[1] Cf. Voigt, op. cit., i., p. 52.
[2] Var., 47.
[3] Var., 38. Written in 1347.
[4] Rienzo found it impossible in the long run to reconcile his assumption of power with the prerogatives of Rome's papal sovereign.
[5] A word is apparently missing here in the MS.
The following letter, written some five years after Rienzo's coup d'état, is not only important for its references to the ex-Tribune's reception at Avignon, but it enables us to judge how the whole affair appeared to Petrarch after his friend's disgrace.
Rienzo under the Protection of the Muses.
To Francesco Nelli.[1]