ENCYCLOPAEDIA 
LONDINENSIS; 
OR, AN 
UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY 
OF 
ARTS, SCIENCES, and LITERATURE. 
PETR 
E'TRARCH (Francis), one of the moft celebrated 
names in the literature of the middle ages, was born 
July zo, 1304, at Arezzo in Tufcany. His father, Pe- 
tracco or Petraccolo, was a notary in Florence, who, with 
his wife, was exiled in i3oz (tire year of the banilhment 
of Dante), and took up his refidence at Arezzo. After 
fome changes of abode, his parents, having loft all hopes 
of being reftored, carried him, then about eight years old, 
to Avignon. In that city, and in Carpentras, he parted 
his youth, receiving inftrudtions, according to the mode 
of the age, in grammar, dialedlics, and rhetoric. He then 
ftudied the civil law at Montpellier and Bologna, fpend- 
ing four years in the former city, and two in the latter. 
There can be little doubt that he would have rifen to 
eminence in the legal profeflion, had he chofen to purfue 
it, but he was one of the numerous deferters from the 
law to polite literature. Hehashimfelf mentioned, that 
his father, who had fet his heart upon feeing his fon in 
the dodtorial robes, having heard that he had the poets 
and orators more frequently in his hands than the code, 
came fuddenly one day to his chamber, and began a 
fearch for the obnoxious books. Finding fome of them 
in a corner, he threw them into the fire, upon which poor 
Francis began to make bitter lamentations. His father, 
moved to companion, reftored him out of the flames a 
half-burnt Virgil and Cicero’s Rhetoric, telling him with 
a fmile that he gave him leave now and then to folace 
himfelf with thofe authors. Petrarch further mentions 
as a reafon for his delertion of the law, that he found it 
impoflible at that period to pradlife it in an honourable 
manner. 
At the age of zz he returned to Avignon, and about 
that time he loft both his parents. Finding himfelf in 
indifferent circumftances, he, together with his younger 
brother Gherardo, enrolled himfelf in the clerical order, 
but only received the tonfure. There was then at Avig¬ 
non Jacopo Colonna, afterwards bifliop of Lombes, fon of 
Stefano, who, on the famous quarrel with Pope Boniface 
VIII. had, with all his family, retired into France. This 
perfon, becoming acquainted with Petrarch, contradled 
an intimatefriendftiip with him, which was the foundation 
of the attachment he preferved during his whole life to 
the houfe of Colonna. With fuch a patron lie might 
have expedled a rapid advancement in the ecciefiaftical 
profeflion ; but it appears that his inclinations and habits 
of life were little conformable to the clerical chara&er. 
Vol.XX. No. 1346. 
ARCH. 
He was the more unfitted for this profeflion by that 
amorous paflion which is fo confpicuous a circumftance 
in his life and writings, and which commenced in 13Z7, 
wdien he was twenty-three years of age. Who was that 
Laura whom he has rendered fo celebrated by his poems, 
became a fubjedf of controverfy even in his life-time,and 
has ever fince exercifed the inquifitive talents of critics 
and biographers. The Italians thetnfelves, however, now 
acquiefce in the proofs adduced by the Abbe de Sade, 
that flie was a married woman, the daughter of Audebert 
de Noves, fyndic of Avignon, and the wife of Hugh, fon 
of Paul de Sade. The nature of his love has alfo been a 
matter of difpute; for, while many have held it to have 
been a mere platonic attachment, others have confidered 
it as an ordinary human aftedlion. If the reprefentation 
of Petrarch himfelf, not only in his poems, but in his 
letters and ferious writings, are to be trufted, it .was cer¬ 
tainly a real and violent paflion, which for a long courfe 
of years kept his mind in agitation,. and influenced the 
tenor of his life. It appears, however, to have been void 
of criminality; and no fufpicion refts upon the virtue of 
Laura. 
One of the methods taken by Petrarch to combat his 
unfortunate paflion was frequent travelling, by which he 
alfo gratified his avidity for inftrudfion, and a reftleflnefs 
which was inherent in his conftitution. In 1330 he ac¬ 
companied Jacopo Colonna to his new bilhopric of 
Lombes, wjiere he palled tlie fummer, and then returned 
with him to Avignon. That prelate introduced him to 
his brother, cardinal Giovanni Colonna, who was thence¬ 
forth one of his principal patrons, and in whofe palace he 
became acquainted with the moft learned men of the age. 
He made a more extenfive tour in 1333, taking his courfe 
through Paris into Flanders, and thence to Aix la Cha- 
pelie and Cologne, and returning by Lyons to Avignon. 
By this journey his acquaintance with men and manners 
was-much augmented; but what he faw abroad had no 
eftedt in diminifning that ardent prediledtion which he 
always manifefted for his native country. A new Pope 
having fucceeded to the pontifical chair in 1334, under 
the name of Benedidt XII. Petrarch began that courfe of 
remonftrance on the delertion of Rome, and the removal 
of the holy fee to Avignon, which was ever after one of 
the favourite topics of his eloquence in profe and verfe. 
He took a journey to his beloved Italy in 1336, and vilited 
with filial and uaflical reverence all the monuments of 
B antiquity 
