PETRARCH THE AUTHOR 



lapidaries with their wonderful tales of the mystic 

 properties of stones. 



It is, however, as historian or biographer that he on 

 the whole appears at his best among scholars. In this 

 field Nolhac, one of the sanest of Petrarch scholars, 

 gives him very high praise. " In his De Viris Illustribus 

 he produced the first Renaissance work dedicated to 

 Roman history. At the same time, he restored the 

 ancient art of biography, showing remarkable care in 

 the acquisition of exact information, and, whenever 

 possible, checking up other historians by comparing 

 the different testimony." So much for the evidence of 

 a proper conception of the duties of a historian. Nolhac 

 makes, in connection with his historical studies, another 

 remark which is most suggestive: " Les races, les 

 nations, le developpement des empires Tinteressent 

 peu, Findividu seul le passionne." 



Books were not the only memorials of antiquity that 

 Petrarch loved. Like nearly all humanists, he was fond 

 of collecting coins or gems, and naturally his imagina- 

 tion was kindled by the sight of ruins; but besides his 

 concern with the past, he was interested (and this is a 

 fine thing about the Renaissance men in general) in the 

 world about him. In a letter to his friend Francesco 

 Bruni {Senilia, rx, 2), he says he has spent nearly all his 

 fife traveUing; why, he cannot say, but it is a fact. One 

 cause was his restlessness, which kept him moving; and 

 then, too, it really delighted him to see new things. 

 " Certainly," he declares, " I have seen more things 



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