PETRARCH THE MAN 



heights of Galas, where she was born. Flamini requires 

 a place which shall be far enough from Vaucluse to 

 make the latter spot seem a refuge to Petrarch, and yet 

 which can be seen from the hill above Vaucluse, and, 

 seen from there, can appear to be situated in the plain, 

 though really on a low hill. That spot, in agreement 

 with a late fifteenth century Neapolitan poet, Francesco 

 Galeoto, who visited France in 1483, he identifies with 

 Caumont, or rather with a small hill called Picabr6. 

 The scenes of Petrarch's love-making are the regions 

 near by. The "amorosa reggia,'' background of the 

 canzone Chiare fresche dolci acque, is forty minutes' 

 walk from the collicello, near a place called Gadagne; 

 the "dolci colli" are those which extend from Caumont 

 to Vedenes. Petrarch had, then, plenty of opportunities 

 to see Laura, not merely in the balcony of her own home, 

 sitting and singing, but also in the " amorosa reggia," 

 bathing her face or some object, plucking flowers and 

 weaving garlands for her hair — this last occupation 

 being one of the pretty customs of the day, and no 

 figment of the poet's imagination. Flamini's Laura, 

 therefore, is not Laura de Noves, inasmuch as she came 

 not from Noves but from Caumont. Neither can she 

 have been so old as the lady of Noves, nor have had so 

 many children: " crebris partibus " does not mean that. 

 She was probably about nine years younger than 

 Petrarch, and still capable of inspiring passion at her 

 death. The fact that a Laura de Noves died of the 

 plague in April, 1348, and was buried in the church of 



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