PETRARCH. 
liquafian Feelings. Returning thence to Padua, he took 
occafion to pay Tome vifits to Venice, where he contracted 
a friendthip with the celebrated doge Andrew Dandolo, 
and employed himfelf, though unfuccefsfully, in medi¬ 
ating a peace between that republic and Genoa. 
The Florentines,in the mean time, affiamed thata perfon 
fo much refpefted throughout Italy thould be an exile 
from his proper country, determined not only to redo re 
him the confifcated property of his family, but to invite 
him to take a part in their newly-founded univerlity. 
For this purpofe they fent to him his friend Boccacio, 
with a public letter drawn up in the mod: urgent and re- 
fpeftful terms. Petrarch at fird feemed inclined to com¬ 
ply with the wiflies of his fellow-citizens ; but, changing 
his mind, he returned to France, and paffed two years at 
Vauclufe and Avignon, in Decerfiber 1352, he was a 
witnefs of the death of Clement VI. and the eleftion of 
Innocent VI.' This pope, who had, with the vulgar, 
connected in his imagination the ideas .of poet and ma¬ 
gician, fitowed little favour to Petrarch, who therefore 
re-vifited Italy without having been prefented to the new 
pontiff. He went to Milan with the intention of pro¬ 
ceeding farther ; but he was received with fo much kind- 
nefs, and with fuch preffing folicitations to flay, by Gio¬ 
vanni Vifconti, its archbifhop and fovereign, that he was 
conftrained to take up his abode there. He was admitted 
into the council of date, and in 1354 was fent to Venice 
to make another ed’ort for pacifying the two hodile re¬ 
publics; but his eloquence again proved fruitlefs. Upon 
the death of Giovanni, Petrarch attached himfelf to his 
nephew Galeazzo, by whom he was always highly honour¬ 
ed. In the fame year he went to Mantua to meet the 
emperor, who, having at length come to Italy, fent an 
equerry to Milan to conduft into his prefence the perfon 
of whofe fame he had heard fo much. Petrarch met with 
a mod gracious reception ; but the hopes he had con¬ 
ceived of great advantages to his dear country from the 
vifit of this monarch all vanifhed upon his difhonourable 
retreat a few months afterwards. Petrarch on this oc¬ 
cafion wrote a letter of very free cenfure to the emperor, 
but it is doubtful whether it was ever delivered : at lead, 
no coldnefs enfued between them; for when, in 1356, 
Petrarch was fent by Galeazzo Vifconti to the emperor at 
Prague, to diffuade him from hodilities againd that fa¬ 
mily, he was treated with thegreated regard,and brought 
back a favourable anfwer; and not long after, he re¬ 
ceived an imperial diploma conferring on him the title of 
count-palatine. 
His fondnefs for folitude induced him to take a villa 
three miies-from Milan, called Linterno, where lie paffed 
his fummers. In a letter to a friend, giving an intereding 
account of his manner of life at this period, both in 
Milan and in his country retreat, he fpeaks much of the 
difficulty he found in fubduing certain inclinations which 
appear always to have put his virtue to the greated trial. 
Devotional pra&ices were one of his refources againd 
temptation, to which he joined very affiduous occupation 
in reading and writing, both by night and by day. He 
mentions having had thoughts of retiring to a neigh- 
bouring convent; but, on conlideration, he preferred oc- 
cafional vifits to it. Indeed, from the complacency with 
which he fpeaks of the great honour paid him by Galeazzo 
and his court, and by all the people of Milan, he feems 
to have been little difpofed to quit the world. He al¬ 
ludes to his date of fortune in fuch terms as to imply that 
it paffed a moderate competence. 
In 1360, Petrarch was fent by Galeazzo to Paris, to 
congratulate king John on his liberation from his 
Englilh captivity; and his reception in that capital was ah- 
fwerable to the celebrity of his name. The ravages com¬ 
mitted by foreign troops in Lombardy, and a new vifita- 
tion of the plague, caufed him in 1361 to remove to Pa¬ 
dua, which was 1 thenceforth his ordinary refidence. The 
pope had now fo far overcome his prejudice againd the 
poet, that lie offered him the place of apodolic fecretary, 
3 
which he declined ; as he alfo did a very preffing invitation 
from John king of France to refideathis court. In 1362 
he took refuge from the pedilence in Venice, which city 
he feveral times vifited in the fubfequent years, being An¬ 
gularly beloved and honoured by its mod didinguiffied 
inhabitants. 
Urban V. who had fucceeded to the pontifical chair, 
prefented Petrarch with a canonry of Carpentras, for the 
purpofe of attracting him to his court. To this pope he 
wrote a very long epidle, in which, with great freedom and 
a pathetic eloquence, he urged him to redore the ponti¬ 
fical feat to Rome. In fa ft, Urban did enter that capital 
in the following year, on which occafion Petrarch expreffed 
his joy and his future hopes in another elaborate epidle. 
The pope had a great defire of a perfonal interview with 
one who infpired him with fo much edeem ; and gave him 
feveral invitations for that purpofe. Advanced years and 
the infirmities to which he now became fubjeft, retarded 
Petrarch’s refolution to pay his homage to the father of 
Chridendom in his proper refidence; but at length in 
1370, he undertook the journey. Having fird made his 
will, he departed from Padua; but, on arriving at Fer¬ 
rara, he was attacked with a fevere illnefs, and returned 
to Padua. He retired to his villa of Arqua near that 
city, where he was fcarcely fettled before he had the mor¬ 
tification of hearing of Urban’s return to Avignon, where 
he foon after died. His fucceffor Gregory XI. wrote a 
letter to Petrarch expreffive of his edeem, and his wifhes 
to ferve him ; but a quiet retreat was now what he mod 
defired. He was however condrained in 1373 to under¬ 
take a journey to Venice, on account of his patron Fran- 
cefco da Carrara, who, having had a difference with the 
republic, was obliged to fubmit to the condition of fend¬ 
ing his fon to afk pardon and fwear fidelity, and was 
very defirous that Petrarch diould accompany him. It 
was alfo to be his office to harangue the Venetian fenate; 
but, on making the attempt, he was fo overcome by the 
dignity of the affembly and his own fatigue, that he dood 
filent. The difcourfe was deferred till the next day, on 
which he happily fucceeded. On his return to his villa 
of Arqua, he fell into a date of languor, in which he 
paffed the concluding months of his life. At length, in 
the night of July 18, 1374, he was attacked with an apo- 
pieftic or epileptic fit, and was (according to the mod 
probable of feveral accounts) found dead the next morn¬ 
ing in' his library, with his head reding on a book. His 
death was deeply regretted by all the friends of the fine 
arts. The prince of Carrara, who had always entertained 
a high edeem for him, repaired with his whole court to 
Arqua, to attend his funeral; and his example was fol¬ 
lowed by the nobility, the military officers, the clergy, 
and the univerfity. Sixteen doftors of laws, in their ap¬ 
propriate habits, carried the bier, which was covered with 
cloth of gold, enriched with ermine. The procellion 
moved from Petrarch’s houfe to the parochial church of 
the village of Arqua, where Bonaventura di Peraga de¬ 
livered an oration upon the celebrated writer; and, after 
tjie funeral-fervice, his remains were depofited, agreeably 
to his lad will, in the chapel of the Madonna, which he 
had founded. His chief heir, Francefco di Borfano, 
caufed a marble monument to be erefted to him near the 
church, with the following infeription, from the pen of 
Petrarch himfelf: 
Frigida Francifci lapis hie tegit offa Petrarcae: 
Sufcipe, Virgo parens, animam ! fate Virgine, parce, 
Feffaquejam terris cceli requiefcatin arce. 
MCCCLXXIV. xviii Julii. 
Befides the above, there are two other inferiptions on 
this monument. Paolo Valdezocco, a fubfequent pro¬ 
prietor of Petrarch’s villa, caufed a brafs effigy of the poet 
to be placed upon it, with a new infeription. This effigy 
was afterwards mutilated by a mifehievous foldier, and at 
a later period the tomb itlelf w T as broken open by fome 
villains, who carried off part of the bones which it con¬ 
tained. 
