PETRARCH THE CRITIC AND READER 



tous, he had to rely upon the aid of others, and this help 

 was given him most ungrudgingly by high and low. 

 Sygeros, the envoy of the emperor of Constantinople, 

 sent him his copy of Homer. To Boccaccio he was 

 indebted for works of Varro, Cicero, and St. Augustine. 

 For others, to Nelli and Bruni. In his letter to Luca 

 della Penna he writes: " When my friends would ask 

 whether I wanted anything from their country, I would 

 answer that I wanted only books, and above all those 

 of Cicero. How many prayers I have addressed, how 

 many have I sent, not only to Italy, but to France, 

 Germany, and even Spain and England, and (would you 

 beheve it ?) to Greece. Although often disappointed, 

 I cannot cease from continually seeking." 



Petrarch is the real bibliomaniac; he describes his 

 passion as an insatiable desire: " the hunger for books 

 is keener than that for any other thing, — gold, horses, 

 silver, — which give but a mute pleasure, while that of 

 books penetrates to the marrow of our bones." Books 

 converse with us, counsel us, unite with us. So Pe- 

 trarch, like all earnest book-lovers, always thinks and 

 frequently speaks of his books as real friends. He 

 writes of the joy with which the inhabitants of his 

 library receive a Latin translation of Homer. He talks 

 of a volume of Cicero which fell and bruised his leg and 

 caused him considerable trouble for a long time; jesting 

 at the unkindness of Cicero to one of his most faithful 

 servants. The closeness of the tie which bound him to 

 his books is shown by bits of personal reflection, memo- 



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