PETRARCH THE AUTHOR 



to mention, he anticipates Flavio Biondo and ^Eneas 

 Silvius. 



Petrarch was a prohfic writer, and it is out of the 

 question to try to treat here his works in detail. He 

 is one of the bihngual authors of the Renaissance. I 

 have already discussed his letters and his Latin verse, 

 and shall now say a word of his other Latin prose 

 works. Three of these I shall httle more than mention: 

 the De Otio Religiosorum, the De Remediis utriusque 

 Fortunae, and one which has a very suggestive and 

 alluring title, the De Vita Solitaria. This promises 

 much, but to the modern layman it is disappointing, 

 for, like the first two, it is purely reUgious in tone; and 

 yet in it, and in all of them, one can find the Renais- 

 sance man. It is not wholly the medieval ascetic who 

 is talking to you. Finally, the three form a necessary 

 complement to works Hke the poems of the Canzoniere 

 for any one who wishes to study Petrarch's character. 

 Of the De Viris Illustrihus (a history of Rome with 

 formal biographies of her illustrious men) I have 

 already spoken. To us, his desire to glorify Rome is of 

 course of great significance. The principal weakness of 

 the book is the author's tendency to moralize. The 

 Libri Rerum Mentor andarum^ I should say, would appeal 

 to a much larger circle of readers, and has for me a very 

 special interest. This work consists of a series of anec- 

 dotes illustrating certain human quahties and virtues, 

 and here we have Petrarch the novehst. Good examples 

 are certain frequently quoted stories of Dante. 



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