[423] Florence broke off communications after consulting Siena and Perugia. Cf. Arch. Stor. Ital., Ser. I. App. VII, p. 389.
[424] Cf. Arch. Stor. Ital., u.s., p. 389.
[425] Cf. Matteo Villani, Lib. IV. In July (see letter quoted supra) we know Boccaccio to have been in Ravenna. He says to Petrarch, "Pridie quidem IIII ydus julii forte Ravennam urbem petebam, visitaturus civitatis Principem et ut ferebat iter Livii forum intravi...." He arrived, then, on July 12, and it was a friend he met in Forlì (Livii) who told him that Petrarch had entered the service of the Visconti. He reproaches him, as we have seen. Nelli, whom he here calls Simonides, was also in Ravenna. He upbraids Petrarch, as we have seen, in allegory, asking how Sylvanus (Petrarch) can desert and betray the nymph Amaryllis (Italy) and go over to the oppressor Egon (Visconti), the false priest of Pan (the Pope), a monster of crime. Cf. Corazzini, op. cit., p. 47.
[426] See docs. cited in Arch. Stor. Ital., u.s., pp. 392-4.
[427] Baldelli, Hortis, Landau, and Koerting are all in agreement that this mission took place in April, 1354, not April, 1353. The instructions of the Republic, which I quote infra, were published by Canestrini in Arch. St. It., u.s., p. 393, but under the erroneous date of April 30, 1353. In April, 1353, Charles was not about to set out.
The letter of instruction is as follows:—
"Nota agendorum in Romana Curia cum domino Summo Pontifice, pro parte suorum et Ecclesie devotorum, Priorum artium et Vexillifero Iustitie Populi et Comunis Florentie, et ipsius Comunis per providum virum dominum Iohannem Bocchaccii de Certaldo, ambaxiatorum Comunis predicti.
"Primo quidem, idem orator eosdem Priores et Vexilliferum et Comune, ea qua videntur, prelatione debita et devota, Sanctitati Apostolice humiliter commendabit.
"Secundo, narrabit Sanctitati Sue quod Illustris Romanorum et Boemie Rex, per suas licteras, et nuncios Comuni Florentino et eius Regiminibus, advenctum suum ad partes Italicas fiendum in proximo nuntiavit: que annuntiatio miranda venit auditui predictorum, pro eo quod, nunquid descendat de Summi Pontificis conscientia vel non, in Comuni Florentie non est clarum. Quod Comune, devotum Sancte Romane Ecclesie intendens, ut consuevit, hactenus a Sancta Matre Ecclesia, in nichilo deviare, certiorari cupit die Apostolica conscientia ut in agendis procedat cauctius, et suis possit, favore apostolico, negotiis providere. Cuius Summi Pontificis si responsum fuerit, se et Ecclesiam Romanam de eiusdem Imperatori descensu esse contentos, tunc subiungat supplicando, quod Populum et Comune Florentie dignetur recommendatos habere tamquam devotos Ecclesie et Apostolice Sanctitatis, ut in devotione solita possint idem Comune et populus erga Sanctam Matrem Ecclesiam libere conservari.
"Si vero idem dominus Summus Pontifex eiusdem discensus diceret se conscium non esse, et vellet de intentione Comunis Florentie ab eodem oratore perquirere; dicat se non habere mandatum, nisi sciscitandi Summi Pontificis voluntatem.