Petrarch, however, did not have a first-hand acquaintance with the Ac. posteriora. In Rer. mem., I, 2, p. 396, the chapter on Varro gives the entire substance of the present letter. According to Ancona-Bacci (Vol. I, p. 514), the Liber rer. mem. was composed earlier than 1350—the date of this letter to Varro—which therefore may have been modeled after the corresponding chapter of the Rer. mem., in which Ac. post., i, 3, 9 is cited in full. Hence it results that Rer. mem. I, 2 was based on St. Augustine, and Fam., XXIV, 6, on Rer. mem.
[55]. St. Augustine distinctly says, De civ. dei, XIX, 22: “Varro doctissimus Romanorum;” and Quintilian, Inst., x, 1, 95: “Terentius Varro, vir Romanorum eruditissimus.”
[56]. Lactantius, Divin. Inst., i, 6, 7: “M. Varro, quo nemo umquam doctior ne apud Graecos quidem vixit, in libris rerum divinarum quos ad C. Caesarem pontificem maximum scripsit. . . .” (cf. Petrarch, Vol. III, p. 276).
[57]. Catonis Disticha, III, 5 (in Poetae latini minores, Vol. III):
Segnitiem fugito, quae vitae ignavia fertur;
Nam cum animus languet, consumit inertia corpus.
P. de Nolhac says (II, p. 110, n. 2) that he has not found in Petrarch a single reference to the Catonis Disticha, which were so widespread in the Middle Ages. The above, to be sure, is not actually cited by Petrarch, but it does seem to give the thought contained in “servata ex Catonis praecepto ratione otii” (III, p. 276).
[58]. St. Augustine, De civ. dei, VI, 2:
And although Varro is less pleasing in his style, he is imbued with erudition and philosophy to such an extent that in every branch of those studies which we today call secular and which they were wont to call liberal, he imparts as much to him who is in pursuit of knowledge as Cicero delights him who is desirous of excelling in the choice of words.