrarch of having gone to Avignon for the pur- 
 pose of undermining the bishop in the pope's favour. 
 Petrarch, upon his promotion, wrote a letter to 
 Ugolino, strongly repelling this accusation. This 
 is one of the manliest epistles that ever issued from 
 his pen. It is self-possessed, and bears an air of 
 convincing sincerity, whilst he asserts the indepen- 
 dence of his disposition and his attachment to 
 literary retirement. " Allow me to assure you," 
 he says, " that I would not exchange my tranquil- 
 lity for your troubles, nor my poverty for your 
 riches. Do not imagine, however, that I despise 
 your particular situation. I only mean that there 
 is no person of your rank whose preferment I de- 
 sire ; nor would I accept such preferment if it were 
 oifered to me. I should not say thus much, if my 
 familiar intercourse with the pope and the cardi- 
 nals had not convinced me that happiness in that 
 rank is more a shadow than a substance. It was 
 a memorable saying of Pope Adrian IV., ' that 
 he knew no one more unhappy than the sovereign 
 pontiff; his throne is a seat of thorns ; his mantle 
 is an oppressive weight ; his tiara shines splendidly 
 indeed, but it is not without a devouring fire.' If 
 
I 
 
 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 293 
 
 I had been ambitious," continues Petrarch, " I 
 might have been preferred to a benefice of more 
 value than your's ;" and he refers to the fact of the 
 pope having given him his choice of several high 
 preferments. 
 
 I have little doubt that, if Petrarch had loved 
 leisure and study less, and preferment more, he 
 might have obtained a cardinal's hat. 
 
 In the above letter, he alludes to the absurd 
 calumny that he was a magician, because he read 
 Yirgil and was fond of solitude. 
 
 Petrarch passed the winter of 1346-47 chiefly 
 at Avignon, and made but few and short excursions 
 to Vaucluse. In one of these, at the beginning of 
 1347, when he had Socrates* to keep him com- 
 pany at Yaucluse, the bishop of Cavaillon invited 
 
 * lu the unedited edition of Donato degli Albanzani, (says 
 Baldelli) still existing in the Medicean library, we have these 
 words : " Socrates a magno Socrate dictus, quidam Gerraanus, 
 nomine Levisius, in Musica peritissimus, ei poetse consocius 
 atque amicissiraus," Petrarch, in a letter published by De 
 Sade, (Pieces Just. No. iv.) states that this friend, whom the 
 poet named Socrates, was born in a place called Annea Cam- 
 piniese, a tongue of land between the Rhine and Holland and 
 Brabant, which he conjectures to be Ham, near Bois le Due, 
 an humble birthplace, but fortunate, according to Petrarch, in 
 having given birth to so great a genius. In a passage of his 
 Vita Solitaria, he extols the poetical talents of Socrates, who, 
 he says, united with jocose and cheerful conversation mature 
 
294 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 them to his castle. Petrarch returned the follow- 
 ing answer : 
 
 "Yesterday we quitted the city of storms to 
 take refuge in tliis harbour, and taste the sweets 
 of repose. We have nothing but coarse clothes, 
 suitable to the season and the place we live in ; 
 but in this rustic dress we will repair to see you, 
 since you command us ; we fear not to present 
 ourselves in this rustic dress ; our desire to see 
 you puts down every other consideration. What 
 matters it to us how we appear before one who 
 possesses the depth of our hearts. If you wish to 
 see us often you will treat us without ceremony." 
 
 His visits to Vaucluse were rather infrequent ; 
 business, he says, detained him often at Avignon, 
 in spite of himself ; but still at intervals he passed 
 a day or two to look after his gardens and trees. On 
 
 sense and steadiness of character ; adding that the admired 
 serenity which shone on the forehead of Socrates, the ancient, 
 brightened on his face. By his musical talents he got ad- 
 mitted into the house of Colonna, where he made acquaintance 
 with Lelio, and afterwards with Petrarch. So scrupulous was 
 their friendship for Petrarch, that he was an arbiter in their 
 friendly feelings towards each other. Lelio, when residing at 
 Rome, was falsely informed by some busy, malicious person, 
 that Socrates had attempted to lower him in Petrarch's esti- 
 mation, and was resolved to throw off all intercourse with 
 him. But the poet inquired into the matter, and, bringing 
 about an explanation, reconciled them. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 295 
 
 one of these occasions, he wrote a pleasing letter to 
 William of Pastrengo, which we must thank De 
 Sade for having quoted. It was written in Latin 
 verse, and displays liveliness and warmth of heart. 
 " My disgust at the city, and my love of the 
 country, have brought me to this fountain, which 
 has the virtue of giving wings to the imagination. 
 You recollect that field formerly covered with 
 stones ; at present it is become a garden enamelled 
 with flowers. The river Sorgue refreshes it on one 
 side : I have enclosed it with high walls on the 
 south, and high rocks on the other, to shade it from 
 the morning sun. On these rocks the birds build 
 their nests : some construct them with moss, others 
 with the leaves of trees. It is a charming thing 
 to see those tender animals just peeping from their 
 eggs, and soon after, with fear and trembling, try- 
 ing their little wings and seizing with their timid 
 beaks the food that is brought to them. When I 
 walk in the meadows, on the banks of my river, 
 when I examine the trees which I have myself en- 
 grafted, and the laurels which I have transplanted 
 from foreign countries, the image of you, my dear 
 friend, appears on .every side. Here was the hil- 
 lock on which we sat, the bank on which we re- 
 posed, the water flowing at our feet, on which we 
 
296 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 diverted ourselves with making ducks and drakes. 
 Here we entertained ourselves with recalling the 
 Muses from their long exile, and with comparing the 
 Greek and Latin poets. It was here that, giving 
 ourselves up to the delights of an unrestrained con- 
 versation, we should have forgotten our supper, if 
 the coming on of night had not reminded us of 
 it. Whilst all that I see recalls these agreeable 
 ideas, the time flies rapidly, and the day passes 
 unobserved." 
 
 He then alludes to a meeting that he had had 
 in one of his evening excursions ; he met with a 
 group of ladies, to one of whom his friend Gugli- 
 elmo Pastrengo was tenderly attached. He says, 
 " I had scarcely left the outlets from the rocks 
 which surround this valley, when I perceived a 
 number of men and women approaching me. The 
 French effeminate fashion, which confounds the 
 dresses of the two sexes, would not allow me to 
 distinguish them at a distance ; but, when we 
 came nearer, the ambiguity disappeared, and I 
 discovered the fair ones by their ribbons, pearl 
 necklaces, rings, head-dresses, and habits bordered 
 with purple. We saluted each other. What an 
 agreeable surprise, my dear G uglielmo ! I recog- 
 nized the object of your affection, with whose 
 
I 
 
 k 
 
 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 297 
 
 beauty I have seen you so often captivated. How 
 fine an air and countenance ! If she had carried 
 a bow and quiver, I might have taken her for Diana. 
 After saluting me, she took my arm, and we con- 
 versed. I addressed myself at first to the whole 
 group. * May I ask,' said I, ' without indiscretion, 
 what is the object of your walk ?' The answer was, 
 * We are going to see this fountain, which is so 
 famous.' But I was not to be duped by the reply ; 
 and I have strong misgivings that the party had 
 another object. Love sharpens the wits of lovers, 
 and suggests a thousand stratagems to satisfy the 
 heart's desire. Your handsome sweetheart was 
 not unaware that you had come to this place, and, 
 missing you elsewhere, she made this visit to the 
 fountain a pretty pretext for coming to see you. 
 Her manner was lively, and she had a look of 
 gladness in looking round these places which could 
 only proceed from love. We talked of you, and 
 I could not have parted from her, but that the 
 night came on." 
 
 Petrarch's susceptible mind passed lightly from 
 gay and gallant feelings to reflections the most 
 serious and devout. What a diiference of tone in 
 this smiling, delightful letter, and in that which he 
 soon afterwards wrote to the Carthusians of Mont- 
 
298 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 rieux. He had not seen his brother since the 
 latter had taken the cowl in the Carthusian mo- 
 pastery, some five years before. To that convent 
 he paid a visit in February 1347, and he was 
 received like an angel from heaven. He was de- 
 lighted to see a brother whom he loved so much, 
 and to find him contented with the life which he 
 had embraced. The Carthusians, who had heard 
 of Petrarch, renowned as the finest spirit of the 
 age, were flattered by his showing a strong interest 
 in their condition ; and, though he passed but a 
 day and a night with them, they parted so mu- 
 tually well pleased, that he promised, on taking 
 leave, to send them a treatise on the happiness of 
 the life which they led. And he kept his word ; 
 for, immediately upon his return to Vaucluse, he 
 commenced his essay " De Otio Religioso — On the 
 leisure of the Keligious," and he finished it in a 
 few M^eeks. The object of this work is to show 
 the sweets and advantages of their retired state, 
 compared with the agitations of life in the world. 
 He sent the good Carthusians a letter, together 
 with his treatise, in which he hails them as divine 
 beings on earth, and remarks how rapidly the time 
 had passed in their company. It might well be so ; 
 for he remained with them only twenty-four hours. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 » 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Revolution at Rome accomplished by Cola di Rienzo — Birth 
 and History of that Extraordinary Man — The abuses prevail- 
 ing at Rome before he proposed " The Good Establishment" 
 — His means of awakening the attention of the Romans — The 
 rise of his popularity — He seizes the opportunity of Stefano 
 Colonna's departure from Rome to proclaim a new Constitu- 
 tion, and make the Romans swear to support it — He is in- 
 vested with the supreme executive power as Roman Tribune 
 — He overawes the Roman Barons — Establishes peace and se- 
 curity in the City and all its Vicinity — Sends an embassy to 
 the Pope at Avignon — His Couriers are every where respected 
 — Foreign Potentates acknowledge Rienzo's authority — Pe- 
 trarch is filled •with enthusiastic admiration of him — Decline 
 of prudence in the Tribune's character — Laura makes an 
 exception to her general severity towards Petrarch — Farther 
 proceedings of Rienzo — Insurrection of the Roman Nobles — 
 They are repulsed in their attack on Rome, with the loss of 
 six warriors of the Colonna Family — Petrarch determines to 
 leave Avignon and repair to Italy — His last Interview with 
 Laura. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 301 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 From these monkish reveries Petrarch was awa- 
 kened by an astounding public event, namely, the 
 elevation of Cola di Eienzo to the tribuneship of 
 Home. This extraordinary man, whose father kept 
 a tavern, and whose mother was a laundress, not- 
 withstanding the lowness of his birth, received an 
 excellent education. He was a rapid and assiduous 
 reader : he made himself intimately acquainted 
 with Livy, Cicero, Seneca, Valerius Maximus, and 
 Caesar : he was perpetually exploring the inscrip- 
 tions on marble, that are to be seen in Eome and 
 its precincts ; and he was the only one who could 
 read and explain them. Tiraboschi ranks him among 
 the best antiquaries of the fourteenth century. 
 
 He was a handsome man, and exceedingly elo- 
 quent. At the outset of his career he studied 
 great amenity of manners, smiling continually; 
 though it was alleged that there was something 
 
302 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 fantastic in his smile. His brothers having been 
 slain in one of those affrays Avhich occurred so fre- 
 quently at Eome, from the lawlessness of the aris- 
 tocratic factions, he was deeply moved by the 
 event; though he had not the present means of 
 avenging it. But he conceived a strong desire of 
 reforming the government of Rome, and his clas- 
 sical knowledge of the history of his country 
 heightened his hatred of its oppressors. He was 
 a notary by vocation. 
 
 His mission to the pope at Avignon has been 
 already noticed, as well as the congenial acquaint- 
 ance which he formed with Petrarch. On his re- 
 turn to Eome, he found the city still as it had 
 long been, indeed ever since the absence of the 
 popes, a scene of all the miseries resulting from 
 anarchy and dissension. The Roman barons had 
 fortified all the strong places and castles of the 
 Ecclesiastical States, and seized all the palaces 
 in the city belonging to the popes. They had 
 placed garrisons in all the ancient buildings that 
 were capable of being changed into fastnesses; 
 and as, within the vast extent of the walls of Au- 
 relian, one half of the quarters was deserted, those 
 barons were sole masters of many streets, where 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 303 
 
 they established themselves, surrounded by ruins. 
 How perishable is human glory ! I have seen a 
 similar instance of it in the desolated city of Oran, 
 in Africa, where you may hear the hyaena barking 
 in the halls of the old Spanish castle that once re- 
 sounded \nth the dance and songs of Castilian 
 chivalry, but which are now crumbling to dust, 
 verifying the words of the quaint epitaph still pre- 
 served, I believe, in Melrose Abbey : 
 
 Earth walked the earth glittering in. gold ! 
 Earth went to earth sooner than 'twould ; 
 Earth built on earth temples and towers ; 
 Earth said to earth, " all shall he ours !" 
 
 Perhaps I am not justified in the comparison of 
 
 the Roman barons with the hyaenas of Oran, for 
 
 none of the latter can either read, or write, or 
 
 patronise learned men. N^evertheless, the former, 
 
 I except not even Petrarch's friends, the Colonnas, 
 
 had something like a distant resemblance to savage 
 
 animals inhabiting the ruins of civilization. They 
 
 were sufficiently rich to have maintained regular 
 
 troops in their pay ; but, instead of these, they 
 
 employed brigands, and men who were the refuse 
 
 of jails, to guard their fortresses, and to them they 
 
 gave their protection and impunity to live as free-^ 
 
 hooters. 
 
301 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 It is true that there still existed in Home the 
 mock remains of a papal government. Each of 
 the thirteen quarters of the city appointed a chiefs 
 and there were magistrates, called Caprioni, who 
 were elected by the citizens ; but neither au- 
 thority nor force was found to belong to them. 
 The pope still retained the power of electing the 
 senator of Eome ; but he confided this high privi- 
 lege to one of the nobles, so that the judicial power 
 and the armed force were at the disposal of that 
 class, against whom force and justice ought to have 
 been principally directed. 
 
 The senator shut his eyes to the disorders of the 
 gentry, and was rarely knoT\Ti to punish their crimes, 
 unless the delinquent was his personal enemy. The 
 nobles sometimes humbled themselves before the 
 court of Avignon, in order to obtain benefits from 
 the pope ; but they never acknowledged his sove- 
 reign authority ; and the feudatories of the Church 
 thought that they had a right to still more inde- 
 pendence than even the feudatories of the empire. 
 The rivalship of the two houses of Colonna and 
 Orsini divided the whole of the nobility. At every 
 new outrage, at every robbery, murder, and con- 
 flagration. Cola di Eienzo had new grounds for 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 305 
 
 accusing the nobles of the anarchy endured by 
 Rome. He felt inspired as with the hereditary 
 fire of the Gracchi, and with more reason than the 
 ancient tribunes, since the patricians of his own 
 time, much beyond those of antiquity, were de- 
 serving of popular vengeance. 
 
 Cola, it has been mentioned, when he was joined 
 with Petrarch in the deputation to Avignon, took 
 the lead in public speaking. Clement VI. was 
 not to be swayed by popular oratory, but he re- 
 marked the talents of Rienzo. He spoke openly 
 to the pope concerning the Roman barons. He 
 described them as the disturbers of the streets, as 
 the perpetrators of murder, robbery, and all sorts 
 of evils. Thes€ truths were offensive to Car- 
 dinal Colonua, and he prevailed with the pope for 
 a while to^discountenance Rienzo, who was reduced 
 at one time to such poverty that he was on the 
 point of being carried to an hospital. But his 
 spirit was unconquerable under affliction. He re- 
 monstrated with his principal enemy, Colonna, till 
 the cardinal formed a better opinion of him, and 
 generously restored him to the favour of the pope. 
 The slight concession which Clement made to the 
 petition presented by Rienzo has been already men- 
 
 VOL. I. X 
 
306 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 tioned. Cola, ou his return to Home, found him- 
 self possessed of the respect of his fellow-citizens 
 from the integrity with which he had exercised his 
 commission. He formed at first a party around 
 him of a few men on whom he thought he could 
 thoroughly depend ; but he speedily found that 
 they were self-interested, and he perceived that, in 
 order to bring back Eome from anarchy to glory, 
 and to that justice and power which he emphati- 
 cally denominated " the Good EstabUshment,'''' he 
 must appeal to the people themselves. 
 
 To make an impression on the multitude, he spoke 
 at first to their eyes. His office called him habitu- 
 ally to the Capitol. There he caused a large picture 
 to be exhibited at the side of the market-place. In 
 that painting was represented an extensive sea 
 raging with fury, and in the midst of it m as a vessel 
 without helm or sails, which seemed on the point 
 of foundering. A woman, bearing every mark of 
 WTetchedness, with her robe torn upon her breast, 
 her hair dishevelled, and her hands folded, knelt on 
 the deck in the attitude of prayer to obtain deli- 
 verance from danger. Above her was written 
 " Rome.''' Around this vessel were four others, 
 which had already suffered shipwreck ; their sails 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 307 
 
 had fallen, their masts were broken, their rudders 
 shattered. On each of them was seen the corpse 
 of a woman, with the respective names of Babylon, 
 Carthage, Troy, and Jerusalem. Whilst the people 
 were contemplating this picture, Rienzo came for- 
 ward, and with his wonted eloquence declaimed 
 against the nobles, who had brought the state into 
 this abyss. 
 
 Some days afterwards, he caused an iron tablet 
 with a beautiful Latin inscription, which he had 
 lately discovered among the ruins of the city, to be 
 placed in the choir of the church of St. Giovanni 
 di Laterano. He invited the learned, accompanied 
 by the people at large, to come and inspect 
 it. When the learned, as they were called, 
 could not decipher it, he interpreted the inscrip- 
 tion himself. It was a " Senatus Consultum,'" by 
 which the senate conferred on Vespasian the diffe- 
 rent powers of emperor of Rome, in M^hich act 
 the forms of liberty were still preserved. Cola, 
 after expounding the text, turned towards the 
 people and said, " You see here what was the an- 
 cient majesty of the people of Rome. It was they 
 who conferred authority upon their emperors as the 
 vicars of their rights. These emperors derived their 
 
 X 2 
 
308 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 being and their power from the free will of your 
 ancestors ; but you have consented that the eyes 
 of Rome should be torn out, and that the pope and 
 the emperor should abandon your walls, and have 
 no more dependence upon you. Hence, peace has 
 been banished from our land ; the blood of your 
 nobles and your citizens has been uselessly shed in 
 private quarrels ; your strength is paralyzed by dis- 
 cord ; and the city that was formerly the queen of 
 nations is become their mockery. Romans, I con- 
 jure you to reflect that you are about to be a spec- 
 tacle of the universe. The jubilee approaches, 
 when Christians from the farthest ends of the earth 
 will come to visit your city. Do you wish that 
 they should find it nothing but a scene of weak- 
 ness, ruins, oppression, and crimes ?" 
 
 The nobles, when Rienzo attacked them so. vehe- 
 mently, listened to him, unfortunately for them- 
 selves, with a curiosity that was mingled with con- 
 tempt, for they believed him to be a man of only 
 superficial influence amongst the lower people, and 
 they laughed at him as a sort of eloquent charlatan. 
 They remarked that the state of Rome could never 
 be changed by hamngues over pictures and allego- 
 ries, l^evertheless, the people began to be moved ; 
 and even persons superior to the populace, some of 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 309 
 
 the nobles themselves, who had gone to hear him as 
 a mountebank, came away deeply impressed with 
 the truths which he inculcated. 
 
 Eienzo noM- thought that it was time to advance 
 in his project. On the first day of Lent, 1347, 
 he affixed to the gate of the church of St. Greorgio 
 di Yelabra a writing with the following words. " In 
 a few days the Romans will return to their ' an- 
 cient Grood Establishment.' " In the mean time, 
 he collected on Mount Aventine all the men whom 
 he supposed to be animated by the same patriotic 
 sentiments. Merchants, men of letters, and even 
 nobles of the second order, assisted at this con- 
 venticle. Rienzo implored them, as true Romans, 
 to concur with him in saving their country. He 
 described to them the ancient extent and domi- 
 nion of Rome — the once faithful submission of 
 those cities of Italy which were now wholly re- 
 volted. He wept as he spoke, and his audience 
 wept with him ; but, drying his tears, he reani- 
 mated their courage, assuring them that Rome still 
 retained the elements of her pristine power, and 
 that the imposts which they paid, year by year, 
 ■were alone sufficient to restore force to the Roman 
 government, and to reduce their rebel subjects. 
 
310 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 He told them that the pope approved of his efforts 
 for " the Good Est ahli slim cnt,'' and that they might 
 reckon upon his holiness's assistance. He then 
 administered to all whom he had convoked on 
 Mount Aventine an oath upon the Evangelists, 
 that they would aid him with all their might in 
 the restoration of Koman liberty. 
 
 It was necessary to seize on the first favourable 
 moment for snatching their sovereign authority 
 from the nobles. Cola learned that, on the 19tli 
 of May, Stefano Colonna was to proceed with a great 
 number of gentlemen to Corneto, in order to convoy 
 a quantity of grain. Eienzo waited no longer. He 
 proclaimed by sound of trumpet throughout the 
 city, that every Eoraan citizen was to repair to him 
 on the morrow, without arms, in order to take 
 measures for " the Good EstahUshmenfy From 
 midnight till nine the next morning he listened to 
 thirty masses in the church of St. Agnolo Pescie- 
 vendolo, and on Ascension day, the 20th of May, he 
 left the church, armed, but with his head uncovered. 
 Young men surrounded him, and rent the air with 
 acclamations. Eaimondo, the bishop of Orvieto, the 
 pope's vicar at Kome, walked beside him. Three 
 of the best Eoman patriots carried their standards 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 31 J 
 
 before him, on which were depicted allegoric images 
 of Liberty, Peace, and Justice. One hundred men- 
 at-arms formed his escort, and these were followed 
 by an immense crowd of citizens without arms. 
 
 The whole procession advanced in the most peace- 
 able manner towards the Capitol. Arrived at the 
 bottom of the grand staircase. Cola stopped before 
 the lion in basalt, and, turning towards the people, 
 demanded their approval of the laws that had been 
 laid down for the " the Good Establishment,'" which 
 he caused to be read to them in a loud voice. This 
 first rough draught of the constitution provided 
 rather for the public security in general than for 
 the different orders of the state. A guard of five 
 hundred horsemen and of a hundred infantry were 
 quartered in that part of the city, and cruisers were 
 stationed in the Tiber for the protection of the 
 trade and shipping. The right of the nobles to 
 keep fortresses was formally annulled, whilst the 
 people and their delegates recovered the right of 
 guarding the bridges, the harbours, and all other 
 strong places. Grranaries were established through- 
 out the city; the poor were assured of alms; 
 and the magistrates were bound to guarantee the 
 promptitude of trials and punishments. 
 
312 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 These laws were received with enthusiasm by the 
 assembled people, who authorized Rienzo to put 
 them into execution ; and, for this purpose, they 
 invested him with sovereign power. The elder 
 Stefano Colonna, on hearing at Corneto of this 
 popular movement, returned in haste to Rome with 
 his troop of gentlemen. Stefano was at once the 
 most powerful of the Roman barons, and the one 
 who chiefly possessed the confidence of the pope. 
 Cola, the day after his arrival, sent him an order 
 to quit the city. The old baron contemptuously 
 tore his order in pieces, saying, '' If this upstart 
 does not behave himself better, I will have him 
 thrown out of a window." On this Rienzo caused 
 the alarm-bell in the Capitol to be rung. The 
 citizens immediately rose in arms, and the old 
 aristocrat learned in his turn that, unless he be- 
 haved himself better, he might find it diflficult to 
 make his exit by a door. The Colonna had scarcely 
 time to escape with a single valet to Palestrina. 
 
 The other Roman barons were also commanded 
 to quit the city, and they complied. All the for- 
 tified places,, all the gates and the bridges, were 
 consigned to companies of the militia. The most 
 notorious bandits, who for many years had braved 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 313 
 
 law and justice, were consigned to punishment ; 
 and the people, assembled in full convocation, con- 
 ferred on Cola di Rienzo the title of Tribune and 
 Liberator of Rome. The same titles were conferred 
 upon the bishop of Orvieto, the pope's vicar, who, 
 carried away by the eloquence of his extraordinary 
 colleague, concurred with him in the overthrow of 
 the oligarchy and the institution of " the Good 
 Establishment.'''' 
 
 The Tribune, having caused his authority to be 
 recognized within the precincts of the city, pre- 
 pared to make the surrounding country obedient 
 to the Roman people. The country places were 
 in a state of absolute dependence upon the nobles, 
 who had bristled them with fortifications, and 
 could count upon the submission of the peasants 
 as their vassals. Rienzo sent an order to all gen- 
 tlemen of rank to repair to the Capitol, and take 
 an oath for the support of the new constitution. 
 One of the young Colonnas presented himself be- 
 fore the Tribune, less from any wish to obey him 
 than from a desire to observe what was passing in 
 the city. When he saw Rienzo in the Capitol, 
 encompassed by an immense concourse of people, 
 Avho were receiving justice at his hands, and ready 
 
314 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 to execute his minutest orders, the young scion of 
 nobility thought it \visest to take the oath that 
 was prescribed. Soon afterwards, there arrived 
 three other Colonuas, an Orsini, a Savelli, and 
 several other distinguished barons, who swore also 
 to support " the Good 'Establishments They all 
 pledged themselves to send provisions to the mar- 
 ket of Rome, to watch over the safety of the roads, 
 to protect widows and orphans, and to appear at 
 the Capitol, either anned or unarmed, according to 
 the summons that should be sent to them. They 
 promised never to attack the people or the Tribune 
 of Rome, never to give refuge to robbers and ma- 
 lefactors, and to abstract nothing from the revenues 
 of the commonwealth. The inferior gentry, the 
 notaries, and the merchants, were called upon in 
 their turn to take this constitutional oath. 
 
 After a dreadful anarchy, during which men 
 sullied with the blackest crimes had dared to walk 
 about with fearless fronts, to the terror of peaceful 
 citizens, the Romans, now seeing that murders and 
 robberies no longer passed with impunity, believed 
 that they had recovered their liberty. Sentences 
 that were arbitrary, though just, filled the guilty 
 with dismav ; and order was re-established in 
 
 I 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH- 315 
 
 Rome. The public could scarcely be expected to 
 distinguish between the justice of a despot and 
 that of a free people ; yet, in this first and pure 
 morning of his career, it seems unfair that Rienzo 
 should be called a despot. 
 
 Meanwhile, he sent ambassadors to the court of 
 Avignon, to give the pope an account of what he 
 had done, and to demand his approbation. The 
 Tribune's protestations of obedience and submission 
 in some degree appeased the alarm excited at the 
 pontifical court by the first rumours of the revolu- 
 tion. Cola soon found partizans among the learned, 
 who still clung to the classical idea that Rome had 
 a right to eternal dominion ; and among these there 
 was not a more zealous partizan than Petrarch. 
 
 The security that was restored to the highways 
 in the vicinity of Rome was considered throughout 
 Europe as a benefit to the whole Christian world ; 
 because the passion for pilgrimages still continued, 
 and the jubilee that was announced for the year 
 1350 was likely to attract vast crowds of the 
 faithful to the city. 
 
 The couriers of Rienzo carried each a little 
 silver rod, marked with the arms of the pope and 
 the Tribune. Every where they were treated with 
 
316 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 respect the moment they showed these badges of 
 their office.* " I have carried my silver rod/' 
 said one of them^ " into the city, as well as into 
 the depths of the forests ; and thousands of persons 
 have thrown themselves upon their knees, and 
 kissed the badge of my authority with tears of 
 gratitude for the safety of the highways and the 
 expulsion of robbers." The Tribune's couriers, in 
 fact, traversed the greatest part of Europe. They 
 were sent to the cities and commonwealths of 
 Tuscany, Lombardy,Campagna, and theKomagna; 
 to the Doge of Venice ; to the Lords of Mihm and 
 Ferrara ; to the Princes of Naples, the King of 
 Hungary, the pope, and the two elected emperors. 
 To these high personages they announced the new 
 order of things at Rome, in the name of Nicola, 
 " tlte severe and merciful, the Tribune of Ltiherty, 
 Peace, and Justice^ and the illustrious Deliverer of 
 the Holy Roman Republic" These were the 
 express titles which he at first assumed ; he after- 
 wards took others still more vain-glorious. 
 
 In his letters to all these powers he invited them 
 to send to Rome deputies furnished with suflScient 
 
 * Frammenti di Storia Romana, Lib. xi. Ch. II. quoted by 
 Sisniondi. 
 
LIFE or PETRARCH. 317 
 
 instructions, in order to deliberate with him in a 
 grand council respecting the welfare of Europe. 
 He added, that all the high-roads were already 
 free, as well for the pilgrims as for the envoys of 
 princes who might repair- to Rome. These mes- 
 sages from the Tribune were well received, above 
 all in Tuscany. The Florentines were flattered by 
 Rienzo calling them " the children of Rome," and 
 " a colony of the Romans." They sent him a 
 hundred horsemen, and promised to forward more, 
 if he should require them. The Perugians sent him 
 sixty men-at-arms ; the Siennese fifty ; and the 
 whole of Italy appeared ready to second, if not to 
 obey, his commands. 
 
 Rienzo was now at the zenith of his true great- 
 ness; and, though the title of the august Tribmie, 
 which he had assumed, exhibited a symptom of the 
 vanity that finally ruined him, there was hitherto, 
 with this exception, nothing censurable in his 
 conduct. His putting to death Martino di Puerto, 
 a man of the first distinction, is related as an 
 instance of his cruelty, because his widow came to 
 witness his execution ; but it was, in truth, only 
 an act of justice. Martino was a robber and an 
 oppressor, well worthy of his fate. Rienzo also 
 
318 LIFE or PETRARCH. 
 
 caused a lord of tlie family of Annibaldi to be 
 beheaded for disobeying his orders, and imprisoned 
 Pietro Agapito Colonna, who had been senator 
 during the same year. These severities admitted 
 of justification. Their best apology was that the 
 Roman territory was now cleared from cut-throats 
 and robbers ; that agriculture, though it had been 
 long neglected, began to flourish under legal pro- 
 tection, and that commerce was restored to the 
 city. Historians assure us that under Cola's 
 administration carriers might safely leave their 
 merchandise in the open streets, and that travellers 
 passing through the Roman territories might pub- 
 licly convey large sums of money without fear of 
 being plundered. 
 
 Among the embassies which Rienzo received from 
 foreign states, those from Giovanna of IN^aples and 
 the King of Hungary Mere not the least flattering 
 to him. To his tribunal, those two potentates 
 referred theii' cause respecting the assassination 
 of Andrew ; and they appealed to Cola as an 
 impartial dispenser of justice. On the day ap- 
 pointed for the hearing of the cause, Rienzo was 
 seated upon his throne, with all the ensigns of 
 tribuuitial authority, attended by his officers of 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 319 
 
 state, and encircled by the people of Eome. After 
 he had given a full hearing- to the advocates on 
 either side, he postponed the final adjudication of 
 the case to a future day, and thus shewed his pru- 
 dence in withholding a decision on a subject so 
 interesting and delicate. 
 
 Hitherto we have seen the Tribune, upon the 
 whole, sustaining a part of unquestionable useful- 
 ness and glory. From the earliest accounts of this 
 revolution, Petrarch was animated with as much 
 enthusiasm as if he had been himself engaged in 
 the enterprize. Under the first impulse of his 
 feelings, he sent an epistolary congratulation and 
 advice to Eienzo and the Eoman people. This 
 letter breathes a strongly republican spirit. . In 
 later times, we perceive that Petrarch would have 
 been glad to witness the accomplishment of his 
 darling object — Eome restored to her ancient power 
 and magnificence, even under an imperial govern- 
 ment. Our poet received from the Tribune an an- 
 sw^er to his epistolary oration, telling him that it 
 had been read to the Eoman people, and received 
 with applause. A considerable number of letters 
 passed between Petrarch and Cola. 
 
 When we look back on the long connection of 
 
320 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Petrarch with the Colonna family, his acknow- 
 ledged obligations, and the attachment to them 
 which he expresses, it may seem, at first sight, 
 sui-prising that he should have so loudly applauded 
 a revolution which struck at the roots of their 
 power. But, if we view the matter with a more 
 considerate eye, we shall hold the poet in nobler 
 and dearer estimation for his public zeal than if he 
 had cringed to the Colonnas. His personal attach- 
 ment to them, who were quite as much honoured 
 by his friendship as he was by their's, was a consi- 
 deration subservient to that of the honour of his 
 country and the freedom of his fellow-citizens; 
 *' for," as he says, in his own defence, " we owe 
 much to our friends, still more to our parents, but 
 every thing to our country." 
 
 Eienzo, having at leng-th reduced the nobles to 
 a state of dependence, failed not to convey an ac- 
 count of their humiliation to the court of Avignon ; 
 for, though his absolute power was utterly subver- 
 sive of the pope's immediate authority, he still 
 kept up a show of acting with his holiness's con- 
 currence. The Tribune's letter to Olement VI., 
 I find, in the MS. of Archdeacon Coxe, denounced 
 as proofs of Cola's insincerity. This management 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 321 
 
 of the pontiff, however, appears to me to evince 
 only his prudence. The world was at that time 
 by far too young for Rienzo to attempt open re- 
 sistance to the popedom. 
 
 " I admire," says Petrarch, in a letter to the 
 Tribune, " the art with which you avoid any expres- 
 sion that might subject you to reproach, and I 
 entreat you always to be attentive on this point. 
 I am in doubt whether there is more confidence or 
 moderation in your style of writing." But, in the 
 same epistle, quite forgetting his own praise of 
 moderation, he tells Rienzo " that he writes like 
 Cicero." 
 
 Retiring during this year for some time to Vau- 
 cluse, Petrarch composed an eclogue in honour of 
 the Roman revolution, the fifth in his Bucolics. 
 It is entitled " La Pieta Pastorale," and has 
 three speakers, who converse about their venerable 
 mother Rome, but in so dull a manner, that, if 
 Petrarch had never written better poetry, we 
 should not, probably, at this moment, have heard 
 of his existence. 
 
 In the midst of all this political fervour, the 
 poet's devotion to Laura continued unabated. De 
 Sade remarks, that Petrarch never composed so 
 
 VOL. I. Y 
 
^22 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1847. 
 
 many sonnets in one year as during 1S47. They 
 are still, for the most part, indicative of sadness 
 and despair. In his 116th sonnet, he eays : 
 
 ** Solco onde, e'n rena fondo, e scrivo in vento. 
 
 I plough in water, build on sand, and write on air." 
 
 If any thing were wanting to convince us that 
 Laura had treated him, during his twenty years' 
 courtship, with sufficient rigour, this and other 
 such expressions would suffice to prove it. A 
 lover, at the end of so long a period, is not apt to 
 speak thus despondingly of a mistress who has 
 been kind to him. 
 
 It seems, however, that there were exceptions 
 to her extreme reserve. On one occasion, this 
 year, when they met, and when Petrarch's eyes 
 were fixed upon her in silent reverie, she stretched 
 out her hand to him, and allowed him to detain it 
 in his for some time. This incident is alluded to in 
 his 218th sonnet. An exception to her severity 
 is mentioned by De Sade, vol. ii. p. 364. 
 
 If public events, however, were not enough to 
 make him forget his passion for Laura, they were 
 sufficiently stirring to keep his interest in them 
 alive. The head of Eienzo was not strong enough 
 to stand the elevation which he had attained. By 
 
1347.] LIFE OP PETRARCH. 323 
 
 physical strength and boldness, men have been 
 known to scale precipitous heights, from which, 
 when attained, they could not look down without 
 dizziness. Even so it was, morally speaking, with 
 Rienzo. His head was turned by his success. He 
 had made an impression on the people of Rome by 
 his allegories : in this he followed the taste of the 
 age, and the spirit of the nation ; he studied also 
 to strike men's minds by public spectacles, by his 
 gorgeous robes, and by the crowns and standards 
 that were borne before him. In his processions, 
 he carried a globe in his hand, as a symbol of the 
 destined sway of the resuscitated Roman empire. 
 It seems, however, that all this pageantry intoxi- 
 cated himself more than his people, and that he 
 multiplied fetes and ceremonies more from conceit 
 than policy. He vulgarized his greatness by aping 
 hereditary sovereigns. He delighted to be served 
 by great lords, and took a pleasure in their humi- 
 liation. His wife was waited upon by the ladies 
 of court, of baronial rank, who fanned the air 
 before her, to cool it, and to keep off the flies. 
 He kept an exquisitely luxurious table, and, in 
 short, revelled in the imitation of royalty. Dema- 
 gogues themselves are often strangely destitute of 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1347. 
 
 tact with regard to the character of the common 
 people, and often blame the versatility of their at- 
 tachment, when the cause has been only some act 
 of imprudence in the complainants themselves. 
 The veriest vulgar have a keener sense of propriety 
 than they are apt to get credit for. 
 
 The most fatal of all blunders that a popular 
 leader can commit, is touching the sense of ridicule 
 in the people — and that sense has always a hawk's 
 eye upon the plumes of vanity. Eienzo's re- 
 lations, connected with the house of a vintner and a 
 washerwoman, were raised to the highest dignities. 
 Among these was his uncle, who had followed the 
 calling of a barber, but who now never paraded 
 the streets without being attended by a cavalcade 
 of the principal citizens, whose chins he had so 
 lately shaved. When the people saw Strap, with 
 a sword instead of a razor, and a helmet instead 
 of a basin of soapsuds, they naturally indulged in 
 a hearty laugh. 
 
 All this had a bad effect ; and Bienzo made it 
 worse by his mania for being made a chevalier ; 
 not reflecting that this title was inconsistent with 
 his ofl^ce of Tribune. 
 
 The ceremony took place on the first of August, 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 325 
 
 1347, in the church of St. Giovanni di Laterano. 
 It was preceded by a festival, given to the whole 
 court, the most sumptuous that was ever seen, 
 which attracted to Eome an incredible multitude 
 of spectators. The luxury was unexampled, as 
 well as the order that prevailed. 
 
 It was usual for those who were to be made 
 chevaliers to be bathed on the evening preceding 
 their installation. That evening the Tribune bathed 
 in the vessel of porphyry in which, according to tra- 
 dition, Constantine washed himself after he had been 
 cured of the leprosy by Pope St. Sylvester. He 
 slept that night in the temple of St. Peter. jN^ext 
 morning he presented himself, clad in scarlet and 
 the finest fur, and in presence of the people was 
 girt with the sword of chivalry by Vico Scotto, 
 a chevalier and a Eoman gentleman. He then 
 heard mass in the chapel of Pope Boniface, seated 
 on a throne, and surrounded by the most distin- 
 guished men of Eome. At the celebration of this 
 mass, all the solemnities were observed that are 
 customary at the consecration of kings. 
 
 In the midst of these sacred ceremonies, Eienzo 
 advanced towards the people, and said, with a loud 
 voice, " We summon you, Messere Pope Clement 
 
326 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1347. 
 
 VI., to come to Rome, the geat of your church, 
 with your whole college of cardinals. We sum- 
 mon you, Lewds of Bavaria, and Charles of Bo- 
 hemia, who call yourselves kings and emperors of 
 the Eomans, and with you the whole college of 
 German electors, that you may show to us what 
 right you have to the empire, and by what law 
 you assume to dispose of it. We declare, in the 
 mean time, that the city of Rome, and all the cities 
 of Italy, are free, and ought to remain free. We 
 gTant to the citizens of those cities the rights of 
 Roman citizens ; and we take the world to wit- 
 ness that the election of the Roman emperor be- 
 longs to the city of Rome, to its people, and to all 
 Italy." After these words, he drew his sword, 
 and, striking the air with it in the direction of the 
 three parts of the world, repeated, " This is mine, 
 this is mine, this is mine." 
 
 He immediately afterwards despatched couriers 
 with his summonses to the court of Avignon, and 
 to the two emperors. 
 
 The pope's vicar, the bishop of Orvieto, who had 
 assisted at the whole of the above ceremony, con- 
 tinued thunderstruck by this unexpected boldness. 
 He appealed, however, to the public notary to pro- 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 327 
 
 test that the Tribune assumed so muoh power with- 
 out his (the vicar's) consent, and without that of 
 the pope. But Cola commanded drums and trum- 
 pets to drown the hearing of his protest. 
 
 The poor vicar, nevertheless, did not refuse to 
 attend the festival that followed this ceremony, and 
 to eat alone at the marble table with the Tribune, 
 whilst Cola's wife presided, in the new palace, at 
 the head of the noble dames. Other tables at the 
 old palace M'ere served for people of all classes 
 without distinction — abbots, monks, chevaliers, 
 who had been invited to the ceremony. Never had 
 such magnificence been seen at a banquet. 
 
 But these festivities wasted the revenue of Rome, 
 and all sensible persons foresaw the consequences. 
 At a repast which Rienzo gave, some weeks after- 
 wards, to the chiefs of the Roman nobility, old 
 Stefano Colonna suggested a question, " whether 
 it was better for a people that those who governed 
 them should be prodigal or avaricious." Stefano, 
 in the course of the argument, lifted the hem of 
 the Tribune's mantle, which was garnished with 
 gold and embroidery, and said, " You yourself. 
 Tribune, ought you not to wear the modest gar- 
 ment of your equals, rather than these pompous 
 
32S LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1347. 
 
 ornaments ?" Cola was stung with the reproach ; 
 he sallied forth from the hall without replying, 
 and, in the first movement of his wrath, gave orders 
 to arrest all the nobles who were in the hall. 
 To justify this sudden rigour, he pretended to have 
 discovered that they w^ere framing a conspiracy 
 against the people and himself. He convoked a 
 general assembly in the Capitol, which met on the 
 17th of September; and there he announced that, 
 in order to deliver the people for ever from the 
 yoke of the oligarchy, he intended to cut off the 
 heads of all the nobles whom he had found guilty of 
 treason. Every thing seemed prepared for the exe- 
 cution of this threat. The hall of judgment was lined 
 with white satin cloth, crossed with blood-coloured 
 stripes. A minorite friar w^as sent to each baron to 
 take his confession, and give him the sacrament ; and 
 the bell of the Capitol sounded to assemble the citi- 
 zens. The old Stefano Colonna dismissed the priest 
 who was sent to him, declaring that he was not pre- 
 pared to take the sacrament ; and that the concerns 
 of his soul, as well as those of his family, were not 
 so well arranged as to make him wish to take leave 
 of the world. But whether the Tribune intended 
 only to frighten the noble?, or whether he was 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 329 
 
 moved by the supplication of others, and by his 
 own better reflections, when he next harangued 
 the people, he took for his text these words of 
 the Lord's prayer — " Dimitte nobis peccata nos- 
 tra ;" and he interceded with his hearers for the 
 imprisoned barons. He declared, in their name, 
 that they had repented of their errors, and that 
 henceforward they would serve the Roman people 
 wuth fidelity. The prisoners appeared one after 
 another before the assembly, and received their 
 pardon with dejected heads. Immediately, as if 
 all doubt of their devotion was out of the question. 
 Cola conferred on them important commissions, 
 as prefects and dukes, in Campania and Tuscany. 
 
 But the clemency which succeeds lawless anger 
 excites little gratitude. The nobles were no 
 sooner out of their prisons, and beyond the walls 
 of Eome, than they thought of avenging them- 
 selves. The Colonnas and the two Orsiuis at- 
 tempted to fortify the castle of Marino, and 
 collected men-at-arms, and munitions, before Cola 
 could take measures for arresting their hostilities. 
 They raised the standard of revolt ; they demolished 
 a number of castles, and extended their devasta- 
 tions to the very gates of Rome. The restorer of 
 
330 
 
 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 [1347. 
 
 the Roman Republic was any thing but an able 
 warrior. For a long time he tried to intimidate 
 his enemies by summonses and threats before he 
 took up arms against them. At last, the clamours 
 of the people, who saw their fields laid waste and 
 their cattle driven away, obliged him to call out 
 the Roman militia. Eight hundred horsemen and 
 twenty thousand infantry marched out under Cola's 
 command, and devastated the territory of Marino. 
 After eight days of bravadoing rather than fighting, 
 the Tribune led back his array to the city, where 
 he appeared in the Dalmatian mantle, which had 
 hitherto been worn only by emperors ; and, in this 
 costume, he received a legate whom the pope had 
 sent for the purpose of asserting his o^^ti authority. 
 In the mean time, the Colonnas had incited 
 Palestrina to revolt ; and many of their partisans 
 in Rome imdted them thither, with assurances that 
 they would open the city gates to them the moment 
 they should see them arrive with sufficient forces. 
 The Colonnas, accordingly, collected six thousand 
 men-at-arms, and four thousand foot, and advanced 
 as far as a place called the Monument, four miles 
 from the gates of Rome. But Roman valour wa^ 
 now as much extinct in the nobles as in the people ; 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 331 
 
 and the struggle was pusillanimously maintained 
 on both sides. 
 
 Though the Tribune had considerable forces, he 
 had not courage to sally out of the city, but every 
 morning he sounded the bell for assembling the 
 citizens, and, to inspirit them, he regularly related 
 the dreams which he had had the preceding night, 
 and the promises of succour which his visions held 
 out. ISTor were the nobles behind him in dream- 
 ing. Pietro Agapito Colonna wished to persuade 
 his companions in arms to retire, because he had 
 seen in his sleep a woman clad in mourning. In spite 
 of this sad presage, however, old Stefano Colonna 
 presented himself at one of the gates of Rome, 
 accompanied by only a single attendant, and re- 
 quired that the gate should be opened. The 
 guards refused, and threatened him, though, strange 
 to say, without arresting him, which might have 
 been easily done. The anny of the oligarchs w^as 
 now advanced on the side of Monte Testaccio, 
 nearly to the gate of St. Paul. There the Co- 
 lonnas could hear the bell of the Capitol in- 
 cessantly sounding to arms. Perceiving, however, 
 that they were expected, they renounced the idea 
 of an attack on the city till they should be able to 
 
332 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1317. 
 
 attempt a surprise. But, before retiring, they 
 resolved to defile close to the gates, as if to defy 
 the Tribune. Their troops were divided into three 
 brigades, the two first of which passed without 
 molestation ; but, when the third advanced, a gate 
 was opened as if to return bravado for bravado. 
 John Colonna, son of the younger Stefano, rashly 
 concluding that an entrance was offered to him by 
 his own partisans, put spurs to his horse and dashed 
 alone into the city. He was presently surrounded 
 and put to death. Scarcely had he breathed his 
 last when his father arrived at the gate, anxiously 
 inquiring for his son. Hearing no tidings of him, 
 he made his way into the entrance, where he beheld 
 John's body lying stripped and bleeding. The sight 
 made him frantic ; and he rushed into the city. 
 Finding that all was lost there, he endeavoured to 
 retreat, but was surrounded and killed. 
 
 Upon the death of these warriors, the Eomans 
 rushed out from all quarters of Rome, and attacked 
 the army without the walls. Their onset was 
 decisive ; Rienzo's victory was complete ; Agapito 
 Colonna and eleven other principal nobles were 
 found among the slain. 
 
 The Tribune, who, during this fluctuation of 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 333 
 
 events, had shown many signs of weakness, now 
 passed to the opposite extreme of insolence in his 
 prosperity. He returned in triumph to the Ca- 
 pitol ; he there deposited, before the image of the 
 Virgin, in the church of Anceli, his tribunitial 
 sceptre, and his crown of silver with olive leaves. 
 He then harangued the people, and boasted of 
 having crushed those oligarchs whom neither popes 
 nor emperors could ever curb. Finally, he forbade 
 funeral honours to be paid to the dead bodies of 
 the Colonnas. But, instead of following up his 
 victory by laying siege to Marino, which the nobles 
 would have abandoned in their iirst panic, he 
 wasted his time in shews and ceremonies. He 
 armed his son as a knight of victory on the spot 
 where Stefano Colonna had been killed ; and he 
 augmented his imposts on the people by squandering 
 on those foolish pageantries the money that was 
 due to his soldiers. 
 
 In a letter to the Archdeacon of Liege, dated 
 but a few weeks before his fall, the Tribune says 
 vain-gloriously : " Six tyrants of the Colonna family 
 have perished. There now remains only one unfor- 
 tunate old man, Stefano ; he is half dead, and 
 he makes the seventh. Observe how Heaven has 
 
334 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1347. 
 
 equalled the number of the Colonnas, who are 
 killed with the seven crowns which I received at 
 my coronation, together with the branches of the 
 fruit-tree, in remembrance of the seven gifts of 
 the Holy Spirit." 
 
 Old Stefano Colonna, whom Rienzo reckoned 
 among the dead on account of his great age, was 
 now more than ninety. When he was informed of 
 the deaths of so many relations, he neither shed 
 tears nor uttered any complaint ; but, fixing his 
 eyes for some time upon the ground, he said : " The 
 will of the Lord be done ! It is better to die than 
 to bear the yoke of this Tribune." 
 
 Our sympathies are here so much moved by the 
 calamity of a brave old man, and so much alienated 
 by the follies of Eienzo, that we are in danger of 
 judging too mercifully of the oligarchs. It should 
 be remembered that the Colonnas, whatever traits 
 of worth shone forth in some of their personal 
 characters, were, in reality, a family of tyrants ; and 
 that the Romans, upon the whole, fared much 
 worse under the nobility than under the Tribune. 
 
 Petrarch had hitherto regarded the reports of 
 Bienzo's errors as highly exaggerated by his enemies ; 
 but the truth of them, at last, became too pal- 
 pable ; though our poet's charitable opinion of the 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 335 
 
 Tribune considerably outlasted that of the public 
 at large. 
 
 When the papal court heard of the multiplied 
 extravagances of Rienzo, they recovered a little 
 from the panic which had seized them. They saw 
 that they had to deal with a man whose head was 
 turned. His summonses had enraged them ; and 
 they resolved to keep no measures with him. 
 
 Towards the end of August, 1347, one of his 
 couriers arrived without arms, and with only the 
 symbol of his office, the silver rod, in his hand. 
 He was arrested near Avignon ; his letters were 
 taken from him and torn to pieces ; and, without 
 being permitted to enter Avignon, he was sent 
 back to Eome with threats and ignominy. 
 
 This proceeding appeared atrocious in the eyes 
 of Petrarch, and he wrote a letter to Eienzo on 
 the subject, expressing his strongest indignation 
 at the act of outrage. 
 
 Petrarch passed almost the whole of the month 
 of September, 1347, at Avignon. On the ninth of 
 this month he obtained letters of legitimation for 
 his son John, who might now be about ten years 
 old. John is entitled, in these letters, " a scholar 
 of Florence." The pope empowers him to possess 
 
336 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1347. 
 
 any kind of benefice without being obliged, in 
 future, to make mention of his illegitimate birth, 
 or of the obtained dispensation. It appears from 
 these letters that the mother of John was not mar- 
 ried ; a circumstance which makes one of his biogra- 
 phers exclaim, " Who can charge Petrarch with 
 the crime of adultery ?" No ; nobody can — thanks 
 to his cruel Laura! He left his son at Verona 
 under the tuition of Rinaldo di Villa Franca. 
 Before he had left Provence in this year, for the 
 purpose of visiting Italy, he had announced his 
 intention to the pope, who wished to retain him as 
 an honour to his court, and offered him his choice 
 of several church preferments. But our poet, 
 whose only wish was to obtain some moderate 
 benefice that would leave him independent and at 
 liberty, declined his holiness's vague offers. If we 
 consider that Petrarch made no secret of his good 
 wishes for Rienzo, it may seem surprisingly credi- 
 table to the pontiff's liberality that he should 
 have even professed any interest in the poet's 
 fortune; but, in a letter to his friend Socrates, 
 Petrarch gives us to understand that he thought 
 the pope's professions were merely verbal. He 
 says : " To hold out treasures to a man who de- 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 337 
 
 mands a small sum is but a polite mode of refusal." 
 In fact, the pope offered him sovie bishopric, know- 
 ing that he wanted only some benefice tliat should 
 be a sinecure.* 
 
 If it be asked what determined him now to leave 
 Avignon, the counter-question may be put, what 
 detained him so long from Italy ? It appears that 
 he had never parted with his house and garden at 
 Parma ; he hated every thing in Avignon except- 
 ing Laura ; and of the solitude of Vaucluse he 
 was, in all probability, already weary. 
 
 Before he left Avignon, he went to take leave of 
 Laura. He found her at an assembly which she 
 often frequented. " She was seated," he says, 
 " among those ladies who are generally her com- 
 panions, and appeared like a beautiful rose sur- 
 rounded with flowers smaller and less blooming. 
 Her air was more touching than usual. She was 
 dressed perfectly plain, and without pearls or gar- 
 lands, or any gay colour. Though she was not 
 melancholy, she did not appear to have her wonted 
 cheerfulness, but was serious and thoughtful. She 
 did not sing, as usual, nor speak with that voice 
 
 * His motives for returning to Italy. De Sade, vol. ii. 
 381. 
 
 VOL. I. Z 
 
338 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 wliich used to charm every one. She had the air 
 of a person who fears an evil not yet arrived. " In 
 taking leave of her," says Petrarch, " I sought in 
 her looks for a consolation of my own sufferings. 
 Her eyes had an expression which I had never 
 seen in them before. What I saw in her face 
 seemed to predict the sorrows that threatened me." 
 This was the last meeting that Petrarch and 
 Laura ever had. 
 
LIFE OF PETEARCH. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Petrarch returns to Italy for the fifth time — Writes from Genoa 
 a letter of remonstrance to the Tribune — Proceeds to Parma, 
 where he learns the unhappy fate of the Colonnas — Decline of 
 the Tribune's Popularity — The Legate of Clement VI . con- 
 spires with the Roman Aristocracy against him — The Count 
 of Minerbino brings a Gang of his Freebooters to Rome, who, 
 encouraged by the disaffected nobles, bid defiance to Rienzo — 
 Rienzo convokes the people, resigns his power, and shuts 
 himself up in the castle of St. Angelo — Petrarch proceeds from 
 Genoa to Florence ; thence he repairs to Parma, and from 
 Parma to Verona — Memorable Earthquake in Italy — Origin 
 of the Great Plague — Moral influence of its destructive- 
 ness — Petrarch returns to Parma, where he fixes his son 
 John — Receives the news of Laura's death — Death of Cardinal 
 Colonna — Petrarch visits Giacomo da Carrara at Padua — 
 
 Z 2 
 
310 
 
 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 Allusion to the History of the Carrara family — His friends 
 Luca Christiano and Mainardo Accursio come to Parma to 
 see him, but find him absent — Untimely fate of those two 
 individuals — The Florentines, at the call of Petrarch, avenge 
 their death. 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 341 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Petrarch set out for Italy, towards the close of 
 1347, having determined to make that country his 
 residence for the rest of his life. De Sade ascribes 
 this change of residence to that disposition in the 
 poet's mind which made him always think, after he 
 had remained a certain time in any place, that he 
 should be happier somewhere else. I believe that 
 Petrarch had this weakness to a certain degree ; 
 and yet, in his character, &;c. how many traces 
 do we find of a tenacity that is the very oppo- 
 site of caprice. An ordinary lover of solitude 
 Avould not have spent the tenth part of the time 
 that he passed in the deep retirement of Vaucluse ; 
 a capricious man would not have been so uniformly 
 attached to his friends ; a fickle man would have 
 courted a hundred women with the tenth part of 
 Petrarch's affection for Laura. I am, therefore, 
 inclined to impute this migration not entirely to 
 
342 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1347. 
 
 caprice, but to his love of Italy, to the pressing 
 invitation of several Italian princes, and to the 
 necessity for his assuming the investiture of the 
 canonship of Parma, which had been conferred 
 upon him by Clement VI. He had some in- 
 tentions of visiting Rome ; but the increasing 
 reports of the Tribune's misconduct made him 
 change his purpose. 
 
 Upon his arrival at Genoa he wrote to Eienzo, 
 reproaching him for his follies, and exhorting him 
 to return to his former manly conduct. This 
 advice, it is scarcely necessary to say, was like dew 
 and sunshine bestowed upon barren sands. 
 
 From Genoa he proceeded to Parma, where he 
 received the first information of the catastrophe 
 of the Colonna family. He showed himself deeply 
 affected by it, and, probably, was so sincerely, to a 
 certain degree. But the Colonnas, though his 
 former patrons, were still the enemies of a cause 
 which he considered sacred, much as it was mis- 
 managed and disgraced by the Tribune ; and his 
 grief cannot be supposed to have been immoderate. 
 Accordingly, the letter which he wrote to Cardinal 
 Colonna on this occasion is quite in the style of 
 Seneca, and more like an ethical treatise than an 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 343 
 
 epistle of condolence. It was said of Petrarch, 
 in his moral epistles, that he was the ape of Seneca. 
 
 It is ob\aous that Petrarch slowly and reluctantly 
 parted with his good opinion of Kieuzo. But, 
 whatever sentiments he might have cherished 
 respecting him, he Mas now doomed to hear of his 
 tragic fall. The Tribune had outraged public feeling 
 by expelling from the church of Santa Maria 
 the female relatives of the slain Colonnas when they 
 crowded thither to attend their funeral obsequies. 
 He threatened even to drag their corpses igno- 
 miniously to the place into which the bodies of 
 malefactors were thrown. To rescue them from this 
 sacrilege, it was necessary to remove the deceased 
 by stealth to the church of St. Sylvester, where the 
 religious of that monastery interred them without 
 ceremony, and without attracting public notice. 
 
 Other misdemeanours were attributed to Kienzo, 
 but the rancour of his enemies may have possibly 
 exaggerated them. It was plain, however, that his 
 popularity was now far in the wane ; and that the 
 holy church, after all his adroit management, had 
 at last become his mortal enemy. 
 
 The legate, Bertrand de Deux, whom Clement 
 VI. had sent to Rome, had connexions with the 
 
844 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1347. 
 
 Roman nobility ; and, on his arrival at Siena, he 
 declared to the magistrates who governed that 
 town, that Cola di E-ienzo was an enemv of the 
 church, and that the pope was preparing a prose- 
 cution against him for the crime of rebellion. 
 The legate, therefore, requested that republic to 
 withdraw the troops Avith v.hich they had hitherto 
 furnished the Tribune. 
 
 T^ot withstanding all this, the legate, on his 
 entry into Rome, had been received by Cola with 
 a shew of profound respect both for himself and 
 the pontiff. He had been presented to the people 
 in full assembly, and been assured of the obedience 
 of the Roman republic to its chief, the pope. But 
 if the Tribmie thought that he could manage the 
 court of A^dgnon, he deceived himself. Bertrand 
 de Deux w^as not to be satisfied with these out- 
 ward tokens of submission. He was, like the papal 
 court, a decided friend of the Roman oligarchy. 
 He concluded an alliance with its most distin- 
 guished members. He commenced an inquest of 
 heresy against the Tribune, and pronounced sen- 
 tence of excommunication against him. 
 
 But an enemy still more dangerous and enter- 
 prising armed himself at this time against Rienzo. 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 345 
 
 This was Giovanni Papino, Count of Minerbino, 
 an exile from the kingdom of Naples, where, on 
 pretence of avenging the death of his sovereign 
 Andrew, he had amassed all the money he could as 
 a freebooter. He repaired to Rome with some of 
 his associates, who, like himself, were accustomed 
 to despise all laws and order. The Tribune, 
 apprised of their murders and robberies, wished 
 to arrest them, or to chase them out of Rome ; 
 but the Count di Minerbino was fortified by 
 his alliance with the legate and the Colonnas. 
 He established himself, with 150 cavaliers, in the 
 quarter where the Colonnas had their palace, and 
 where he counted on the greatest number of par- 
 tisans There he fortified his abode with barri- 
 cades, and sent back with contempt those who 
 came with orders from the Tribune. 
 
 Cola attacked these barricades with a com- 
 pany of cavalry ; the most unfit kind of force that 
 he could have employed, and, at the same time, he 
 sounded the alarm-bell. The Romans declined to 
 combat either for or against Minerbino. They 
 were become indifferent to " The Good Establish- 
 ment.''' They were tired with the theatrical shews 
 of their Tribune, and wished to Mait for events. 
 
316 LIFE OF PETIURCIL [1347. 
 
 instead of deciding them. One half of the sums 
 which Rienzo had squandered on his festivals and 
 embroidered robes would have retained men-at- 
 arms in his service more than sufficient to have 
 demolished Minerbino and his barricades ; but his 
 finances were now exhausted, and he could only 
 appeal to the enthusiasm of a people who had but 
 yesterday laughed at his uncle the barber. A 
 multitude assembled at the Capitol, but without 
 arms, and evidently attracted by mere curiosity. 
 It is true that when the Tribune harangued them, 
 when he descanted on his own adminstration, 
 on all the good that he had done and still in- 
 tended to do, when he wept and sighed in speak- 
 ing of the envy that was frustrating his best 
 designs, the Romans, accustomed to be swayed by 
 his eloquence, were partially moved. But they 
 manifested no signs of courageous emotion, nor any 
 thing that promised a victory, which their aid 
 could have so easily afforded him. Seeing this, 
 Rienzo concluded his speech by saying : " After 
 having governed for seven months, I am about to 
 resign my authority !" Not a word was uttered 
 to oppose his resignation. 
 
 After this Cola caused the silver trumpets to be 
 
1347.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 347 
 
 sounded, and, arrayed in all the badges of his office, 
 and accompanied by his soldiers, as well as the 
 few friends who were still attached to him, he 
 pompously traversed Eome almost through its 
 whole length, and repaired to the castle of St. 
 Angelo, where he shut himself up. His wife 
 followed him in disguise. 
 
 Three days after his retreat, the exiled barons 
 returned to Rome ; but the city, on their arrival, 
 was replunged into a state worse even than the 
 anarchy which had preceded the Tribuneship, and 
 forming a terrific contrast to the too short reign of 
 Rienzo's " Good Establishment'' 
 
 The revolution which overthrew the Tribune was 
 accomplished on the 15th of December, 1347. 
 That his fall was, in a considerable degree, owing 
 to his faults, is undeniable ; and by the most con- 
 temptible of all faults — personal vanity. How 
 hard it is on the great mass of mankind that this 
 meanness is so seldom disjoined from the zeal of 
 popular championship ! I^ew power, like new 
 wine, seems to intoxicate the strongest heads. How 
 disgusting it is to see the restorer of Roman 
 liberty dazzled like a child by a scarlet robe and 
 its golden trimming ! ^N^evertheless, with all his 
 
318 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 vanity, Eienzo was a better friend to the republic 
 than those who dethroned him. The Romans 
 would have been wise to have supported Eienzo, 
 taking even his foibles into the account. They 
 readmitted their oligarchs ; and, if they repented 
 of it, as they did, they are scarcely entitled to our 
 commiseration. 
 
 I must here suspend the episodical sketch of 
 Eienzo's history to resume that of Petrarch. 
 
 Our poet had set out late in 1347 to visit Italy 
 for the fifth time. He arrived at Genoa towards 
 the end of November, 1347, on his way to Florence, 
 where he was eagerly expected by his friends. 
 They had obtained from the government permission 
 for his return ; and he w^as absolved from the sen- 
 tence of banishment in which he had been included 
 with his father. But, whether Petrarch was 
 offended w^ith the Florentines for refusing to restore 
 his paternal estate, or whether he was detained by 
 accident in Lombardy, he put off* his expedition to 
 Florence and repaired to Parma. It was there 
 that he learned the certainty of the Tribune's fall. 
 
 From Parma he ^ent to Verona, where he ar- 
 i-ived on the evening of the 25th of January, 1348. 
 His son, Me have already mentioned, was placed 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 349 
 
 at Verona, under the tuition of Rinaldo di Villa 
 Franca. Here, soon after his arrival, as he was 
 sitting among his books, Petrarch felt the shock 
 of a tremendous earthquake. It seemed as if the 
 whole city was to be overturned from its founda- 
 tions. He rushed immediately into the streets, 
 where the inhabitants were gathered together in 
 consternation ; and, whilst terror was depicted in 
 every countenance, there was a general cry that 
 the end of the world was come. All contem- 
 porary historians mention this earthquake, and 
 agree that it originated at the foot of the Alps. 
 It made sad ravages at Pisa, Bologna, Padua, and 
 Venice, and still more in the Frioul and Bavaria. 
 If we may trust the narrators of this event, sixty 
 villages in one canton were buried under two 
 mountains that fell and filled up a valley five 
 leagues in length. A whole castle, it is added, was 
 exploded out of the earth from its foundation, and 
 its ruins scattered many miles from the spot. The 
 latter anecdote has undoubtedly an air of the 
 marvellous ; and yet the convulsions of nature 
 have produced equally strange effects. Stones 
 have been thrown out of Mount Minn to the dis- 
 tance of eiirhteen miles. 
 
350 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 This calamity, it was pretended, had been an- 
 nounced by the appearance of a comet in the 
 preceding year, and by a column of fire which 
 had been seen at sunrise, in Ayignon, December 
 1347, and which remained more than an hour over 
 tlie palace of the pope. This was a phenomenon as 
 strictly natural as the rainbow, though of rarer 
 occurrence ; and it was no more wonderful that 
 the electric column should be seen over the pope's 
 house than over any other ; but the courtiers who 
 saw it, says Villani, were wisely convinced that it 
 was a signal sent expressly from Heaven to portend 
 momentous moral evils. 
 
 The earthquake, it is too true, was the fore- 
 runner of awful calamities ; and it is possible that 
 it might be physically connected with that memo- 
 rable plague in 1348, which reached, in succession, 
 all parts of the known world, and thinned the popu- 
 lation of every country which it visited. Histo- 
 rians generally agree that this great plague began 
 in China and Tartary, whence, in the space of a 
 year, it spread its desolation over the whole of Asia. 
 
 Sismondi remarks* that the origin of this pesti- 
 lence is traced to so many causes as to make it 
 difficult to distinguish the real from the imaginary 
 
 • Histoire des Repub. Ital. vol. vi. p. 13. 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 351 
 
 ones. John Villani relates that in the kingdom of 
 Casau it was preceded by violent earthquakes, 
 which destroyed whole cities and villages ; that 
 streams of fire issued from the ground, which 
 kindled the dry herbage all around, and that those 
 who escaped from this desolation carried with them 
 a contagious malady, which spread to the shores of 
 the Tanais and to Trebizond. He adds, that at 
 Sebastia the rains were accompanied with the fall 
 of an enormous quantity of black insects with eight 
 feet and a tail — some dead, some living. The bite 
 of the latter was venemous ; the corruption of the 
 former infected the air : hundreds of similar fables 
 were prevalent. 
 
 The symptoms of this pestilence were not every 
 where the same. In the eastern countries bleeding 
 at the nose announced its attack, and was a sure 
 presage of death. 
 
 In Florence the malady commenced by swellings, 
 as large as an egg, in the groin and in the arm- 
 pits. Later in the disease those swellings were 
 followed by black or livid spots, indicative of ap- 
 proaching dissolution. The most skilful phy- 
 sicians stood aghast at this disease. The charlatan 
 rejoiced in it, unless it attacked himself, because it 
 
352 LIFE OF PETRARCH. 
 
 put quackery upon a par with skill ; and com- 
 passionate women assisted both physicians and 
 quacks in doing no good to their patients, who 
 generally died within the first day of their ailment. 
 
 This was a dance of the king of terrors over the 
 earth, and a very rapid one. To converse with 
 the sick, or to approach them — nay, even to wear 
 or touch whatever they had worn, was contagion 
 and death. A writer of that day sported the hor- 
 rible witticism, that for the first time in the history 
 of the world medical men shewed no anxiety for 
 practice. 
 
 Moral infection spread with the physical evil. 
 People lost their sense cf shame in their cowardice, 
 if we may give so hard a name to the natural in- 
 stinct of self-preservation. Citizen avoided citizen, 
 neighbour avoided neighbour, brothers abandoned 
 brothers ; the wife forsook her husband, and even 
 mothers deserted their children. The innumerable 
 sick had no aid but from a very few devoted 
 friends, or from servants who Mere tempted by 
 immense wages to brave the contagion. From 
 this unusual state of things, there sprung up new 
 manners and customs. It became customary, for 
 instance, for a beautiful and modest young woman 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 353 
 
 to be the sick nurse of a handsome young man, and 
 to strip herself in his presence of all her clothes, 
 even as she would have done before a woman. It 
 was the ancient custom at Florence for the rela- 
 tives and neighbours of the deceased to assemble 
 in his house, to lament along with the women, and 
 to accompany the priests in the burial. The 
 corpse Avas carried, by men of the same station 
 with the defunct, to the church where he had ex- 
 pressed his wish to be buried. The priests, who 
 sang and carried flambeaus, led the procession, 
 which was closed by the citizens, who had met 
 before the door. But these ceremonies ceased 
 during the violence of the plague. Multitudes of 
 the sick expired without one attendant in their 
 last moments. It was the general persuasion that 
 sadness accelerated the infection of the malady, 
 and that pleasant amusements were the surest 
 defence against it. People, therefore, hardened 
 their hearts against grief for the dead by jokes and 
 merriment. Very few corpses were carried to the 
 grave by their friends. The corpse-bearers were 
 no longer persons of the same condition with the 
 defunct, but gravediggers, called Bechini. These 
 were hired at a great price ; they hurried the bier 
 
 VOL. I. A A 
 
354 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 to the nearest church, and frequently tumbled it 
 into the first ditch that they met with. Priests 
 but rarely attended interments. 
 
 The consecrated grounds soon became insuffi- 
 cient for the burial of the dead individually, so 
 that immense graves were dug in the cemeteries, 
 where they were arranged in layers as they arrived, 
 and afterwards covered with a little earth. 
 
 In the mean time, the living, being persuaded 
 that diversions and songs of gaiety could alone 
 preserve them from the pestilence, kept up their 
 revels not only among themselves, but in the houses 
 of strangers. This was easily done, because most 
 people, hopeless of living, had abandoned all 
 care of their effects, so that most houses had 
 become common property. Thus was destroyed 
 all respect for laws, human or divine. The admi- 
 nistrators of justice were either dead or sick, 
 or so bereft of guards and subalterns, that they 
 could enforce no authority. So that every one was 
 free to act as he liked. 
 
 The country was no more spared than the to^^^lS 
 and castles ; and villages were miserable small 
 images of their capitals. Labourers perished like 
 brutes in the fields, or on the highways. Men 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 355 
 
 ceased to solicit the earth for new fruits, and only 
 consumed what had been already gathered. The 
 cattle wandered over abandoned fields, in the midst 
 of harvests that remained unreaped, and in the 
 evening returned to their stalls, where there was 
 no herdsman to superintend them. 
 
 This pestilence, as I have stated, began in the 
 remotest east, whence, in the space of a year, 
 it spread its desolation over the whole of Asia. 
 Whether the earthquakes in Europe, by the eruc- 
 tation of sulphureous matter, facilitated the pro- 
 gress of infection I am not competent to judge, but 
 we may suspect that they did not ; for the atmo- 
 sphere was infectious in regions Avhere there had 
 been no earthquakes. 
 
 The infection was supposed to have been brought 
 to Europe by some Genoese and Catalonian mer- 
 chants who traded to India, and came over to Syria. 
 There they took shipping, and landed their in 
 fected goods at Genoa and Sicily, whence the con- 
 tagion overran all Italv and Spain ; and France 
 became its prey in the course of 1348. During 
 the three following years it made the tour of Eu- 
 rope, remaining in no place more than five months, 
 but carrying off nine-tenths of the population, 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 more avaricious in exactions than even the tything 
 clergy. In France and Germany, where the Jews 
 were held in horror, that unfortunate race were 
 accused of having gone to India for the purpose of 
 bringing the infection westward, and of continuing 
 it by poisoning the wells. They were barbarously 
 persecuted. It does credit to Clement VI. that 
 he rose above the prejudices of his age, and took the 
 part of the Israelites Avith much warmth. He pub- 
 lished two bulls, successively repelling the absurd 
 accusation, and forbidding the Jews to be perse- 
 cuted or dragged to baptism by force. 
 
 The frightful malady extended itself over Italy, 
 early in 1348 ; but its severest ravages had not 
 yet been made, when Petrarch returned from 
 Verona to Parma in the month of March, 1348. 
 He brought with him his son John, whom he had 
 withdrawn from the school of Einaldo di Villa 
 Franca, and placed under Gilberto di Parma, a 
 good grammarian. His motive for this change of 
 tutorship probably was that he reckoned on Parma 
 being henceforward his own principal place of 
 residence, and his wish to have his son beside 
 him. 
 
 Petrarch had scarcely arrived at Parma when he 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 357 
 
 received a letter from Luchino Visconti,* who had 
 lately received this lordship of that city. The Vis- 
 conti, to whom Petrarch was much attached, were 
 one of the most ancient and powerful families of 
 Italy. Luchino Visconti had acquired the sove- 
 reignty of Parma by purchase from Obizzo d'Este. 
 Hearing of Petrarch's arrival there, the prince, 
 being at Milan, wrote to the poet, requesting some 
 orange plants from his garden, together with a 
 copy of verses. Petrarch sent him both, accom- 
 panied with a letter, in which he praises Luchino 
 for his encouragement of learning and his cultiva- 
 tion of the Muses. 
 
 * I-uchino Visconti, brother of the famous Archbishop John 
 Visconti, went through many troubles in early life, like the 
 other members of his family. In 1339 he succeeded to the 
 Lordship of Milan. He was a prince of tierce, vindictive 
 spirit ; and he inspired such terror by his castigation of con- 
 spirators that he kept the Milanese in timid tranquillity. He 
 made war with the Estensi and the Pisans, and extended his 
 principality by the conquest of Asti, Tortona, and other places. 
 His letter to Petrarch was written only a year before his death 
 by the plague, which took place in 1349, The common account 
 is that he died of the plague ; but another cause of his death 
 has been surmised ; namely, that his consort Isabella del Fiesco, 
 under pretence of fulfilling a religious vow, repaired to Venice 
 for the gratification of an unconjugal passion; and, on her 
 return, fearing her husband's vengeance, gave him poison. 
 Luchino, though tierce, was addicted to letters. Crescembeni 
 has published a specimen of his sonnets. 
 
358 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 The plague was now increasing in Italy ; and, 
 after it had deprived Petrarch of many dear friends, 
 it struck at the root of all his affections by attack- 
 ing Laura. He describes his apprehensions on this 
 occasion in several of his sonnets. The event con- 
 finned his melancholy presages ; for a letter from 
 his friend Socrates informed him that Laura had 
 died of the plague on the 1st of April, 1348. His 
 biographers may well be believed, when they tell 
 us that his giief was extreme. Laui-a's husband 
 took the event more quietly, and consoled himself 
 by marrying again, when only seven months a 
 widower. 
 
 Petrarch, when informed of her death, wrote 
 that marginal note upon his copy of Virgil, the 
 authenticity of which has been so often, though un- 
 justly, called in question. His words were the 
 following : — 
 
 " Laura, illustrious for her virtues, and for a 
 long time celebrated in my verses (the last ex- 
 pression betrays a displeasing vanity), for the first 
 time appeared to my eyes on the 6tli of April, 
 1327, in the church of St. Clara, at the first hour 
 of the day. I was then in my youth. In the same 
 citv, and at the same hour, in the year 1348, this 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETKARCII. 359 
 
 luminary disappeared from our world. I was then 
 at Verona, ignorant of my wretched situation. 
 Her chaste and beautiful body was buried the same 
 day, after vespers, in the church of the Cordeliers. 
 Her soul returned to its native mansion in heaven. 
 I have written this with a pleasure mixed with bit- 
 terness, to retrace the melancholy remembrance of 
 * MY GREAT LOSS.' This loss couviuccs me that I 
 have nothing now left w^orth living for, since the 
 strongest cord of my life is broken. By the 
 grace of Q-od, I shall easily renounce a world where 
 my hopes have been vain and perishing. It is time 
 for me to fly from Babylon when the knot that 
 bound me to it is untied." 
 
 It is worthy of observation that Vellutello was 
 the first author in Italy to call in question the 
 genuineness of this memorial, whilst several older 
 writers regard the autograph as authentic. The 
 history of the MS., as it is related by Tommasini, 
 confirms their opinion. The library of Petrarch, 
 having been sold and divided after his death, this 
 copy of Virgil passed to his friend Giovanni Dandi, 
 who died in 1380. From him it passed to his 
 brother, Gabriele, who left it to his son Gasparo 
 
3G0 LIFE OF PETKAKCII. [1348. 
 
 Dondi. It appears that Gasparo gave away the 
 copy after having transcribed or caused to be trans- 
 cribed the aforesaid memorandum in a collection 
 of the canzoni of Petrarch, which belonged to him. 
 It is found in the same folio with a memorandum 
 entitled, " Petraixh" dated mcccxc, written, 
 however, in a difterent hand ; and it may be con- 
 cluded that soon after the same year the MS. 
 passed into the library of Pavia. That this was 
 the case, appears from a very ancient MS. text of 
 the letters of Petrarch, which is preserved in the 
 Marsian library of Florence, a MS. which is 
 believed by the Abbe Mehus to be the poet's 
 autograph : and, though Baldelli differs, in this 
 particular point, from the learned Mehus, he, never- 
 theless, believes that the hand-writing is of Pe- 
 trarch's age. ]^ow there is here written, in a 
 hand-writing little posterior, the note itself, Avith 
 this declaration ; " Haec quae sequuntur, repe- 
 riuutur, ut dicitur, nianu propria Domini Francisci 
 Petrarchae, in Virgilio, olim suo, qui est in biblio- 
 theca Papiae illustrissimi Ducis Mandiolansis." 
 
 Besides this very ancient testimony, two others 
 can be referred to, that are anterior to Yellutello, 
 and of the fifteenth century, agreeing with that 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 3G1 
 
 which has been mentioned. One of them is a 
 letter written by Pietro Candido Decembrio to 
 Ludbvico Casellio in ]4!68, which is preserved in 
 the Ambrosian library. It says : " Est in papiensi 
 biliotheca, Virgilii volumen cum servio, manu pro- 
 pria ejus (that is of Petrarch) exaratum ; ut ipse 
 dixit sub temporibus adoloscentiae suae, quod 
 demum, cum senex, ipse revideret, multa per pos- 
 tillas in Servium addens, emendavit. Serviumque 
 redarguit pluribus locis." Another testimony is 
 that of Bernardo Ilicinio, who cites the aforesaid 
 memorandum as original. 
 
 Whilst these proofs suffice to authenticate the 
 note in question, it may be added that this copy 
 of Virgil is famous for a miniature picture ex- 
 pressing the subject of the ^neid ; and that, by 
 the common consent of connoisseurs in painting, it 
 is the work of Sinione Memmi. Mention has 
 already been made of the friendly terms that 
 subsisted between that painter and our poet ; 
 whence it may be concluded thajt Petrarch, who 
 received this precious MS. in 1338, requested of 
 Simone this mark of his friendship, to render it 
 more valuable. Besides, in live MS. texts of the 
 Medicean librarv, Baldelli found the above memo- 
 
3()2 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 randum ; and the Abb^ de Sade refers to having 
 read it in a very ancient MS. in the library of 
 Paris. " I myself," says Baldelli, " being anxious 
 to spare no pains in order to assure myself of the 
 authenticity of the note, caused an imitation to be 
 made of the hand-writing of Petrarch from his 
 autograph epistles, Avhich are preseiTed in the 
 Medicean library, by that celebrated restorer of 
 MSS., Signor Ciatti. This copy, being sent to 
 Milan, was found to resemble much the original. 
 Even those who do not know the hand-writing of 
 Petrarch are unanimously agreed that it is the 
 customary writing of the earlier part of the four- 
 teenth centur}\ On the other hand, it is difficult 
 to see how the genuineness of this memorandum 
 connected with Laura can be impugned ; since, 
 besides the place where Petrarch speaks of being 
 first enamoured of her, there come out other parti- 
 cularities, which are corroborated either by the 
 evidences of contemporary writers, or by Petrarch 
 himself in his other writings. 
 
 It cannot be objected that we have no proof of 
 Petrarch having been in Verona, and of his having 
 shortly afterwards removed to Parma, when this 
 catastrophe, the death of Laura, befell him ; for 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PEl'RARCH. 363 
 
 we have Petrarch's own testimony on the subject, 
 in his Epistle to Posterity. " Cisalpinam hanc 
 Galliam, quam tantummodo prius attigeram, totani 
 vidi, non ut advena, sed ut accola urbinm multa- 
 rum, Veronae in primis, mox Parmae." And, in the 
 7th epistle of the eighth Book of his Familiar 
 Letters, where he speaks of the death of Mainardo, 
 he says : " Ut qui jam reverse anno pedem Parma 
 non moveram ;" and that this epistle was of the year 
 1349 is evident from his speaking of the death of 
 Mainardo. 
 
 When the library of Pavia, together with the 
 city, was plundered by the French in 1499, and 
 when many MSS. were carried away to the library 
 of Paris, a certain inhabitant of Pavia had the 
 address to snatch this copy of Virgil from the 
 general rapine. This individual was, probably, 
 Antonio di Pirro, in whose hands or house the 
 Virgil continued till the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century, as Vellutello attests in his article on the 
 origin of Laura. From him it passed to Antonio 
 Agostino ; afterwards to Fulvio Orsino, who prized 
 it very dearly. At Orsino's death it was bought 
 at a high price by Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, 
 and placed in the Ambrosian library, which had 
 
364 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 been founded by him with much care and at vast 
 expense. 
 
 Until the year 1795, this copy of Yirgil was cele- 
 brated only on account of the memorandum already 
 quoted, and a few short marginal notes, written for 
 illustrations of the text ; but, a part of the same 
 leaf having been torn and detached from the cover, 
 the librarians, by chance, perceived some written 
 characters. Curiosity urged them to unglue it with 
 the greatest care ; but the parchment was so con- 
 glutinated with the board that the letters left their 
 impression on the latter so palely and weakly, 
 however, that the librarians had great difficulty in 
 making out the following notice, written by 
 Petrarch himself: " Liber hie furto mihi sub- 
 reptus fuerat, anno domini mcccxxvi, in Kalend. 
 ^ovembr, ac deinde restitutus, anno mcccxxxvii, 
 die xvii Aprilis, apud Aivin""." 
 
 Then follows a note by the poet himself, regard- 
 ing his son: "Johannes noster, natus ad laborem 
 et dolorem meum, et vivens gravibus atque per- 
 petuis me curis exercuit, et acri dolore morions 
 vulneravit, qui cum paucos et laetos dies vidisset in 
 vita sua, decessit in anno domini 1361, aetatis 
 suae XXV., die Julii x seu ix medio noetis 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 365 
 
 inter diem veneris et sabbati. Rumor ad me per- 
 veuerat xiii° mensis ad yesperam, obiit autem 
 Mini illo publico excidio pestis insolito, quae 
 urbem illam, haec-tenus immunem, talibus malis 
 nunc reperit atque invasit. Rumor autem primus 
 ambiguus 8^"°- Augusti, eodem anno, per famulum 
 meum Mlna redeuntem, mox certus, per famulum 
 Dom"^ Theatini Roma veuientem 18™°- mensis 
 ejusdem Mercurii, sero ad me pervenit de obitua 
 Socratis mei amici, sotii fratrisque optimi, qui 
 obiisse dicitur Babilone sen Avenionee, die mense 
 Maii proximo. Amisi comitem ac solatium vitae 
 meae. Recipe Xte Ihu, hos duos et reliquous 
 quinque in eterna tabernacula tua." He alludes 
 to the death of other friends ; but the entire note 
 is too long to be quoted, and, in many places, is 
 obscured by contractions which make its meaniusf 
 doubtful. 
 
 The perfect accordance of these memoranda Avith 
 the other writings of the poet, conjoined with his- 
 torical facts, shew them incontestablj to have come 
 from the hand of Petrarch. N^or can it be fairly ob- 
 jected, as la Bastie has done, that any body might 
 haye imitated both his style and hand-writing, for 
 what object could any one have in fabricatino- 
 
3(36 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 such an imposture ? Besides, all the writers of 
 the Life of Petrarch, anterior to De Sade, were 
 ignorant that he had a son. Of this son the poet 
 speaks in an unpublished letter which remains in 
 the Medicean library. 
 
 In a letter to Francesco Nelli, written in 1361, 
 after thanking him for having tried to console him 
 for the loss of Socrates and his son, Petrarch adds, 
 alluding to the latter : " Quern Tiventem verbo 
 oderam, defunctum mente diligo, corde teneo, 
 complectorque memoria, quero oculis." 
 
 Petmrch makes mention of the death of Mai- 
 nardo, in the seventh epistle of the eighth book of 
 his ^^ Familiar Letters.'" Of Mainardo more shall 
 be said in a subsequent chapter. The atrocity of 
 his murder is justly execrated by Filippo Villani. 
 He was assassinated by order of the Ubaldini, 
 the lords of some lands in Alugello, whilst he was 
 returning to his native country, from A^^gnon. 
 
 The precious MS. of Virgil, containing the 
 autograph of Petrarch, is no longer in Italy. Like 
 many other relics held sacred by the Italians, it 
 was removed by the Prench during the last con- 
 quest of Italy. 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 3G7 
 
 jffot long after the death of Laura, on the 3rd 
 of July of the same year, he lost Cardinal Co- 
 lonna, who had been for so many years his friend 
 and patron. By some historians it is said that 
 this prelate died of the plague ; but Petrarch and 
 De Sade think that he sank under grief brought on 
 by the disasters of his family. In the space of five 
 years the cardinal had lost his mother and six 
 brothers. In the same year Petrarch went to 
 visit Manfredi Pio, the Padrone of Carpi. De 
 Sade places this visit to Manfredi in the follow- 
 ing year, 1349 ; but Baldelli has shewn, from 
 Manfredi's sepulchral inscription, as it is copied 
 from Tiraboschi, that he was dead at the time 
 when De Sade alleges the poet to have visited him, 
 so that his visit must have taken place in the pre- 
 ceding year. Carpi is a beautiful little city, of the 
 Modenese territory, situated on a fine plain, on 
 the banks of the Secchio, about four miles from 
 Correggio. Manfredi ruled it with reputation 
 for twenty years. 
 
 Among the incidents of Petrarch's life, in 1348, 
 we ought to notice his visit to Giacomo da Car- 
 rara, at Padua. Tiraboschi has put off the date of 
 this visit to the year 1350, wherein Baldelli proves 
 
368 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 liini to be erroneous, from the poet's own epistle to 
 posterity. In writing the life of Petrarch, it is 
 difficult to avoid digressions from his own adven- 
 tures, strictly personal, to notices of public events, 
 and of the political state of the communities which 
 he visited ; for he was the intimate friend of almost 
 all their different princes ; and, without knowing 
 something of the history of those communities and 
 their princes, Ave can take only a vague interest in 
 his biography. 
 
 He came to Padua by the express invitation of 
 Giacomo Carrara. This prince was the grandson 
 of that Giacomo who had been appointed to the 
 government of Padua by a general shew of the 
 popular will in 1318. At the death of the first 
 Giacomo, his son Marsiglio succeeded to the sove- 
 reignty, but was obliged to surrender his power 
 and capital to Cane della Scala, the chief captain 
 of the Ghibelline Italians, who entered Padua in 
 triumph, and governed it with moderation. At 
 his death. Cane's two nephews, Alberto and Mastino 
 della Scala, succeeded to the principality, but, un- 
 fortunately for themselves, they took Marsiglio 
 Carrara and his brother Ubertino for their prime 
 ministers, and confided the government to their 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 369 
 
 discretion. Alberto, the elder brother of Mastino, 
 was a stupid voluptuary, most unlike in talents to 
 his uncle Cane, who had been the best general of 
 his age. He seduced the wife of Ubertino Car- 
 rara ; and, seeing that, for the present, the injured 
 husband shewed no symptoms of anger, he con- 
 cluded that the offence was forgotten, or forgiven. 
 But Ubertino was too true an Italian to overlook 
 such an injury ; though he spoke not, he stifled 
 not his resentment. 
 
 But nursed his wrath to keep it warm. 
 
 One token of it must have escaped the careless 
 eye of Alberto, or it would have roused his alarm. 
 Ubertino added to the Moor's head, which formed 
 the crest of his helmet, a pair of gilded horns, in 
 memory of his shame and of the vengeance which 
 he meditated. 
 
 The Carraras were successful in dethroning the 
 Delia Scalas. Their partizans surrounded the 
 palace of Alberto, seized his person, and sent him 
 off to be kept a prisoner by the Venetians. Every 
 friend of the unfortunate Alberto della Scala for- 
 sook him, excepting his fool ^icoletto, who volun- 
 teered to follow him into a dungeon. Fidelity, it 
 is said, can ennoble even slaves. Here it does 
 
 VOL. I. B B 
 
370 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1350. 
 
 more ; it attaches us even to the memory of a 
 fool. 
 
 Marsiglio da Carrara became by this revolu- 
 tion the Lord of Padua ; and, since his decease, 
 Giacomo the second had reigned in his stead. 
 Petrarch was magnificently received by the Car- 
 raras ; and, within two years afterwards, they 
 bestowed upon him the canonicate of Padua, a 
 promotion which was followed in the same year by 
 his appointment to the Archdeaconry of Parma, 
 of which he had been hitherto only canon. 
 
LIFE OP PETRAECH. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Death of the Cardinal Colonna — Estimate of Petrarch's 
 grief for his loss — Luca Christiani and Mainardo Accursio 
 propose to live with Petrarch in Italy — They are murdered on 
 their journey — Petrarch rouses the Florentine Republic to 
 avenge their Death — Our Poet's devotion to the memory of 
 Laura. 
 
 bb2 
 
1348.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 373 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The biographers of Petrarch, and especially De 
 Sade, make an exaggerated appeal to our sym- 
 pathy when they mention his loss from the death 
 of friends, as if that misfortune had been peculiar 
 to him out of the whole human race, whereas no 
 being of sensibility has ever existed without ex- 
 periencing, in the progress of life, the severest 
 affliction from that cause. Ko doubt he felt for 
 the death of the cardinal ; but the Colonna, though 
 he might continue to be his friend, had ceased for 
 many years to be his patron and protector, ever 
 since the quarrel which they had had on Petrarch's 
 declaring his intention to leave Provence and to 
 settle in Italy. 
 
 He still, however, maintained an interest in the 
 Colonna family, though that interest was against 
 his own political principles, during the good beha- 
 viour of the Tribune. After the folly and fall of 
 
374 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1348. 
 
 Rienzo, it is probable that our poet's attachment 
 to his old friends of the Roman aristocracy reyived. 
 At least he thought it decent to write, on the death 
 of Cardinal Colonna, a letter of condolence to his 
 father, the aged Stefano, who was now verging to- 
 wards his hundredth year. This letter is dated 
 from Parma, on the 8th of September, 1348, but, 
 like many more of his consolatory epistles, it is 
 more full of erudition and efforts at saying fine 
 things than of grief and good feeling. Soon after 
 this letter reached him, old Stefano fell into the 
 grave. 
 
 The death of Cardinal Colonna was extremely felt 
 at Avignon, where it left a great void, his house 
 having been the rendezvous of men of letters and ge- 
 nius. Those Italians who composed his court could 
 not endure Avignon after they had lost their Mecae- 
 nas. Three of them were the particular friends of 
 Petrarch, namely, Socrates, Luca Christiani,* and 
 Mainardo Accursio.f Socrates, though not an Ita- 
 
 * Luca Christiani was born at Rome of a noble family. He 
 had a benefice at Placenza, and Petrarch had given him the 
 canonicate of Modena. He was a man of social temper and 
 cultivated mind. 
 
 t Mainardo Accursio was descended from that great juris- 
 consult of Florence, who was called the idol of jurisprudence. 
 
1349.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 375 
 
 lian, was extremely embarrassed by the death of 
 the Cardmal. He felt it difficult to live separated 
 from Petrarch, and yet he could not determine to 
 quit France for Italy. He wrote incessantly the 
 most pressing letters to induce our poet to return 
 and settle in Provence. Luca and Mainardo re- 
 solved to go and seek out Petrarch in Italy, in 
 order to settle with him the place on which they 
 should fix for their common residence, and where 
 they should spend the rest of their lives in his so- 
 ciety. They set out from Avignon in the month of 
 March, 1349, and arrived at Parma, but did not find 
 the poet, as he was gone on an excursion to Padua 
 and Verona. They passed a day in his house to 
 rest themselves, and, when they went away, left a 
 letter in his library, telling him that they had 
 crossed the Alps to come and see him, but that, 
 
 He was abbot of St. Antonio of Placenza. He became ac- 
 quainted with Petrarch at Florence, towards 1346. Many were 
 the letters addressed by Petrarch to Mainardo, whom he ad- 
 dressed under the name of Olympio. He was an illiterate 
 man, but amply redeemed the defect by other agreeable qua- 
 lities. Petrarch thus describes him, after his death, in a letter 
 to Socrates — " Liberalium disciplinarum nescius, sed vir bonus 
 et amicus esse didicerat, in coetu nostro talis unus aptior erat, 
 quara si omnes studio deditos caeterarum rerum omnium incu- 
 riositas habuisset." 
 
376 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1349. 
 
 having missed him, as soon as they had finished 
 an excursion which they meant to make, they 
 would return and settle Mith him the means of 
 their living together. Petrarch, on his return to 
 Parma, wrote several interesting letters to Mai- 
 nardo. In one of them he says, " I was much 
 grieved that I had lost the pleasure of your com- 
 pany, and that of our worthy friend, Luca Chris- 
 tiani. However, I am not without the consoling 
 hope that my absence may be the means of has- 
 tening your return. As to your apprehensions 
 about my returning to Yaucluse, I cannot deny 
 that, at the intreaties of Socrates, I should return, 
 provided I could procure an establishment in Pro- 
 vence, which would aftbrd me an honourable pre- 
 tence for residing there, and, at the same time, 
 enable me to receive my friends with hospitality ; 
 but at present circumstances are changed. The 
 Cardinal Colonna is dead, and my friends are all 
 dispersed, excepting Socrates, Mho continues in- 
 violably attached to Avignon. 
 
 " As to Vaucluse, I well know the beauties of 
 that charming valley, and ten years' residence is a 
 proof of my affection for the place. I have shewn 
 mv love of it bv the house which I built there. 
 

 ■X 
 
 ^ 
 
LIFE OF PETRARCH. 377 
 
 There I began mj Africa, there I wrote the greater 
 part of my epistles in prose and verse, and there I 
 nearly finished all my eclogues. I never had so 
 much leisure, nor felt so much enthusiasm in any 
 other spot. At Yaucluse I conceived the first 
 idea of giving an epitome of the Lives of Illus- 
 trious Men, and there I wrote my Treatise on a 
 Solitary Life, as well as that on religious retire- 
 ment. It was there, also, that I sought to mo- 
 derate my passion for Laura, which, alas, soli- 
 tude only cherished. In short, this lonely valley 
 will for ever be pleasing to my recollections. 
 There is, nevertheless, a sad change, produced by 
 time. Both the cardinal and every thing that is 
 dear to me have perished. The veil which covered 
 my eyes is at length removed. I can now perceive 
 the difference between Vaucluse and the rich 
 mountains and vales and flourishing cities of Italy. 
 And yet, forgive me, so strong are the preposses- 
 sions of youth, that I must confess I pine for 
 Vaucluse, even whilst I acknowledge its inferiority 
 to Italy." 
 
 Whilst Petrarch was thus flattering his imagi- 
 nation with hopes that were never to be realized, 
 his two friends, who had proceeded to cross the 
 
378 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1349. 
 
 Apennines, came to an untimely fate. On the 
 5th of June, 1349, according to De Sade, though 
 Baldelli proves an earlier date, a servant, whom 
 Petrarch had sent to inquire about some alarming 
 accounts of the travellers that had gone abroad, 
 returned sooner than he was expected, and shewed 
 by his face that he brought no pleasant tidings. 
 Petrarch was writing — the pen fell from his 
 hand. " What news do you bring ? " " Very bad 
 news ! Your two friends, in crossing the Apennines, 
 were attacked by robbers." " Oh God ! what has 
 happened to them ? " The messenger replied, 
 " Mainardo, who w^as behind his companions, was 
 surrounded and murdered. Luca, hearing of his 
 fate, came back sword in hand. He fought alone 
 against ten, and he wounded some of the assail- 
 ants, but at last he received many wounds, of 
 which he lies almost dead. The robbers fled with 
 their booty. The peasants assembled, and pur- 
 sued, and would have captured them, if some gen- 
 tlemen, unworthy of being called so, had not 
 stopped the pursuit, and received the villains into 
 their castles. Luca was seen among the rocks, 
 but no one knows what is become of him." Pe- 
 trarch, in the deepest agitation, despatched fleet 
 
1349.] LIFE OF PETRARCH. 379 
 
 couriers to Placenza, to Florence, and to Rome, to 
 obtain intellig'ence about Luca. 
 
 These ruffians, who came from Florence, were 
 protected by the Ubaldini, one of the most power- 
 ful and ancient families in Tuscany. As the mur- 
 der was perpetrated within the territory of Flo- 
 rence, Petrarch wrote indignantly to the magis- 
 trates and people of that state, intreating them to 
 avenge an outrage on their fellow-citizens. Luca, 
 it appears, expired of his wounds. 
 
 Petrarch's letter had its full effect. The Flo- 
 rentine commonwealth despatched soldiers, both 
 horse and foot, against the Ubaldini and their ban- 
 ditti, and decreed that every year an expedition 
 should be sent out against them till they should be 
 routed out of their Alpine caverns. The Floren- 
 tine troops directed their march to Monte Gem- 
 moli, an almost impregnable rock, which they 
 blockaded and besieged. The banditti issued forth 
 from their strongholds, and skirmished with over- 
 much confidence in their vantage ground. At 
 this crisis, the Florentine cavalry, having ascended 
 the hill, dismounted from their horses, pushed for- 
 ward on the banditti before they could retreat into 
 their fortress, and drove tliem, sword in hand, within 
 
380 LIFE OF PETRARCH. [1349. 
 
 its inmost circle. The Florentines thus possessed 
 themselves of Monte Gemmoli, and, in like man- 
 ner, of several other strongholds. There were 
 others which they could not take by storm, but 
 they laid waste the plains and cities which sup- 
 plied the robbers with pro"visions ; and, after having 
 done great damage to the Ubaldini, they returned 
 safe and sound to Florence. 
 
 All this time our poet was not forgetful of his 
 lost Laura ; on the contrary, we find him, in his 
 strains addressed to her memory, pouring forth 
 almost profane adoration. In his laudatory lan- 
 guage, she was an accession to the holiness and 
 attraction of Heaven itself. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 F. SHOBERL, JUN., 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET, 
 PRINTER TO H R.H. PRINCE ALBERT, 
 
 ^ 
 
<?<!)~57- 
 
 [f - 
 
\ 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 Niwi 
 
y^"~^