Petrarch at the Banquet 79 



wedding/^ but to comply with the soHcitations of Galeazzo, who 

 had been urging him to confer with the Cardinal Anglicus de 

 Grimoard, brother of Urban V, with reference to composing the 

 strife between the Pope and the Visconti.^^ Fourthly, on the 



{Var. 25; Fracassetti 5. 301-2). Whether this leg suffered in his flight 

 from Parma in 1345, when his right arm was injured, we do not know 

 (cf. Fracassetti 4. 374)- In any case, Novati (F. Petrarca e la Lom- 

 hardia, p. 49) is convinced that it was an old wound, never entirely- 

 healed, and now aggravated by the long horseback ride, that was troubling 

 him in 1368; but he supposes that it was received in the flight from 

 Parma, apparently knowing nothing of the certain injuries. 



'^ Novati (p. 49) exclaims : 'Behold him here amid the uproar of the 

 wedding festival, under the necessity of taking part in interminable 

 ceremonies, and of being present at no less interminable banquets. . . . 

 Who can tell what Messer Francesco was thinking of, as all this Pan- 

 tagruelian feast unrolled itself before his eyes?' 



^^Levati, Viaggi di Francesco Petrarca 5. 295-6; De Sade, pp. 718-9; 

 Fracassetti 2. 240, 261; Korting, p. 437; Novati, p. 49; R. I. S. 15. 489- 

 490; 17. 911. Cf. Petrarch, Sen. 11. 2: 



'Scito igitur, me hinc [from Padua] . . . abiisse, magnis enim 



precibus et repetitis literis Ticinum [Pavia] iterum atque iterum 



evocabar, et quamvis naturae meae infesta aestas adventaret, meque 



hinc quietis amor stringeret, illinc status prassens et suspectum latrun- 



culis deterreret iter, vigente tamen hinc ingrati metu, honestique inde 



specie animum attrahente, quod scilicet ad tractatum tantae pacis 



evocatum me sentire, si fortassis ulla ex parte bono publico utilis 



esse possem, parui,' etc. 



It must be remembered, however, that Petrarch had spent the summers 



of 1363-7 at Pavia (Fracassetti i. 185; 2. 240; 5. 490; Sen. 5. i; Hutton, 



pp. 209-210; cf. Korting, p. 404; according to Boccaccio's letter, quoted 



below, he must have been there in 1367 from ca. March 24 to ca. June 30; 



cf. Corazzini, pp. 123, 129), where his daughter and son-in-law (for 



Petrarch's attachment to him, see Sen. 5. 7; 10. 4) must have been 



residing at least temporarily, in 1368, since they regularly formed a part 



of his household as long as he lived (Rossetti, App. 3, p. 66; Mezieres, 



p. 163; Baedeker, Oheritalien, i8th ed., Leipzig, 1911, p. 199; Magenta i. 



109); after 1368 he never returned (Giulini 5. 517). That he was fond 



of the place is shown by his famous letter to Boccaccio {Sen. 5. i, written 



in 1365), a part of which I quote from the translation by Robinson and 



Rolfe {Petrarch, pp. 323-5) : 



'You would find the air of the place very salubrious. I have now 

 spent three summers here, and I do not remember to have experi- 

 enced ever anywhere else such frequent and plentiful showers with 

 so little thunder and lightning, such freedom from heat, and such 

 steady, refreshing breezes. You would find the city beautifully situ- 



