himself of almost the necessaries of life. His father, however, soon
discovered the place of their concealment, and threw them into the fire.
Petrarch exhibited as much agony as if he had been himself the martyr of
his father's resentment. Petracco was so much affected by his son's
tears, that he rescued from the flames Cicero and Virgil, and,
presenting them to Petrarch, he said, "Virgil will console you for the
loss of your other MSS., and Cicero will prepare you for the study of
the law."

It is by no means wonderful that a mind like Petrarch's could but ill
relish the glosses of the Code and the commentaries on the Decretals.

At Bologna, however, he met with an accomplished literary man and no
inelegant poet in one of the professors, who, if he failed in persuading
Petrarch to make the law his profession, certainly quickened his relish
and ambition for poetry. This man was Cino da Pistoia, who is esteemed
by Italians as the most tender and harmonious lyric poet in the native
language anterior to Petrarch.

During his residence at Bologna, Petrarch made an excursion as far as
Venice, a city that struck him with enthusiastic admiration. In one of
his letters he calls it "_orbem alterum_." Whilst Italy was harassed, he
says, on all sides by continual dissensions, like the sea in a storm,
Venice alone appeared like a safe harbour, which overlooked the tempest
without feeling its commotion. The resolute and independent spirit of
that republic made an indelible impression on Petrarch's heart. The
young poet, perhaps, at this time little imagined that Venice was to be
the last scene of his triumphant eloquence.

Soon after his return from Venice to Bologna, he received the melancholy