152 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HYPOTHESIS 



feen, a very ill founded one, for fome centuries. " The opinion 

 " regarding Laura," fays VelutellOj " which was current 

 '' at Avignon, may have, in a great meafure, arifen from one 

 '' Gabriel de Sade, an old nobleman of that city, with whom 

 " I happened to converfe a great deal at two different times, 

 " when I was at Avignon. He fet forth, that he was defcend- 

 " ed from one Hugh de Sade, a brother of John, who was 

 " the father of Mado/iJia Lavka, whom he underftood to have 

 " been the fame who was celebrated by Petrarch ; and he 

 *' told me, that this John de Sade had fome poffeiTions at 

 " Gravefons, about two leagues from Avignon, where he lived 

 " always in fummer, but pafled the winter at Avignon ; and 

 " that this Laura, the daughter of John de Sade, was, after 

 *' her death, interred in the family burial-place, in the Church 

 " of the Cordeliers. But,'' continues Velutello, " what con- 

 " vinced me that this old man's ftory was altogether a fidtion, 

 " was, that being aflced at what time this Laura lived, he faid, 

 " that by a certain teflament which he had feen, fhe mufl have 

 " been a grown woman between the years 1360 and 1370: 

 " Now we are certain," adds Velutello " that Petrarch's 

 " Laura died in tlie year 1348." 



I quote this pafTage for two reafons ; firjl^ To fliew that Ve- 

 lutello, who lived within 150 years of the time of Petrarch, 

 who had been at the utmoft pains to invefligate every trace of 

 the hiftory of Laura, (a fubjedt which he has treated in a fe- 

 parate differtation), and who had himfelf converfed with this 

 old gentleman of the family of Sade, from whom he fuppofes 

 the report of Laura's relation to that family to have adlually 

 originated, did not himfelf give credit to the ftory, but conjec- 

 tured it to be a mere fidlion, and the offspring of the old man's 

 vanity ; and I mention it, To Ihew, fecondly, that this report, 

 thus traced nearly to its origin, did not make Laura a married 

 woman, or conne^fled with the houfe of Sade by marriage, but 



