PETRARCH THE AUTHOR 



correspondents and themes. At the beginning of what 

 is ostensibly a letter, but which in some editions is 

 printed separately and entitled Treatise on the Art of 

 Good Government J he writes to Pandolfo Malatesta: 

 " Often have I thought it would not be seemly if, 

 among the names of so many men of great and mediocre 

 station, yours were lacking"; and incidentally he 

 indulges in flattery which is pretty gross. In another 

 epistle he declares: "I have always answered people 

 who have written to me, and sometimes I have been 

 the first to write." From the fourth letter of the thir- 

 teenth book we learn that Giovanni d'Arezzo is making 

 a collection of his works, and Petrarch makes the fol- 

 lowing important remarks: " You say you have many 

 of my letters; I wish you had them all and correctly 

 written. . . . You hope, too, that you have all my 

 vernacular works. . . . Here it is especially necessary 

 that the readings shotdd be correct. ^^ More than once he 

 speaks of what is fit subject matter for letters; for 

 example in one to Francesco Bruni: " I leave aside 

 domestic matters, about which you wrote me at some 

 length, inasmuch as they are not worthy of being 

 treated in a noble style." How artificial his style can 

 be, one may judge by looking at another letter to the 

 same person, in which, for the sake of animation, the 

 writer introduces an imaginary dialogue. 



Then there are numerous illustrations of his vanity 

 and his desire for fame. " Finally, (that you may know 

 all that has happened to me) I have received again and 



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