The high estimation in which he was held, and the flat tering proofs of friendship he obtained from the most illus trious men of his time, must have formed to him a source of the most rational delight. But no incident of his life afforded him such deep satisfaction as the honour paid him by the citizens of Florence, to which, as formerly mention ed, his family originally belonged. They sent an embas sy. at the head of which was the great Boccaccio, intimat ing to him the restitution of his paternal estate, forfeited by the political offence of his father, and requesting him to honour them by spending the remainder of his brilliant ca reer at Florence, as the president of their newly instituted university. This flattering invitation, which he felt most deeply, he thought it proper to decline. He knew he was fast approaching the end of life, and his love of studious retirement was superior to every other consideration.
Petrarch had, in the mean time, resided in various pla ces, Naples, Milan, Venice, &c. He had also paid seve ral visits to his favourite Vaucluse ; and now, when old and infirm, he built a neat villa at Arqua, three miles from Pa dua, where he was destined to spend the evening of his days. His constitution,from his nervous sensibility, from incessant study, and from age, had now begun to exhibit symptoms of decay ; his friends were afraid that his death could not be far distant; and he himself looked forward to that event with a degree of resignation and hope, illustra tive of the innocence and piety of his life. He delighted in his studies even at the moment of his greatest debility, and he was found dead in his library, sitting upright, with one arm leaning on a book. His death, which was witness ed by none, took place on the 18th of July, 1374, in the 70th year of his age ; and he was buried in the parish-church of Arqua, where a monument was erected to his memory.
The character of Petrarch is every thing that is amia ble and interesting. Every action of his life, and every sen tence of his composition, bespeak the man of virtue, of be nevolence, and of pitty. His feelings were almost of too delicate a contexture, his sensibility too nice and acute, his heart too warm and unsuspecting, for encountering with out uneasiness, the selfishness and the apathy by which our nature is generally characterized. His love of Laura is something more than human ; it seems to have become more ardent in proportion as the hope of its being success ful diminished ; and in purity, intensity, and duration, is without a parallel in the records of the passion to which he waz devoted.
As a man of genius, Petrarch is entitled to the venera tion of all succeeding generations. The exquisite beauty and tenderness of his sonnets and Canzoni, by which he is best known to us, have never been surpassed ; and his other works, though now comparatively little read, do honour to the age in which he lived. But valuable as his writings are, he is probably entitled to commemoration, chiefly as a promoter of learning, and as inspiring a taste for litera ture. To him we owe the preservation of some MSS. which might otherwise have been lost ; the multiplying of copies, which he often did with his own hand ; and the proof which, in his own person, he afforded his contempo raries and the succeeding ages, of the high advantages to be derived from the study of the classical authors of Greece and Rome.
His works are extremely numerous. His Sonnets, having been translated into our language by Lord Morley, Mrs. Anna Hume, and others, are well known to the En glish reader. His other productions, which we cannot at present characterize more minutely, are, De Remediis ut riusque fortunae ; De Vera Sapientia ; De Vita Solitaria ; Secretu m, seu de Contemptu Ulundi ; Epistolae Familiares ; Africa ; De sui ipsius et Multorum Ignorantia, Sec. Sic. These works have been published in every variety of form. His Latin works were first printed at Basil, in one vol. fo lio, in 1496. His Italian, at Milan, in one vol. folio, in 1512; and both these, in a collected form, at Basil, in two vols. folio, in 1581.
Accounts of the life of Petrarch have been published in every possible shape. The best continental publications on this subject are, Memoirs of Petrarch, written by M. de la Bastie, and inserted in the ]llemoires de I' Academie dee Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, vols. xv. and xvii.; and .11Ienzoires pour la Vie de Petrarche, by the Abbe de Sade. In English, the best are Mrs. Dobson's Life of Petrarch, 2 vols. 1807, which is professedly an epitome of de Sade; and an Essay on the Life and Character of Petrarch, one vol. Edin. 1810, supposed to be written by the late Lord \Voodhouselee. See also Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, article PETRARCH. (&)