PETRARCA PEUTINGER TABLE. 



503 



time in deep study. (See Epistle 116, and his son- 

 nets and canzoni.) This love, however, did not ex- 

 tinguish all others ; he had a natural son who died of 

 the plague in 1361, and a daughter, who was mar- 

 ried to a nobleman. The news of Laura's death, 

 which reached him in Verona, April 8, 1348, was a 

 severe blow to him ; yet he did not oease to celebrate 

 her. In his old age, however, he declared that he 

 was ashamed of his youthful infatuation, and that he 

 regretted having written his amatory poems. Yet he 

 did not censure his love so much as its excess, and as 

 he advanced in years, he became a contemner of the 

 female sex. The account of his early passion is to be 

 found chiefly in his Latin epistles, his treatise entitled 

 My Secret, or On the Contempt of the World, and 

 the poem the Triumph of Death. After a lapse of 

 500 years, we still enjoy the fruits of his love in those 

 admirable sonnets and canzoni which paint the joys 

 and sorrows, the admiration and desire, and all the 

 tender thoughts and emotions of a poetic and glow- 

 ing love. Petrarch is truly the prince of love poets ; 

 some of his poems may be censured for their mono- 

 tony and the traces of the age in which they were 

 written, for cold thoughts and allusions, false wit, 

 a tasteless play upon words, and far-fetched epi- 

 thets. But the greater part of them will ever be 

 looked upon as among the most perfect masterpieces 

 of lyric poetry. His poems contain many difficult 

 passages, but numerous annotators have undertaken 

 to explain them ; as Gesualdo, Castelvetro, Velutello, 

 Tassoni, and others. They have been published 

 more than 200 times. His Latin works were printed 

 at Basle, 1496 and 1581, and often separately. 



Petrarch was likewise, constant in his friendship. 

 This we know from collections of his letters, which 

 are likewise useful for their historical information. 

 He was religious after the fashion of his age, vener- 

 ated what was esteemed sacred by his contemporaries, 

 observed fasts, bequeathed a portion of his pro- 

 perty to the churches, revered saints, especially 

 the Virgin Mary (to whom he wrote a canzonet full 

 of humility and devotion), and relics. If we add 

 to these characteristic traits, his gratitude to 

 his instructors, faithfulness to his patrons, and uni- 

 versal benevolence, we can easily account for the 

 esteem which he enjoyed ; especially when we 

 remember that he had a pleasing exterior to re- 

 commend his merits. In his youth he was well-form- 

 ed, lively, fond of the most beautiful dresses (see 

 Far. Epist., ix.), and vain, and he played on the 

 lute. His diligence was very great, and his talents 

 brilliant. The events of the latter part of his life 

 are his journey to Rome to attend the jubilee ; the 

 restoration of his property by the city of Florence ; 

 his invitation to the chair of professor in the new 

 university in that city, which he refused ; his visit 

 to Italy, after the death of Clement VI. : the distin- 

 guished reception which he met from Galeazzo Vis- 

 conti, at Milan, and Charles IV. at Mantua ; the 

 long desired removal of the papal chair to Rome, 

 under Urban, in 1367, which was brought about by 

 1 is influence; and his mediation of the peace 

 between the Carrarese and the Venetians, in 1373. 

 He died in 1374, as is supposed on the night of 

 July 18, in the village of Arqua, near Padua, where 

 he had retired to end his days. He was found dead 

 early in the morning, in his library, with his head 

 resting on a book. He was interred, with great 

 pomp, at Arqua, although he had forbidden all cere- 

 mony. His valuable library he bequeathed to the 

 republic of Venice ; but no portion of it is now 

 to be found. The account of his life is derived 

 chiefly from his own writings his Letters, his 

 Secret, and his Address to Posterity on his life and 

 character. The best of his biographers are the 



abbe de Sade (a descendant of his Laura), Tira- 

 boschi, Baldelli, Fernow, Wismayr, Ugo Foscolo, 

 Woodhouslee, Ginguene, &c. 



PETREL (thalassidroma) ; a genus of oceanic 

 birds, well known to seamen by the name of Mother 

 Carey's chickens. They are found in every part of 

 the world, on the ocean, at great distances from 

 land, generally at twilight, or in stormy weather. 

 They feed on small marine animals, and seeds of 

 sea-weeds, and appear exceedingly fond of fat or 

 grease, for which, and for the animals put in 

 motion, they will follow in the wake of ships for 

 great distances. They breed in rocks adjoining the 

 sea, forming their nests in cavities ; the female lays 

 two eggs. They fly rapidly, and generally close to 

 the water ; and, when in pursuit of food, they sus- 

 pend themselves by extending their wings, and 

 appear to run on the surface of the water. Buffon 

 says it is from this circumstance that they are called 

 petrels, after the apostle Peter, who walked on 

 the water. The appearance of these birds is con- 

 sidered by seamen to presage a storm, and it is 

 thought peculiarly unlucky to kill one of them. 

 There are four species, which are so closely allied 

 to each other as to be generally confounded. C. 

 Bonaparte, who paid much attention to this genus, 

 designates them as follows T. JVilsonii (stormy 

 petrel) ; deep sooty black ; tail even ; wings reach- 

 ing a little beyond its tip ; tube of the nostrils re- 

 curved ; tarsus one and a half inch long. T. Leachii 

 (fork-tailed petrel) ; brownish black ; tail forked ; 

 wings not reaching beyond the tip; tube of the 

 nostrils straight ; tarsus one inch long. T. pelagica ; 

 sooty black ; tail even ; wings reaching a little 

 beyond it ; tube of the nostrils almost straight ; 

 tarsus seven eighths of an inch long. T. oceanica 

 brownish black ; tail slightly emarginate ; wings 

 reaching more than an inch beyond it ; tube of the 

 nostrils recurved ; tarsus nearly one and three- 

 fourths of an inch long. See Puffin. 



PETRIFACTIONS. See Organic Remains. 



PETROBRUSIANS. See Sects. 



PETROLEUM. See Bitumen. 



PETRONIUS, TITUS, surnamed Arbiter, a Roman 

 author, notorious for his licentiousness and obscenity, 

 was born at Marseilles, and lived in the court of 

 Nero. He was, for a time, the favourite of the 

 emperor, who made him master (arbiter) of his 

 voluptuous banquets and revelries. But lie finally 

 fell a victim to the suspicions of the tyrant, by 

 whose command he was obliged to put himself to 

 death. The corruption and dissoluteness of Roman 

 manners, at that period, are portrayed in the frag- 

 ments of the Satyricon Libri, in which Petronius 

 describes, in prose and in verse, the profligacy of 

 the times, and which are, therefore, valuable, at 

 least as a picture of manners. Some attribute it, on 

 account of several allusions, to another author, who 

 lived for some time, in the reign of Commodus, in 

 Naples. The best critical edition is that of Bur- 

 inann (Leyden, 1743, 2 vols., 4to); there is a later 

 edition, by Anton, on the basis of Burmann's (Leip- 

 sic, 1781). The supposed supplements, lately dis- 

 covered, are spurious. 



PETTY BAG ; an office in chancery, in England, 

 the three clerks of which record the return of all 

 inquisitions out of every county, and make all 

 patents of comptrollers, gaugers, customers, &c. 



PEUTINGER TABLE; a map showing the 

 military roads of the greater part of the kingdom 

 of the Visigoths, drawn, it was formerly believed, 

 for Theodosius the Great. It is called after Conrad 

 Peutinger, a German scholar, born 1465, and who 

 died in 1547. Among his papers was this famous 

 map. Conrad Celtes had found it in the Benedictine 



