146. EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HTPOTHESIS 



epithets. To this we fliall anfwer by a fingle queflion, which 

 has been well put by M. de la Bastie to thofe who contend for 

 Laura's being born at Avignon : " Que dirions-nous d'un 

 " poete, qui addreflant la parole a quelqu'un qui feroit ne dans 

 " le fauxbourg S^^ Germain, croiroit devoir le plaindre de ce 

 " qu'il n'eft pas venu au monde dans une ville confiderable ? 

 " Ceux qui naiflent dans ce fauxbourg, font-ils moins iies a 

 " Paris?" 



But, continues the Abbe, we find, in a fragment which is 

 printed at the end of all the editions of the works of Petrarch, 

 the following expreflion : 



Dove Sorga e Durenza in 7?iaggior vajo 

 Congiungon le lor chiare e torbide acque ; — 

 Jvi, ond' a gli occhi miei el bel lume ndcque. — 



" That beautiful luminary was born where the Sorga and the 

 " Durance unite their clear and turbid ftreams in a larger chan- 

 " nel." Can any thing, fays he, mark more precifely the fitua- 

 tion of Avignon ? 



The anfwer is,/'/y?, The authenticity of this fragment is not 

 admitted. It is not found in the befl manufcripts of the works 

 of Petrarch, nor have Velutello, Gesualdo, or Bembo, 

 given it a place in their editions. In the fplendid edition printed 

 at Venice in 1756, it is found in an appendix, which the editor 

 entitles, " Giiinta d'alcune compofitione del Petrarca che fi 

 " dicono da lui rifiutate." It is therefore a document of no 

 authority whatever. But, fecondly. Even fuppofing it genuine, 

 the defcription there given does by no means mark precifely the 

 fituation of Avignon. The Sorga and the Durance do not join 

 their ftreams at Avignon. The Sorga falls into the Rh6ne five 

 miles above Avignon, and the Durance fix miles below that city. 

 Thefe rivers, therefore, though they unite their ftreams by both 



falling 



