found and transcribed the manuscript of Cicero’s letters
to Atticus, a discovery that encouraged him to begin his
own series of letters addressed to classical authors. After
returning to Vaucluse in 1346, Petrarch began work on
his treatise on the solitary life, De vita solitaria, which
he subsequently dedicated to Philippe de Cabassoles. In
1347, Petrarch was happy to receive news of a revolution
in Rome and the nomination of Cola di Rienzo to the
position of tribune (essentially, dictator), for in these
events he saw some signs of the old Roman grandeur. In
letters to Cola and the Roman people, Petrarch encour-
aged them in their battle for liberty. However, Cola’s
excesses and megalomania would gradually undermine
his position and destroy Petrarch’s faith in him. After
imprisonment in Avignon on charges of heresy, Cola
returned to Rome as a senator, only to meet his death
at the hands of the Roman people in 1354.
In 1347–1348, the time of the black death, Petrarch
was in Verona and in Parma, where news of Laura’s
death (6 April 1348) came to him in a letter from his
old friend “Socrates.” The date of Laura’s death and that
of his fi rst meeting with her, exactly twenty-one years
before in 1327, would provide the basic chronological
structure for a series of “anniversary” poems in the
Canzoniere. The disastrous effects of the plague, which
resulted in the deaths of several friends (e.g., Cardinal
Colonna and Franceschino degli Albizzi), led Petrarch
to write the Triumph of Death (Triumphus mortis).
His discovery of Cicero’s letters in Verona in 1345
gave Petrarch the idea of collecting his own letters, and
by 1350 he was actively engaged in this project, which
would lead to the formation of the Familiares (twenty-
four books), Seniles (seventeen books), Sine nomine
(nineteen letters), and Epistolae metricae (three books).
For the jubilee year of 1350, Petrarch traveled to Rome,
stopping on the way in Florence, where he met Giovanni
Boccaccio for the fi rst time. Among Petrarch’s many
admirers in Florence were Boccaccio, Zanobi da Strada,
Francesco Nelli, and Lapo da Castiglionchio. Always
searching for manuscripts, Petrarch found in Lapo’s
library a copy of Quintilian’s Institutes and some of
Cicero’s orations. After his Roman pilgrimage, Petrarch
spent time in Parma and Padua. The Florentine republic
offered him a teaching post at the university there, and
the pope summoned him to return to Avignon. In 1351–
1352, Petrarch was once again working in Vaucluse on
De viris illustribus and the Canzoniere. In 1353, during
his last months in Vaucluse, Petrarch was involved in an
extended and intense debate with one of the pope’s doc-
tors over the relative merits of medicine and poetry, and
this discussion resulted in the Invective contra medicum,
in which Petrarch defends the supremacy of the liberal
arts over the lower mechanical arts and praises poetry
as the highest form of wisdom.
During 1353–1361, Petrarch lived for the most part
in Milan, as a guest of the Visconti family and with
the special support of Archbishop Giovanni Visconti.
Despite the criticism he received from his friends for
living under a despot, Petrarch was pleased with his cir-
cumstances, for he was able to do virtually anything he
wanted. One project he began there became his longest
work, De remediis utriusque fortune, a moral treatise
in two books, the fi rst dealing with the perils of good
fortune and the second with the dangers of its opposite,
adverse fortune. The form of De remediis is a series of
dialogues between personifi ed qualities; for example, in
Book I, Joy and Hope—the children of Prosperity—ar-
gue against Reason; and in Book II, Reason’s opponents
are Sorrow and Fear, the offspring of Adversity. It was
in Milan that Petrarch met Emperor Charles IV, whom
he encouraged to reestablish the empire with Rome as
its capital. These dealings with Charles, undertaken on
behalf of the Visconti, allowed Petrarch to travel to Ba-
sel and Prague. In 1361, the Visconti sent him to Paris,
where he delivered an oration, in Latin, in the presence
of King John of France and John’s court. Petrarch’s eight
years in Milan marked the longest nearly continuous
residency of his life. Moreover, they were productive
years, allowing him to complete De remediis and to
make great progress in his compilation of the Canzo-
niere and the Familiares.
After his move to Padua in the summer of 1361,
Petrarch received the sad news of the deaths of his
illegitimate son Giovanni (who died in the plague in
Milan) and of his old friends “Socrates” and Philippe
de Vitry. However, he enjoyed frequent correspondence
and encounters with Boccaccio, who often supplied
him with copies of rare manuscripts (e.g., Augustine’s
Expositions on the Psalms, Varro’s De lingua latina,
the life of Peter Damian). In May 1362, Petrarch had
an opportunity to advise Boccaccio, who had been ter-
rifi ed by a visit from a fanatical monk representing the
late Pietro Petroni of Siena. Informed that he did not
have long to live and that he should renounce the study
of poetry, Boccaccio thought fi rst to dispose of all his
books, but Petrarch dissuaded him and encouraged him
to continue his studies. However, Petrarch said that he
would gladly buy Boccaccio’s books if Boccaccio had
a change of heart. Petrarch’s love of books, and his zeal
in collecting them, enabled him to amass what was at
the time perhaps the largest private library in Europe.
Recognizing the value of his collection, Petrarch reached
a formal agreement with the maggior consiglio of Venice
whereby he would give his library to Venice in exchange
for a suitable house there and the assurance that his
books would not be dispersed. Petrarch’s collection thus
formed the basis for the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice.
In Venice, Petrarch enjoyed visits from Boccaccio and
numerous other friends; he also was gladdened by the
birth of his grandchildren (Eletta and Francesco) andPETRARCA, FRANCESCO