Vertebrate Natural History

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Vertebrate Natural History

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TO M. T. CICERO 17 for study and learning, there is nothing

more pleasant than a leisurely old age;" and 51: "I come now to the
pleasures of a country life, with which I am infinitely delighted. None
of these finds an obstruction in old age, and they are pleasures
which appear to me to be most nearly suited to the life of a
philosopher." These two passages affirm that the sage should live a
leisurely and studious old age in the country. As to meditating on the
eternal life, Petrarch may have been thinking of Acad. pr., ii, 127: By
no means, however, do I hold that the studies of the natural
philosophers should be excluded. Indeed, a consideration and
contemplation of nature constitutes the natural food (so to speak)
for our minds and talents. We are elevated thereby, and we seem to
rise to a higher state of being. We disdain human affairs; and, in
meditating on the higher and heavenly things, we scorn earthly
matters as being small and insignificant — "cogitantesque supera
atque caelestia haec nostra ut exigua et minima contemnimus."
There is a marked similarity between the two passages, both in the
thought and the wording. As to the latter we must remember that
Petrarch was quoting from memory and not from an open book, an
inference which (we believe) may be justly drawn from his "ut ipse
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l8 PETRARCH'S LETTERS quodam loco ais." It is needless to

add that the similarity of the two passages lies only in the letter, and
that the spirit of Cicero's words was thoroughly pagan. With
Petrarch, in this instance, the wish was father to the thought. Still he
could not deceive himself on this point, as is evidenced by the dating
of this letter. Elsewhere, too, he expresses his sincere regret, and
regards Cicero as a potential Christian, if we may use the phrase. In
a letter written to Neri Morando and dated October 15, 1358 or
1359, Petrarch is full and explicit. He says (Fam., XXI, 10, Vol. Ill, pp.
85-87): I am living in the country not far from the banks of the
Adda. I know that I am not more solicitous of your welfare than you
of mine. I suppose, therefore, you will be astonished at hearing how
I am spending my time. You are well aware that from early boyhood
of all the writers of all ages and of all races the one author whom I
most admire and love is Cicero. You agree with me in this respect as
well as in so many others. I am not afraid of being considered a
poor Christian by declaring myself so much of a Ciceronian. To my
knowledge, Cicero never wrote one word that would conflict with the
principles proclaimed by Christ. If, perchance, his works contained
anything contrary to Christ's doctrine, that one fact would be
sufficient to destroy my belief in Cicero, and in Aristotle, too, and in
Plato. For how could I place faith in man, I who
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TO M. T. CICERO 19 should believe not even an angel,

relying on the words of the Apostle who says, in the Epistle to the
Galatians (i :8) : "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto
you, let him be accursed." But to return to Cicero. He frequently
makes mention of the gods, following, of course, the custom of his
times. He devotes an entire volume, it is true, to a discussion of the
nature of the gods. If you read beneath the surface, however, you
will be convinced that he does not so much pay honor to this throng
of gods with their empty names, but rather exposes them to ridicule.
Where he seriously expresses his own opinion Cicero asserts that
there is but one God, and that He is the Prince and Ruler of the
universe. I have often pointed out, both in speech and in writing,
that in this respect Cicero was fully aware of the danger attending
his statement of the truth. And yet, somewhere, he has clearly
stated that it is not befitting a philosopher to say that there are
many gods. Who, therefore, will declare Cicero hostile to the true
faith, or who, because of his crass ignorance of the facts, will cast
upon Cicero the opprobrium of stranger and enemy ? Christ is my
God; Cicero, on the other hand, is the prince of the language I use. I
grant you that these ideas are widely separated, but I deny that they
are at conflict one with the other. Christ is the Word, and the Virtue,
and the Wisdom of God the Father. Cicero has written much on the
speech of men, on the virtues of men, and on the wisdom of men —
statements that are true and therefore surely acceptable to the God
of truth. For since God is the living Truth, and since, as St. Augustine
says, all truth proceeds from Him who is the Truth, then
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20 PETRARCH'S LETTERS surely whatever truth is spoken

proceeds from God. I should desire to emphasize the fact that Cicero
could not have known Christ, having been called from this world
shortly before Christ God became- man. Oh, lamentable lot! For,
considering his noble and almost divine intellect, if Cicero had seen
Christ or had merely heard of His name, not only (in my opinion)
would he have embraced the faith, but, with his incomparable
eloquence, would most ably have spread the teachings of Christ. ii.
Cic., ad Alt., vii, 2, 6 (50 B. c.): Indeed, I never cherished the
slightest desire for a triumph till I saw that Bibulus' most shameless
letters succeeded in winning for him the decree of a thanksgiving. If
he had really performed the deeds he wrote of in his letters, I should
rejoice and be favorably disposed to the honor decreed him. But that
honors should be showered upon him, who never advanced one step
beyond the gate so long as the enemy remained on this side of the
Euphrates, and that I, in whose forces lay all the hope of his army,
should be denied the same honors, is an insult to both of us, to
both, I say, including you too in my disgrace. Therefore I shall leave
no stone unturned, and, I hope, success will crown my efforts.
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II. TO M. T. CICERO (Fam., XXIV, 4) I fear that my last

letter has offended thee; for thou thyself art wont to designate as
just the adage of thy friend in his Andria,1 "Homage begets friends;
truth, enemies." If my fear prove true, then accept what may in
some degree soothe thy injured feelings. Let not the truth be a
source of ill humor in every and all instances, I beg of thee. Men, I
know, are wont to be angered at justifiable censure, and to rejoice
in merited praise. Thou, indeed, O Cicero (speaking with thy leave),
didst live as a man, didst speak as an orator, didst write as a
philosopher. It was thy life that I found fault with, not thy intellectual
powers, nor yet thy command of language. Indeed, I admire the
former, and am amazed at the latter. And, moreover, in thy life I feel
the lack of nothing except the element of constancy, and a desire for
peace that was to have been expected of a philosopher. I look in
vain for a deep-rooted antipathy to civil dissensions, to strifes utterly
of no avail, considering that liberty had been crushed and
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22 PETRARCH'S LETTERS that the Republic had already

been mourned as dead. Mark how different is my attitude toward
thee from thine toward Epicurus on so many occasions, but
especially in the De finibus. Whenever thou wert so inclined, thou
didst praise his life and ridicule his intellect.2 In thee I ridicule
nothing. I take compassion, however, on the life thou didst lead;
while, as I have already stated, I rejoice in thy mental abilities and in
thy powers of expression. O thou great father of Roman eloquence!3
Not only I, but all who take delight in the elegance of the Latin
tongue render thee great thanks. Thou art the fountain-head from
which we draw the vivifying waters for our meadows. We frankly
confess that we have been guided by thee, assisted by thy
judgments, enlightened by thy radiance ; and, finally, that it was
under thy auspices, so to speak, that I have gained this ability as a
writer (such as it is), and that I have attained my purpose. For the
realms of poetry, however, there was at hand a second guide. The
nature of the case demanded that there should be two leaders —one
whom I might follow in the unencumbered ways of prose, fand the
other in the more re 
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TO M. T. CICERO 23 stricted paths of poetry. It was

necessary that there should be two men whom I should admire,
respectively, for their eloquence and their song. This had needs be
so. For — and I beg the kind indulgence of you both for speaking
thus boldly — neither of you could serve both purposes; he could
not rival thee in thy chosen field, whereas thou couldst not adapt
thyself to his measured flow. I would not, indeed, have ventured to
be the first to pass such criticism, even though I clearly perceived it
to be true. It has already been passed before me — or,
peradventure, it may have been quoted from another writer — by
that great Annaeus Seneca of Cordova,4 who, as he himself
complains, was prevented from becoming acquainted with thee, not
by any lapse of years, but by the fury of civil warfare.3 He might
have seen thee, but did not ; withal, he was a constant admirer and
worshiper both of thy works and of those of that other. Seneca,
therefore, marks out the boundaries of your respective spheres, and
enjoins upon each to yield to his coworker in the other field. But I
am keeping thee in suspense too long. Dost thou ask who that other
guide is ? Thou wilt know the man at once, if thou art merely
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24 PETRARCH'S LETTERS reminded of his name. It is

Publius Vergilius Maro, a citizen of Mantua, of whom thou didst
prophesy such great things. For we have read that when thou, then
advanced in years, hadst admired some youthful effort of his, thou
didst inquire its author's name, and that, having seen the young
man, thou didst express thy great delight. And then, drawing on thy
unexhausted fount of eloquence, thou didst pronounce upon him a
judgment which, though mingled with self-praise, was nevertheless
both honorable and splendid for him: "Rome's other hope and
stay."6 This sentence, which he thus heard fall from thy lips, pleased
the youth to such a degree, and was so jealously treasured in his
mind, that twenty years later, when thou hadst long since ended this
earthly career, he inserted it word for word into his divine poem. And
if it had been thy lot to see this work, thou wouldst have rejoiced
that from^the first blossom thou hadst made such accurate
prediction of future success. Thou wouldst, moreover, have
congratulated the Latin Muses, either for leaving but a doubtful
superiority to the arrogant Greek Muses, or else for winning over
them a decisive victory. There are defenders for both these opinions,
I grant thee. And yet, if I have
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TO M. T. CICERO 25 come to know thee from thy works —

and I feel that I know thee as intimately as if I had always lived with
thee — I should say that thou wouldst have been a stern defender
of the latter view, and that, just as thou hadst already granted to
Latium the palm in oratory,7 thou wouldst have done likewise in the
case of poetry. I do not doubt, moreover, that thou wouldst have
pronounced the Aeneid superior to the Iliad — an assertion which
Propertius did not fear to make from the very beginning of Vergil's
labors. For when he had meditated upon the opening lines of the
inspired poem, he freely gave utterance to the feelings and hopes
aroused by it in these verses : Yield then, ye bards of Greece, ye
Romans yield, A mightier yet than Homer takes the field.8 Thus
much concerning my second guide for Latin eloquence, thus much
concerning Rome's other hope and stay. I come back to thee now.
Thou hast already heard from me my opinions on thy life and on thy
genius. Art thou desirous now of learning what lot befell thy works,
of knowing in what esteem they are held either by the world in
general, or else by the more learned classes ? There are extant,
indeed,
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26 PETRARCH'S LETTERS splendid volumes — volumes

which I can scarcely enumerate, much less peruse with care. The
fame of thy deeds and thy works is very great, and has spread far
and wide. Thy name, too, has a familiar ring to all. Very few and
rare, however, are those who study thee, and for various reasons:
either because of the natural perversity of the times toward such
studies, or because the minds of men have become dull and
sluggish, or, as I think most likely, because greed has bent their
minds in an entirely different direction. Wherefore, some of thy
works have (unless I am mistaken) perished in this generation, and I
know not whether they will ever be recovered. Oh, how great is my
grief thereat; how great is the ignominy of this age; how great the
loss to posterity! It was not, I suppose, sufficiently degrading to
neglect our own powers, and to bequeath to future generations no
fruit of our intellects; but, worse than all else, we had to destroy the
fruit also of thy labor with our cruel, our unpardonable disregard.
This lamentable loss has overtaken not merely thy works, but also
those of many other illustrious authors. But at present I would speak
of thy writings only; and the names of those whose loss is the more
regrettable are the
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TO M. T. CICERO 27 following: De republica, De re familiari,

De re militari, De lau&e philosophiae,9 De consolatione, and the De
gloria.1 ° Concerning the last, however, I entertain a more or less
doubtful hope of its recovery, and consequently my despair is not
unqualified. Unfortunately, however, even of those books that have
come down to us, there are lacking large portions. It is as if we had
overcome, after a great struggle, the oblivion threatened by the
sloth and inactivity of ages; but, as the price of victory, we had to
mourn over our leaders, not only those to be numbered among the
dead, but also the maimed and the lost. We miss this loss in many of
thy works, but more especially in the De oratore, I J the Academica,
and the De le gibus — all of which have reached us in such a
fragmentary and mutilated condition that it would have been better,
perhaps, had they perished altogether. There remains still another
topic. Art thou desirous of learning the present condition of Rome
and of the Roman state ? of knowing the actual appearance of thy
fatherland, the state of harmony among its citizens, to whom the
shaping of its policies has fallen, and by whose wisdom and by
whose hands the reins of government are held? Art thou wondering
whether
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28 PETRARCH'S LETTERS or not the Danube, and the

Ganges, and the Ebro, and the Nile, and the Don are still the
boundaries of our empire? and whether that man has arisen among
us The limits of whose victories Are ocean, of his fame the skies,
and who O'er Ind and Garamant extreme Shall stretch his reign, as
thy Mantuan friend once sang?12 I feel sure that thou art most
eager to hear such and similar tidings, owing to thy loyalty and the
love thou didst bear the fatherland, a love remaining constant even
unto death. But it is better to pass over such subjects in silence.
Believe me, Cicero, if thou wert to learn of the fallen state of our
country, thou wouldst weep bitter tears, be it a region of Heaven
that thou inhabitest, or of Hades. Forever farewell. From the land of
the living, on the left bank of the Rhone, in Transpadane Gaul, in the
same year, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of January (at
Avignon, December 19, 1345) 
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NOTES ON Fam., xxiv, 4, TO CICERO 1. Terence, Andria, i, i,

41. Petrarch's words, "ut ipse soles dicere, quod ait familiaris tuus in
Andria" (Vol. Ill, p. 264), are proof that he was not quoting Terence
directly, but the De amicitia. In chap. 89 of the latter we read, "Quod
in Andria familiaris meus dicit," and then follows the verse in
question. The speaker is of course Laelius, of whom Terence was in
fact a friend. Petrarch, therefore, has either momentarily lost sight of
the speaker, or, realizing full well that Laelius is Cicero's mouthpiece,
has consciously identified the two. This would, of course, make
Terence a friend of Cicero; the "familiaris meus" of the De amicitia
and the "familiaris tuus" of Petrarch both, therefore, become
equivalent to "familiaris Ciceronis." 2. There is a passage in the De
finibus in which Cicero especially contrasts the teachings of Epicurus
with his life. It is ii, 80 and 81 : That philosophy which you defend,
and those tenets which you have learned, and approve of, destroy
friendship to the very roots, even though Epicurus does extol 29
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30 PETRARCH'S LETTERS friendship to the skies — as we

must confess. "But Epicurus himself cultivated friendships," you will
say. And who, pray, is denying that he was a good and kindly man,
full of sympathy for his fellow-beings? We are here discussing his
intellect, not his life. We shall leave such fickleness and perversity to
the Greeks, who attack with animosity all who may differ from them
in their beliefs concerning truth. I must say, however, that, although
he was affable in maintaining his friendships (if this be true, for I
affirm nothing), yet he did not possess a keen mind. To which you
will rejoin, "But he convinced many people." .... To me, indeed, the
fact that Epicurus himself was a good man, and that there have
been and are today many Epicureans, loyal in their friendships,
consistent in their actions throughout life, serious of disposition and
shaping their plans without regard to pleasure but rather through a
sense of duty — to me these facts prove that the power of integrity
is superior, and that of pleasure inferior. In truth, some persons live
in such a way that their life confutes their words. And therefore, just
as others are considered to speak better than they act, so these
Epicureans (it seems) must be said to act better than they speak.
Cicero mentions the inconsistency of Epicurus in ii, 96: "Listen now
.... to the dying words of Epicurus, and observe how widely his
deeds and his words disagree;" and again in ii, 99: "But you will find
nothing in this splendid letter of Epicurus in accord and consistent
with his maxims. He refutes himself,
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TO M. T. CICERO 31 while his theories are set at naught by

his upright life." As Petrarch says, Books I and II of the De finibus
are crowded with favorable and adverse comments on Epicurus and
his philosophy. Of the latter it will suffice to refer to i, 22, in which
Cicero accuses Epicurus of being utterly wanting in logic ; and to i,
26, where he denies that Epicurus can be admitted to the number of
the learned. 3. Perhaps a reminiscence of Pliny, N. H., vii, 30 extr.:
"salve .... facundiae Latiarumque litterarum parens." 4. Seneca,
Contr., iii, praej. 8. 5. Seneca, Contr., i, praef. n. 6. Aen., xii, 168.
Donatus, Vita Verg., XI, 41 (p. 60 R, through pronuntiarentur only):
The publication of the Bucolics was attended by such great success
that they were frequently recited, even by actors on the stage.
Cicero once heard some of the verses, and his keen judgment at
once perceived that they were written in no common vein. So he
ordered the eclogue to be recited from the beginning; and after
listening attentively to the very end, he exclaimed, "Rome's other
hope and stay;" as if he himself had been the first hope of the Latin
tongue, and Maro were to be the second. These words Maro
afterward inserted in the Aeneid.
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32 PETRARCH'S LETTERS This version does not mention

Cicero's inquiry as to the author of the verses he admired ("
quaesivisses auctorem"), nor their meeting ("eumque .... vidisses")
nor the fact that his exclamation was flattering both to himself and
to Vergil ("cum propria quidem laude permixtum"). Servius' version,
however, does include these three elements, and hence he is to be
considered Petrarch's source. He writes (ad Eel., vi, n): It is said that
Vergil's reading of this eclogue (vi) was received with great favor; so
much so, indeed, that when later Cytheris the courtesan (whom
Vergil calls Lycoris in the last eclogue) sang it in the theater, Cicero
in amazement inquired who the author of it was ("cuius esset
requireret"). And when at last Cicero had seen him ("eum ....
vidisset"), he is said to have exclaimed, in praise of both himself and
that other ("et ad suam et ad illius laudem"), "Rome's other hope
and stay" — a phrase which Vergil afterward applied to Ascanius, as
the commentators relate. This version was one which would
especially appeal to Petrarch ; for, as P. de Nolhac justly observes (I,
p. 125), it represents Petrarch's two literary idols as having been
personally acquainted with each other. And, finally, in favor of the
Servian origin is the fact that in Donatus the entire story
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TO M. T. CICERO 33 appears in the interpolated version of

the Vita, and it is doubtful whether Petrarch was acquainted with
this longer version (Sabbadini, Rend, del R. 1st. Lomb., [1906], p.
198). The interpolated text of the Vita has, in fact, been traced only
as far back as the beginning of the fifteenth century; the date
temporarily assigned to it is 1400-20 (Sabbadini, "La 'Vergilii Vita' di
Donato," Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica, Vol, V, 1897, pp. 384-88).
7. Cicero, however, is much more guarded in his statement than we
would infer from the words of Petrarch; Tusc., i, 3, 5: "Then came
the Lepidi, Carbo, and the Gracchi, and so many great orators after
them down to our own times, that we were very little, if at all,
inferior to the Greeks." 8. Translation, by Ch. R. Moore (p. 73), of
Propertius, ii, 346, 65, 66 (rec. Aem. Baehrens, Teubner, 1880) or ii,
34, 65, 66 (H. E. Butler, There is abundant proof that Petrarch was
acquainted with Propertius (P. de Nolhac, I, pp. 170-72). Still, from
the few indirect references to this author, one is inclined to believe
that Petrarch here (as elsewhere) is drawing upon the Life by
Donatus for biograph 
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34 PETRARCH'S LETTERS ical information on Vergil. And in

fact the Propertian couplet seems to derive from Donatus, Vita Verg.,
XII, 45 (p. 6iR), the "operis fundamenta" and "asseverare non
timuit" of Petrarch (Vol. Ill, p. 266), corresponding, respectively, to
the "Aeneidos vixdum coeptae" and "non dubitaverit sic praedicare"
of Donatus. In commenting upon this famous distich, H. Nettleship
says ("Vergil," in Classical Writers [New York, 1880], p. 86):
"Propertius and Ovid saw at once what was in Vergil. Of the Aeneid
Propertius said 'something greater than the Iliad is coming to the
birth.' ' (Cf. Ancient Lives of Vergil [Oxford, 1879], p. 67.)
Comparetti, however, has chosen a different course in his Vergil in
the Middle Ages (tr. by Benecke, 1895). On p. 3, after stating that
the Romans confessed Vergil's inferiority to Homer, he continues in a
footnote: The exaggerations of a few enthusiasts must not be
reckoned at more than their real value. How great a part of the
"Nescio quid maius nascitur Iliade" of Propertius was due to his
friendship with Vergil becomes clear when we compare with it the
praises he lavishes on the Thebaid of another friend, Ponticus. 9. In
a large tome containing Cicero's writings, and supposed to have
belonged to Petrarch,
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TO M. T. CICERO 35 there occurred the rubric " de laude ac

defensione philosophiae, introducens Lucullum loquentem ad
Hortensium, liber primus incipit." Petrarch, misled by this heading,
had been of the opinion that the work following was the Hortensius.
As a matter of fact, it was book ii of the Academica Priora, which has
the separate subtitle "Lucullus" (P. de Nolhac, I, pp. 228, 244 ff.). He
labored under this delusion for some time, until in reading St.
Augustine he met citations from the real Hortensius, which of course
he could not verify in his supposed Hortensius. Finally he received
from Marco Barbato da Sulmona, whom he had met in 1341 at
Naples, a manuscript containing a work inscribed Academica.
Investigation quickly showed him that this work and his supposed
Hortensius were one and the same. But he was unwilling to
relinquish the idol he had worshiped so long. Doubts still remained.
On his visit to Naples in 1343, however, he identified once and for all
the work in his own manuscript; and on his return he entered the
following note abreast of the heading: "This title, though common, is
nevertheless a false one. This is not the De laude philosophiae, but
the last two of the four books of the Aca 
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36 PETRARCH'S LETTERS demica." The present letter to

Cicero was written in 1345, two years after the correction of his
error; hence Petrarch rightly places the De laude philosophiae (sive
Hortensius) in the catalogue of lost books. The closing statement of
Petrarch's postilla needs a few words of explanation. The fragment
which he possessed constituted book ii of the Ac. prior a. Petrarch
supposed that he had not one, but two books. The deception was
due to an arbitrary division in his manuscript at the words
"Hortensius autem vehementer" (Ac. pr., ii, 63). Still another error
existed. Petrarch thought that his fragment was part of the second
edition of the Academica in four books — the Posteriora dedicated to
Varro, of whose existence he had learned from the letters to Atticus
(cf. xiii, 13) which he had discovered earlier in the same year. 10.
Every biography relates how Petrarch gave in loan to his teacher,
Convennole (or Convenevole) da Prato, a manuscript containing the
De gloria of Cicero ; and how the schoolmaster, in an hour of
extreme need, pawned the volume, which could never again be
found in spite of Petrarch's constant search for it. The story as we
have it is told by Petrarch him 
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TO M. T. CICERO 37 self, in a letter written in 1374, the

very last year of his life (Sen., xvi, i). Modern scholarship has cast
doubts upon the tale. P. de Nolhac discusses the question thoroughly
in Vol. I, pp. 260-68. His explanation of the evolution of the idea
which possessed Petrarch is the following. In his youth Petrarch
must have read in the lost volume some beautiful passages on glory
— passages which remained more or less firmly fixed in his mind. In
later years, when his scholarship broadened, he learned of a
separate work by Cicero on the subject of glory; and, questioning his
memory, the remembrance of those passages became so clear and
distinct that he began to imagine he had really possessed the De
gloria in the volume unfortunately loaned to his schoolmaster. The
hope arose that he might some day find the volume again. It was
while in this stage that he wrote the present letter (1345), saying
that he entertained a more or less doubtful hope of its recovery and
that his despair was not unqualified. His regret increased with the
years. By dreaming of his hoped-for recovery of the manuscript, by
discussing it with his friends year after year, Petrarch finally, as so
often results from the
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38 PETRARCH'S LETTERS frequent repetition of a story,

persuaded himself that he had at one time been the actual
possessor of the De gloria. Hence it was that, writing thirty years
later, in 1374, when his mind was losing its firm grip on facts, and
when he was tottering on the brink of the grave, the unfulfilled hope
for a thing long desired turned into a regret for a thing actually lost
(op. cit., p. 266). ii. Petrarch was mistaken in placing the De oratore
among the fragmentary works. In the large tome already referred to,
there followed hard upon the heels of the De oratore what is now
known as the Orator. The latter did not, however, bear a separate
title, and consequently Petrarch considered it as a fourth book to the
De oratore. Moreover, this pseudofourth book had a large lacuna, for
it began only with the words " (aliquan) toque robustius" (sec. 91) ;
and the lacuna being clearly indicated, Petrarch unavoidably thought
the De oratore incomplete (P. de Nolhac, I, pp. 228-30, 242). To be
correct he should have written Orator instead of De oratore. But
even this would scarcely have mended matters; for, not being aware
of the separate existence of these two works, Petrarch was wont to
cite passages from
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TO M. T. CICERO 39 one and the other, employing the

indiscriminate title Orator (ibid., pp. 253, 254). After this
enumeration of the lost and fragmentary works, it will be interesting
to know with how many writings of Cicero Petrarch was really
acquainted at this time. Fortunately for our purpose, he writes to
Lapo da Castiglionchio in 1352, describing to him the beauty and
quiet of his retreat at Vaucluse, and the reading with which he
occupied all his time. The letter in full — Fam., xii, 8: According to
my custom, I fled recently from the turmoil of the city that is so
odious to me, and betook myself to my Helicon across the Alps. I
brought with me your Cicero, who was greatly astonished at the
beauty of these new regions and who confessed that never — not
even when in his own retreat at Arpinum — had he (to use his own
phrase) been surrounded by cooler streams than when with me at
the Fountain of the Sorgue. I suppose that when, long ago, he
visited Narbonne, he did not observe this country. And yet, if we are
to believe Pliny, this district formed part of the province of
Narbonne; and, according to the present division, it is part of the
province of Aries. Whatever be the truth concerning the
geographical division of the provinces, one thing is certain, that the
Fountain of the Sorgue is most renowned, second neither to the
Campanian Nymph nor to the Sicilian Arethusa. This soothing, quiet,
peaceful country, and this delightsome retreat are situated to one
side
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40 PETRARCH'S LETTERS of the public highway, to the right

of one seeking it, to the left of him returning therefrom. I have thus
minutely described its site lest you might wonder that Cicero, while
traveling in these parts so long ago, failed to notice this sequestered
spot, delightful as it is. No mere passer-by has ever discovered it. No
one has ever reached it except purposing to do so through certain
knowledge of its existence, drawn to the spot by the beauty of the
Fountain, or by his desire for repose and study. And how unusual
this is you will soon realize if you consider on the one hand the great
scarcity of poets, and on the other the multitude of those who have
not even a smattering of the liberal arts. Cicero therefore seems to
rejoice and to be eager to remain in my company. We have now
passed ten quiet and restful days together here. Here only, and in no
other place outside of Italy, do I breathe freely. In truth, study has
this great virtue, that it appeases our desires for a life of solitude,
mitigates our aversion for the vulgar herd, tenders us sought-for
repose even in the midst of the thickest crowds, instils in us many
noble thoughts, and provides us with the fellowship of most
illustrious men even in the most solitary forests. My companion was
attended by a numerous and distinguished gathering. Not to
mention those of Greek birth, the Romans present were Brutus,
Atticus, and Herennius, all of them rendered still more honorable by
their presence in the works of Cicero [Epistolae ad Brutum, Atticum,
Auctor ad Herennium]. Marcus Varro, also, was present, that most
learned of all men, with whom Cicero strolled in the villa of the
Academics [A cademica; cf. n. 9.]; and Cotta, and Velleius, and
Lucilius
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TO M. T. CICERO 41 Balbus, with whom he so keenly

discussed the nature of the gods [De natura deorum]; and Nigidius
and Cratippus, with whom he investigated the secrets of nature, the
origin of the universe and its composition [Timaeus, sive de
universe]. We had with us, moreover, Quintus Cicero, with whom he
treated of the subject of divination and laws [De divinatione, De
legibus] ; and his own son, Marcus Cicero, to whom (when not as
yet degenerated) he addressed his De qfficiis, pointing out to him
what was honorable, and what expedient, and the conflict between
the two. Sulpicius, Crassus, and Antonius — all very eloquent orators
— formed part of our company, together with whom he explored the
most hidden secrets of the art of oratory [De oratore]. Cato the
Elder, too, was with us, whom Cicero made the spokesman in his
praise of Old Age [De senectute}. Of our band were also Lucius
Torquatus, Marcus Cato Uticensis and Marcus Piso, with whom, after
a most painstaking discussion, he set down his theory of the
"summum bonum" [De finibus]. Furthermore, we had the orator
Hortensius, and Epicurus, the former represented in Cicero's praise
of philosophy [cf. n. 9.], the latter in his attack on a life of pleasure.
With Laelius he outlined the course of true friendship [De amicitia],
with Scipio the government of the "ideal State." I shall not prolong
my enumeration in infinitum; I shall merely add that among the
Roman citizens there mingled many foreign rulers whom Cicero
defended with his divine powers of oratory. However, not to omit
those whose presence was due to your little volume, my friend, I
shall mention Milo whom Cicero defended, and Laterensis whom he
so fearlessly attacked [Pro Plancio], and Sulla, for whom
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42 PETRARCH'S LETTERS he pleaded [Pro Corn. Sulla], and

Pompey, whom he so highly praised [De imperio Pompei]. With such
men and others as my companions, my stay in the country has been
a quiet, peaceful, and happy one. Would that it had continued
longer. But alas, they have once again laid their claws upon me, and
have once again dragged me to the Hades whence I am writing you
this letter. I have been so busily engaged since then that my young
attendant has found no time whatever for transcribing your volume,
nor have I had any opportunity of returning it to you. I trust that this
will not be necessary until I can return it to you in Italy personally. I
am promising myself an early return, provided I can induce our
friend Forese to visit the above-mentioned Helicon the moment he is
not so overwhelmingly occupied by his affairs. And I shall insist upon
his visit in order that if at any time hereafter fate, or the love of
change, or the desire to escape ennui will compel me to return —
not to this city (whither, if I can help it, I shall never return), but to
my Transalpine retreat — I shall be more readily pardoned by my
friends in Italy by calling upon the testimony of so important a
witness. Farewell. 12. Aeneid i, 287, and vi, 794, 795, tr. by
Conington (ed. 1900), pp. 13 and 210.
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III. TO L. ANNAEUS SENECA (Fam., XXIV, 5) On another

occasion, O Seneca, I begged and obtained the pardon of a great
man indeed.1 I should desire similar indulgence on thy part, if I
express myself more sharply than is quite consistent with the
reverence due to thy calling and to the peace of the grave.
Whosoever has seen that I have not spared Marcus Cicero — whom
(upon thy authority2) I called the bright luminary and fountain-head
of Latin eloquencewill surely have no just cause for indignation
because in continuing to speak the truth, I shall not spare thee or
anyone else. I derive great enjoyment from speaking with you, O
illustrious characters of antiquity. Each succeeding age has suffered
your works to remain in great neglect ; but our own age is quite
content, in its ignorance, with a dearth that has become
extraordinary. For my part, I daily listen to your words with more
attention than can be believed ; and so, perchance, I shall not be
considered impertinent in desiring you in your turn to listen to me
once. I am fully aware that thou art to be numbered 43
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44 PETRARCH'S LETTERS among those whose names are

illustrious. Were I unable to gather this from any other source, I
should still learn it from a great foreign authority. Plutarch, a Greek
and the tutor of Emperor Trajan, in comparing the renowned men of
his country with those of ours, opposed Marcus Varro to Plato and
Aristotle (the former of whom the Greeks call divine, the latter
inspired), Vergil to Homer, and Marcus Tullius to Demosthenes. He
finally dared to discuss even the vexed question of military leaders,
in the treatment of which he was not hampered by the respect due
to his great pupil. In one department of learning, however, he did
not blush to acknowledge that the genius of the Greeks was
distinctly inferior, saying that he knew not whom to place on a par
with thee in the field of moral philosophy.3 Great praise this,
especially from the mouth of a man proud of his race, and a startling
concession, seeing that he had opposed his Alexander the Macedon
to our Julius Caesar. I cannot explain why it is, but often the most
perfect mold of either mind or body is marred by some serious
blemish of nature, which speaks in such various language. It may be
that our common mother denies perfection to mankind
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TO L. ANNAEUS SENECA 45 (the more so, indeed, the

nearer we seem to approach it), or else that among so much that is
beautiful even the slightest defect becomes noticeable. That which
in a face of average beauty might be considered an engaging and
attractive mark becomes a positively ugly scar on features of
surpassing beauty. The juxtaposition of contradictory things always
sheds light upon doubtful points. And yet do thou, O venerable sir
and (according to Plutarch) incomparable teacher of moral
philosophy, do thou review with me calmly the great error of thy life.
Thou didst fall upon evil days, in the reign of the most savage ruler
within the memory of man.4 Though thyself a peaceful mariner, thou
didst guide thy bark, heavily laden as it was with the most precious
goods, toward an unspeakably dangerous and tempestuous reef.
But, I ask, why didst thou tarry there? Was it, perhaps, that thou
mightest the better evince thy masterly skill in so stormy a sea?
None but a madman would have thus chosen. To be sure, it is the
part of a brave man to face danger resolutely, but not that of a wise
man to seek it. Were the prudent man to be given a free choice, he
would so live that there would never be need of
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46 PETRARCH'S LETTERS bravery; for nothing would ever

happen to him that would compel him to make any call upon it. The
wise man will rather (as the name implies) check all excessive
demonstrations of joy, and confine his desires within proper bounds.
But since the accidents of life are countless, and since our best-laid
plans are many times undone thereby, we must oppose to mad
fortune an unconquerable fortitude, not from choice (as I have
already said), but in obedience to the hard, inexorable laws of
necessity. But shall I not seem to have lost my senses if I continue
to preach on virtue to the great teacher of morality, and if I labor to
prove that which can by no manner of means be confuted, namely,
that it was folly to remain among the shoals? I leave it for thee to
judge — nay, for anyone who has learned to sail the sea of life even
tolerably well. If thy object was to reap glory from the very difficulty
of thy situation, I answer that it would have been most glorious to
extricate thyself therefrom and to bring thy ship in safety to some
port. Thou didst see the sword hanging perpetually over thy head,
yet didst fear not, nor didst thou take any step to escape from such
a perilous existence. And