Collected Poetical Works of Francesco Petrarch
Page 65
129. Lucan, Pharsalia, ix, 980-86 (tr. by Edw. Ridley, , vss. 1157-66):
O sacred task of poets, toil supreme,
Which rescuing all things from allotted fate
Dost give eternity to mortal men!
Grudge not the glory, Caesar, of such fame.
For if the Latian Muse may promise aught,
Long as the heroes of the Trojan time
Shall live upon the page of Smyrna’s bard,
So long shall future races read of thee
In this my poem; and Pharsalia’s song
Live unforgotten in the age to come.
130. Horace, Ars Poetica, 396-401, and Carm., iv. 9, vss. 5, 6.
131. Theocritus in Ecl., iv, 1, and vi, 1; Hesiod in Georg., ii, 176.
132. Statius, Theb., xii, 816, 817.
133. In Petrarch’s days the Appendix Vergiliana was known as the Ludi Iuveniles, and included what is now published by Baehrens in the Poetae latini minores, Vol. II. Judging from the statement of the present letter, Petrarch was acquainted with these Ludi, or with some of them at least. Boccaccio was the first to add the eighty Priapea to his codex of the Ludi (Sabbadini, ). Sabbadini, and n. 5, gives proof that Petrarch knew the Culex and the Rosae, and on adds that he was furthermore acquainted with some of the Catalecta, without giving proof.
In this letter to Homer, Petrarch states that the former’s name is mentioned in the Ludi. The total number of references to Homer in the Appendix Vergiliana is four: Ciris, 65; in the epigram closing the Catalecta, vs. 2; Priapea, 68, 4, and 80, 5. In the Rendiconti del R. Ist. Lomb. (1906, ), Sabbadini remarks at this point: “A quali e a quanti dei tre componimenti alludesse il Petrarca, non ci é dato indovinare, ma ciascuno dei tre era a quei tempi una cospicua novitá.” Personally we should be inclined to favor the Ciris and the Catalecta, and, indeed, to give the latter reference in support of the statement of Sabbadini on . But until further proof is found, all discussion on this point is merely idle speculation.
134. Donatus, in speaking of Vergil, says (R): “Vergil never lacked detractors; and no wonder: even Homer had his.”
135. This, of course, is a reference to some statement occurring in the pseudo-Homer letter which Petrarch had received.
136. See above, n. 130.
137. Petrarch’s words are: “cum verissime dicat hebraeus Sapiens quod ‘stultorum infinitus est numerus’” (III, ). From the manner of Petrarch’s quoting, and from the fact that Fracassetti italicizes the words in single quotation marks, it would be inferred that the citation is from the Bible. But an exhaustive search through the Concordances of both Cruden and Young has failed to reveal such a passage, though sentiments on the subject of folly and fools are quite numerous. It may be, of course, that Petrarch epitomized, or rather formulated a deduction of his own from the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
138. Concerning the nationality of Leonzio Pilato consult what has been said above in n. 3, par. 1.
139. It is generally agreed that of the three scholars said to be at Florence, Boccaccio must be one. The other two cannot be identified with certainty, but they are to be chosen from among Nelli, Salutati, and Bruni; of no one of whom, however, do we know as a fact that he was acquainted with Greek. It is for this reason that Tedaldo della Casa, who studied Greek under Leonzio Pilato, has, with greater probability, been suggested as one of the three Florentines (Baldelli). Petrarch himself has been thought of by De Sade as the fourth, but (it seems) on insufficient grounds. The fifth Florentine is without doubt Zanobi de Strada, who in 1359 was appointed apostolic secretary by Innocent VI, and who in consequence abandoned Naples and Italy for Avignon, the Babylon across the Alps.
The scholar at Bologna, too, can be named: Pietro di Muglio or de Muglo (cf. n. 121). The Veronese humanists are Guglielmo da Pastrengo and Rinaldo da Villafranca. The Mantuan, according to De Sade and Tiraboschi, is Andrea (surnamed) Mantovano; and the one from Perugia, finally, has been variously identified with Paolo Perugino (Baldelli) and Muzio da Perugia (De Sade and Tiraboschi). Fracassetti (Vol. 5, ) has omitted all mention of the humanist at Sulmona, who very probably is to be identified with Marco Barbato da Sulmona. (Consult Frac., loc. cit., who gives some cross-references to his own notes; and Voigt.)
140. Cf. n. 109.
141. This note of despair was wrung from Petrarch by his dismay at the existent state of affairs and by his own high ideals of scholarship. That it eventually proved to be an utterly false prophecy was due mainly to the vigorous impulse which he himself gave to the cause of humanism.
142. Cf. n. 123.
143. The famous words from the epitaph of Ennius (Cic., Tusc., i, 34), which Petrarch has here adapted to his purpose by the insertion of the bracketed words, “(Nam) volito vivus (docta) per ora virum” (Frac., III, ).
144. Petrarch had owned a Greek Homer as early as 1354, when his friend Niccoló Sigero sent him a copy from Constantinople (cf. n. 111, par. 2). Fam., XVIII, 2, describes Petrarch’s joy at its reception, and also his sorrow at not being able to understand a word of it, which clearly proves that the first modern scholar had not made much progress after a summer’s instruction from the first teacher of Greek in the western world (see n. 109). In Latin, Petrarch had the Periochae which are attributed to Ausonius and the Homerus Latinus or Pindarus Thebanus (for which see n. 113).
145. Fond hopes was Petrarch nourishing, and vain! We must remember that when Leonzio Pilato finished his translation of Homer in 1363, there was but one copy of it, and that that copy remained at Florence. We can well imagine Petrarch’s eagerness to peruse it. His first inquiry is made in Seniles, III, 6 (of March 1, 1365), by which letter he requests that some portion at least of the Odyssey be forwarded to him, continuing that he is quite content to wait for the rest. From Seniles V, 1 (Padua, December 14, 1365, Koerting, Bocc., , n. 2), we learn that when Boccaccio received this pressing note, the Iliad had already been transcribed; and so he hastened to make with his own hand a transcription of that passage in the Odyssey describing the descent of Ulysses to Hades. In the same letter Petrarch expresses satisfaction at hearing that this is at last on its way to him. Through some mishap, however, the precious package had not yet reached its destination at Venice by the 25th or 27th of January, 1367 (Sen., VI, 1; Koerting, op. cit.; P. de Nolhac, II, ). The joy of Petrarch, when he at last grasped the translation of Homer with his own hands and beheld it among the books on his own shelves, is simply expressed in the closing words of Seniles VI, 2 (undated, but later than VI, 1). To conclude, the translation, which was begun by Leonzio in the latter half of 1360 (the date of Fam., XXIV, 12), did not reach him who was the most eager for it till seven years later.
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baeumker, Klemens. Quibus antiquis auctoribus Petrarca in conscribendis rerum memorabilium libris usus sit. Muenster, 1882.
Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy. Translated by S. G. C. Middlemore. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1898.
Butler, H. E. Sexti Properti opera omnia. With a commentary. London: Archibald Constable & Co., 1905.
Comparetti, Domenico. Vergil in the Middle Ages. Translated by E. F. M. Benecke. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1895.
Conington, John. The Aeneid of Virgil. Translated into English Verse. 10th ed. Longmans, Green and Co., 1900.
Dassaminiato, Giovanni. De’ rimedii dell’ una e dell’ altra fortuna, volgarizzati nel buon secolo della lingua. Published by Casimiro Stolfi at Bologna, presso Gaetano Romagnoli, 1867. 2 vols. (In Collezione di opere inedite o rare dei primi tre secoli della lingua, Vols. XVII and XVIII.)
Develay, Victor. A translation of the letters to Cicero, in Bulletin du bibliophile et du bibliothécaire (1881), p-19; of the letter to Seneca, ibid., p-95; to Varro, ibid., p-88; to Quintilian, Livy, Pollio, and Horace, ibid., p-93.
Fracassetti, Giuseppe. Francisci Petrarcae epistolae de rebus familiaribus et variae . . . studio et cura Iosephi Fracassetti. Florentiae, typis Felicis Le Monnier. 3
vols., 1859-63.
—— . Lettere di Francesco Petrarca delle cose familiari libri ventiquattro, lettere varie libro unico. Volgarizzate e dichiarate con note da G. F. Firenze, Successori Le Monnier, 1892. 5 vols.
—— . Lettere senili di Francesco Petrarca. Volgarizzate e dichiarate con note da G. F. Firenze, Successori Le Monnier, 1892, 2 vols. (In Biblioteca Nazionale Economica.)
Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Edited by J. B. Bury. London: Methuen & Co., 1900. 7 vols.
Gifford, Wm. The Satires of D. J. Juvenal, Philadelphia, 1803.
Gregorovius, Ferdinand. History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages. Translated by Annie Hamilton. London: George Bell & Sons.
Hallam, Henry. View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages. 9th ed. London: John Murray, 1846.
Harris, Ella Isabel. The Tragedies of Seneca. Oxford, 1904.
Koerting, Gustav. Geschichte der Litteratur Italiens im Zeitalter der Renaissance. Vol. I, “Petrarca’s Leben und Werke,” Leipzig, 1878; Vol. II, “Boccaccio’s Leben und Werke,” Leipzig, 1880.
Lodge, R. The Close of the Middle Ages, 1273-1494. London: Rivingtons, 1902.
Migne, J. P. Patrologiae cursus completus. Paris.
Moore, Ch. R. The Elegies of Propertius. London: Rivingtons, 1870.
Nettleship, H. Ancient Lives of Vergil. Oxford, 1879.
—— . Vergil. In “Classical Writers.” New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1880.
Nolhac, Pierre de. Pétrarque et l’humanisme. In Bibliothèque littéraire de la renaissance, Nouvelle Série. 2 vols. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1907.
Petrarch, F. Opera quae extant omnia . . . haec quidem omnia nunc iterum . . . repurgata . . . et in tomos quator distincta . . . Basileae, per Sebastianum Henricpetri. 1581, folio, 4 vols. in one, and paged continuously.
—— . De Remediis utriusque fortunae libri duo, eiusdem De contemptu mundi colloquiorum liber quem secretum suum inscripsit. Roterodami, ex officina Arnoldi Leers, 1649.
Reifferscheid, Augustus. C. Suetoni Tranquilli reliquiae. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1860.
Ridley, Edw. The Pharsalia of Lucan, Translated into Blank Verse. Longmans, Green & Co., 1896.
Robinson, Jas. H., and Rolfe, Henry W. Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters. Putnam’s Sons, 1898.
Sabbadini, Remigio. Le Scoperte dei codici latini e greci ne’ secoli XIV e XV. Firenze: G. C. Sansoni, 1905.
—— . “Il primo nucleo della biblioteca del Petrarca,” Rendiconti del R. istituto lombardo (1906), p-88.
—— . “Quali biografie vergiliane fossero note al Petrarca,” ibid., p-98.
—— . “La Vergilii vita di Donato,” Studi italiani di filologia classica, Vol. V, p-88.
Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii. Recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. 3 vols. Teubner.
Symonds, John Addington. Renaissance in Italy.
—— . The article on “Petrarch” in the Encycl. Brit. (new Werner ed.).
Voigt, Georg. Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums, oder das erste Jahrhundert des Humanismus. 2 vols., 3d ed., by Georg Reimer, Berlin, 1893.
—— . “Die Briefsammlungen Petrarcas und der venetianische Staatskanzler Benintendi,” Abh. d. III. Cl. d. k. Ak. d. Wiss., XVI Bd., III. Abth., p-101. Muenchen, 1883.
PETRARCH’S SECRET
Translated by William H. Draper
De secreto conflictu curarum mearum is a trilogy of dialogues in Latin written by Petrarch at some point between1347 to 1353, in which he examines his faith with the help of Saint Augustine, and “in the presence of The Lady Truth”. The dialogues were not circulated until some time after Petrarch’s death, suggesting that the work was probably written as a means of self-examination, rather than a work to be published and read by others.
The first dialogue opens with Augustine chastising Petrarch for ignoring his own mortality and his fate in the afterlife by not devoting himself fully to God. Petrarch concedes that this lack of piety is the source of his unhappiness, but he insists that he cannot overcome it. The dialogue then considers the question of Petrarch’s seeming lack of free will and Augustine explains that it is his love for temporal things (namely Laura), and his pursuit of fame through poetry that “bind his will in adamantine chains”.
Petrarch’s turn towards religion in his later life was inspired in part by Augustine’s Confessions and he imitates Augustine’s style of self-examination and harsh self-criticism in this text. The ideas expressed in the dialogues are borrowed mostly from Augustine, particularly the importance of free will in achieving faith. Other notable influences include Cicero and other Pre-Christian thinkers. Petrarch’s Secret can be seen as an attempt to reconcile his Renaissance humanism and admiration of the classical world with his Christian faith.
Petrarch’s Secretum, 1470
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
DIALOGUE THE FIRST. S. AUGUSTINE — PETRARCH
DIALOGUE THE SECOND. S. AUGUSTINE — PETRARCH
DIALOGUE THE THIRD. PETRARCH — S. AUGUSTINE
The earliest known portrait of Saint Augustine from a sixth century fresco, Lateran, Rome
INTRODUCTION
Most modern writers on Petrarch agree in stating that of all his works the Dialogues which he calls Secretum meum are the one which throws most light upon the man himself.
Yet no English translation has hitherto been published. A French version by M. Victor Develay was issued a few years ago, and received the recognition of the French Academy; and, considering the great importance of Petrarch in the history of the Renaissance, not merely in Italy but in Europe, it is time that a similar opportunity of knowing him more fully was offered to English readers; for there are signs on both sides of the Atlantic that the number of those interested in him is steadily growing. The reason for this is undoubtedly the fact that, as the whole work of Petrarch comes to be better known, interest in him as a man increases. Mr. Sidney Lee has lately reminded us of his wide range and predominating influence in the matter of the sonnet in France and in Elizabethan England, as well as in his own country; and yet that influence was very far indeed from revealing all that Petrarch was. It was largely an influence of style, a triumph of the perfection of form, and his imitators did not trouble much about the precise nature of the sentiment and spirit informing the style. When this came to be weighed in the balances of a later day, the tendency of English feeling was to regard his sentiment as a trifle too serious and weak. The love-making of the Cavaliers brought in a robuster tone. When once the question was raised, “Why so pale and wan, fond lover?” there was really no good answer to it on Petrarchan lines, and the consequence was that his name and fame suffered something of eclipse among us. But eclipses are transient events, and when literary England felt once more the attraction of Italy in the end of the eighteenth century it was not only Dante who began to resume his sway and to provoke translation, but Petrarch also. Then attention was turned chiefly to his Italian poetry, but also in some degree to the general body of his Latin works and to his Letters, of which it is reported that Fox was among the first to perceive the high value. In England the pioneers in this direction were Mrs. Susannah Dobson, who published first a Life of Petrarch in two volumes in 1775, which had by 1805 reached a sixth edition, and, soon after, another volume called Petrarch’s View of Life, purporting to be a translation, but in fact a very loose and attenuated abstract of the treatise De remediis utriusque Fortunæ, which nevertheless reached a new edition in 1797. Then came a volume of Essays on Petrarch (Murray 1823) by the Italian exile Ugo Foscolo, and a little later a second Life of the Poet by no less a person than Thomas Campbell, also in two volumes.
Testifying to the re-awakened interest in Petrarch, numerous translations also of his poetry were published by Lady Dacre, Hugh Boyd, Leigh Hunt, Capel Lofft, and many others, who took up after a long interval the tradition begun by Chaucer and handed on
by Surrey, Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, Drummond of Hawthornden, and George Chapman.
Then for a while there was a pause, and the main drift of such attention in England as could be spared for things Italian in mid-Victorian days was concentrated on the greater luminary of the Divine Comedy and the exciting political events of the sixties; though some attention was drawn to things connected with Petrarch by Lytton’s novel of Rienzi, which was first published in 1835 and had a considerable vogue.
Meanwhile in Italy itself his fame was well served by the excellent collection and reprint of his Latin letters by Fracasetti in three vols. (1859-63), and since that time there have appeared several important works dealing with the larger aspects of his life and work, most notable among them being Koerting’s Petrarka’s Leben und Werke (Leipsig 1878), and in France M. P. de Nolhac’s Pétrarque et l’Humanisme (two vols., 1907, new edition), with other subsidiary works, and four small volumes by M. Henri Cochin, elucidating what is known of Petrarch’s brother Gherardo and some of his many friends. Amongst ourselves in late years, following the labours of J. A. Symonds in his history of the Renaissance, we have Henry Reeve’s small but well-planned volume in the “Foreign Classics for English Readers,” and, more recently still, Mr. Hollway Calthrop’s Petrarch: his Life, Work and Times (1907), and Mrs. Maud Jerrold’s Francesco Petrarca: Poet and Humanist (1909).