Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters / A Selection from His Correspondence with Boccaccio and Other Friends, Designed to Illustrate the Beginnings of the Renaissance

by Francesco Petrarca

[73] Cf. Fracassetti, Let. delle Cos. Fam., i., 525 sqq.

[74] The canzone beginning, Quel c' ha nostra natura in se più degno.

[75] See Fracassetti, op. cit., i., 527.

[76] In the dedicatory preface to that work the reader will find an interesting review of Azzo's career.

[77] Var., 16 (vol. iii., p. 337), also Var., 4. For the whole matter see Fracassetti, Let. delle Cos. Fam., i., pp. 525 sqq.

[78] Ep. Poet. Lat., ii., 5.

[79] Fam., v., 3, 4, and 5. In the last of these there is a fine description of a terrible storm.

[80] Fam., xxiv., 3; also Voigt, op. cit., p. 42. It has been satisfactorily proved that Petrarch was unaware of the existence of the important collection Ad Familiares. Cf. de Nolhac, op. cit., 94 and 211 sqq.

[81] See below, [Part V].

[82] Fam., xii., 7 (vol. ii., p. 186).