Of the Abbe de SAD £. 1 23 



not to mention a ft ill more numerous clafs, who have incident- 

 ally treated of his life and literary character in critical differta- 

 tions, journals, and memoirs of the ftate of literature of his age 

 and country. 



Amidst this variety of refearch, it is natural to fuppofe that 

 much has been brought to light, and, it is even a reafonable 

 fufpicion, that where there has been fuch ardour of inveftiga- 

 tion, there can remain but little fubje'cT: of new difcovery. So 

 thought M. de la Bastie, when, in the years 1740 and 1741, 

 he publifhed his excellent Account of the Life of Petrarch, in 

 the Memoir es de /' Academie des In/crip t ions et Belles Lett res*'. 

 He was not aware, that within a few years from the date of 

 his own publication, the world was to receive a work, contain-' 

 ing at lead ten times the quantity of all that had ever been 

 written on the Subject of Petrarch, and profeffing to be only 

 materials for the composition of a Life of this remarkable man. 

 The work I here allude to, is Memoir es pour la Vie de Petr arque, 

 by the Abbe de Sade; a book which has met with considerable 

 approbation from 'the public, and which merits the praife it has 

 obtained ; as, along with a very minute detail of the life of 

 Petrarch himfelf, and a very full account of his writings, it 

 contains much curious and instructive information relative both 

 to the literary and political hiftory of the times which it com- 

 memorates. In a work which is extended to three large vo- 

 lumes in quarto, and which has been the fruit of the moft ela- 

 borate refearch, not only into all the printed works illustrative 

 of the manners and hiftory of the 14th century, but into public 

 records and the archives of private families, it cannot be denied, 

 that much new light has been thrown on the principal ob- 

 ject of that refearch, the hi/lory and character of Petrarch: 

 But it will be a matter of regret to many readers, that the con- 



fequence 



* Vols. sv. and xvii. 



