PETRARCH THE MAN 



interesting that in the same year in which Melodia was 

 trying to vindicate Petrarch, Scarano published, in 

 the twenty-ninth volume of the Giornale Storico delta 

 Letteratura italiana, the severest criticism made up to 

 that time, under the title, Ulnvidia del Petrarca. In 

 his opinion, he has no difficulty in proving that before 

 1359 Petrarch had read the Commedia and made good 

 use of it, and that then hypocritically he disowned his 

 model. On the whole, Scarano's work is more carefully 

 done than Melodia's. But undoubtedly it displays too 

 much animus; for after he has stripped Petrarch of his 

 alleged borrowings from Dante, and also of those from 

 Provence, he leaves practically nothing; he pictures our 

 author as a sort of jackdaw strutting around in plumes 

 borrowed from the Provencal songs and from the poets 

 of the dolce stil nuovo, a forlorn, belated creature. 



Taking everything into consideration, I am incHned 

 to accept Petrarch's word, even though it is hard to 

 understand how he could have avoided reading, or at 

 least looking at a copy of Dante's poetry. As to the 

 reminiscences which Scarano finds, not all are of equal 

 weight; one must remember that many of the ideas 

 were in the air, and that even if Petrarch had never 

 perused a hne of AUghieri, he could hardly have shut 

 his ears when the latter's verses were repeated aloud, a 

 thing which often occurred, as he himself admits. For 

 instance, speaking of Dante's silly admirers who so 

 mispronounced. and lacerated his verses that they did 

 him the greatest injury a poet can sufifer, he says: " I 



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