PETRARCH THE CRITIC AND READER 



be regarded as invention, to be received with caution 

 by philosophers. For the early Renaissance writers, 

 theology ennobled poetry. 



Nevertheless, despite these utterances of Petrarch, 

 the conception of the true nature of the poet was 

 changing, had already changed. The fourteenth cen- 

 tury poet is no longer Dante's poet-theologian. He is , 

 the man of eloquence, of Latin eloquence, the orator. 

 The greatest Italian poet of the fourteenth century, 

 after Dante, still preferred Cicero to Virgil, and looked 

 upon verse as only a finer sort of prose. It is dishearten- 

 ing to see this, and it augurs ill for the verse of the 

 himdred years to come. Fortunately the humanists 

 were not absolute masters of the field. 



II 



If Petrarch disappoints us in his theorizing about the 

 true nature of poetry, he appears to far greater advan- 

 tage as a scholar, especially in his love of books. In 

 this there is no room for petty jealousy. If his language 

 at times seems a little too highly colored, that excess is 

 due simply to a conventional manner of expressing 

 one's self, common in his day. 



A great part of his life was devoted to the building up 

 of his library by copying and purchasing books, and by 

 obtaining them as gifts. At first, naturally, he was 

 forced to do much of the copying himself. Then, when 

 his income increased sufficiently, he employed others, 

 having them work at his home or even accompany him 



96 



