PETRARCH THE CRITIC AND READER 



moral dissertations, but it is quite likely that they 

 heightened his melanchoHa. To Seneca's weaknesses 

 he was no more blind than he was to Cicero's; and in 

 various ways, especially as a critic, he showed himself 

 an independent scholar, not a sheep to follow blindly 

 the lead of others. Although it was not until about a 

 century later that the authenticity of the so-called 

 correspondence between St. Paul and Seneca was 

 attacked, Petrarch saw more clearly than his contem- 

 poraries that Seneca was not a Christian. He doubted 

 whether Seneca was the author of the Octavia, but 

 unfortunately he had suspicions of all the plays. 



With Quintilian he became acquainted late and in- 

 completely, but he took to him naturally because of his 

 sensible remarks upon rhetoric. Nolhac says that in no 

 other of Petrarch's manuscripts does one see so mark- 

 edly his hostility towards the dialecticians and scholas- 

 tics of his time. 



PKny the elder was for him a source of varied infor- 

 mation, just the person to interest him and other 

 Renaissance men, because of his eager inquisitiveness. 

 At the same time, be it said to his credit, Petrarch 

 shows caution in accepting his statements. Perhaps it 

 is worth remembering that it was especially Pliny the 

 geographer and historian of art who appealed to him. 

 Again, it was Pliny who inspired him to make the 

 remark that he stood, as it were, on the confines of 

 two ages, looking at the same time forwards and back- 

 wards. 



103 



