and meant more, so that a movement for a revival of interest in it
attracted to it the finest young minds of central and northern Italy and
inspired in them something closely akin to patriotic fervor. They felt
themselves the direct heirs of the political and intellectual eminence of
Imperial Rome, and they began the work of restoring to themselves and of
trying to understand their inheritance.

[Illustration: FIG. 68. PETRARCH (1304-74)
"The Morning Star of the Renaissance"]

In Petrarch (1304-74) we have the beginnings of the movement. He has been
called "the first modern scholar and man of letters." Repudiating the
other-worldliness ideal and the scholastic learning of his time, [4]
possessed of a deep love for beauty in nature and art, a delight in
travel, a desire for worldly fame, a strong historical sense, and the
self-confidence to plan a great constructive work, he began the task of
unearthing the monastic treasures to ascertain what the past had been and
known and done. At twenty-nine he made his first great discovery, at
Liege, in the form of two previously unknown orations of Cicero. Twelve
years later, at Verona, he found half of one of the letters of Cicero
which had been lost for ages. All his life he collected and copied
manuscripts. His letter to a friend telling him of his difficulty in
getting a work of Cicero copied, and his joy in doing the work himself (R.
125), is typical of his labors. He began the work of copying and comparing
the old classical manuscripts, and from them reconstructing the past. He
also wrote many sonnets, ballads, lyrics, and letters, all filled with a
new modern classical spirit. He also constructed the first modern map of
Italy.

[Illustration: FIG. 69. BOCCACCIO (1313-75)