E. H. Wilkins_On Petrarch's Ep. Fam. VI 2

7/24/2019 E. H. Wilkins_On Petrarch's Ep. Fam. VI 2

1/4

Medieval Academy of America

On Petrarch's Ep. Fam. VI 2Author(s): Ernest H. WilkinsSource: Speculum, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Oct., 1963), pp. 620-622Published by: Medieval Academy of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2851659.

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2/4

ON PETRARCH'S EP. FAM. VI

2

BY

ERNEST H.

WILKINS

I

FOR

several

days

after his coronation

as

poet

on

8

April

1341

Petrarch

stayed

on

in

Rome;

and

in

the course

of

these

days

he took several walks

through

Rome

with

the

Dominican monk

Giovanni

Colonna

(a

member

of

a

minor

branch

of

the

great

Roman

family),

visiting

sites

that

had ancient

Roman or

early

Christian

associations. At

times,

tired

of

walking,

they

went

up

to the

top

of

the

vaulting

of the

ruined

Baths of

Diocletian,

and

sat

there

talking

of

many

things.

On

one

of

these

occasions

Giovanni,

who had

previously

heard Petrarch

make

scattered

remarks about the origin of the arts, asked him to make a comprehensive state-

ment

on

the

subject,

and

Petrarch

did so.

After

leaving

Rome

Petrarch went to

Parma,

with

Azzo

da

Correggio;

and

there,

at some

time after his

arrival,

he received

a

letter

in

which

Fra

Giovanni

asked

him

to

put

in

writing

what he

had said about the

origin

of

the arts:

Fam.

vi

2

is

Petrarch's

answer to

that letter.

It is

devoted

mainly

to Petrarch's

very

interesting

memories of his walks and talks with

Fra

Giovanni:

he

mentions

nearly

a

hundred

sites

in

Rome

that

they

had

visited

together.

When he

comes

finally

to

speak

of Fra

Giovanni's

request

he

at

first indicates his

readiness to

comply with it, in spite of difficult conditions: "ingenio meo relictarum a tergo

rerum

fragor

officit,

qui

adhuc

in

auribus

meis

tonat,

quamvis

ob hoc

ipsum

in

primis

inde

diffugerim,

ut

tibi liberius

responderem.

Parebo

tamen

ut

potero."

But

he

presently says

that

he

cannot do

so after all:

his

letter

is

already

long,

he

has not

yet

begun

to

write about the

arts,

and "diei

huius

extremum est." More-

over,

the

more he thinks

about

it

the

more

he realizes

that the

subject

is

too

vast

for

treatment

in

a

letter.

It

calls for

an

entire

book;

and he

plans

to write

that

book

after he

gets

back to

Vaucluse,

where

all conditions

are

favorable

for

such

a

task.

II

After

leaving

Rome,

as has been

said,

Petrarch went to

Parma with

Azzo

da

Correggio.

Azzo's

father had

once held the

lordship

of

Parma,

which

had

recently

been

held

by

Mastino della

Scala,

who ruled Parma

through

a

tyrannous

gov-

ernor. Azzo

and his

brothers

had

for

some

time

been

determined to

get

pos-

session of

the

city,

and

had

made

thorough

preparations

for

doing

so.

A

revolt

in

Parma,

instigated

and

led

by

them,

broke

out on

21

May

and

attained

its

objective

on

the

following

day.1

Petrarch

arrived

on

the

22nd or

the 23rd.

On

the 23rd

he

wrote

his brief Fam. iv

9

to Cardinal

Colonna,

telling

of his

arrival

in Parma, of the success of the revolt of the Correggi, of their urgent invitation

to

him to

stay

on

with

them,

of

their

promise

that he should

enjoy

"miram

quietem,

cum

fragor

hic

et

ardor

letitie

gestientis

assiduitate

tepuerit,"

and

of

his

intention

to

return to Provence "hiemis initio."

The

Correggi proceeded

to

'

See

Fortunato

Rizzi,

FrancescoPetrarca

e

il decennio

parmense

(1341-1351)

(Turin, 1934),

pp.

28

if.

620


3/4

On Petrarch's

Ep.

Fam.

VI

2

621

give

the

city

a

truly

good

government.

Petrarch

says

of

them

in Sen.

xvIII

1

(his

Letter to

Posterity):

"urbem

illam

tali

regimine gubernabant, quale

nec

ante in memoria

hominum habuerat civitas

illa,

nec etate

hac

-

ut

auguror-

habitura

est."

The

unidentified author

of the

fourteenth-century

Istoria di

Parma

has

this

to

say:

Cosl

presero

di

Parma

quei

da

Correggio

l

dominio,

e

cominciarono

di

reggere

non

come

Signori,

ma come

Padri,

la

Citta

senza

parzialita

o

gravezza

alcuna,

talche se

avesserocontinuatatal

Signoria

e

governo,

senza dubbio sarebbero tati

perseveranti,

per

modo

di

dire eterni

nel

dominio;

ma

passato

I'anno,

mutarono a

Signoria,

et

lor

costumi.2

III

Parma is not far from the

Apennines,

and at a

point

about a dozen miles south

of

the

city

there

is a

pleasant

valley

near

a

wooded

plateau

called

Selvapiana

(this

name is sometimes used as

referring

to

both the

valley

and

the

plateau).

In

that

valley,

in a

castle

belonging

to

the

Correggi,

Petrarch

spent

a

happy

summer.

At

its

end

he returned to

Parma,

where he

occupied

a

quiet

house

remote

from

the centre

of

the

city:

in

his

Letter

to

Posterity

he

refers to it

as

"repostam

et

tranquillam."

He did

not return to Provence

until

February

or

March 1342.

IV

Fam.

vI

2

exists

in

two

forms:

an

early

form,

in

which

it

is addressed

"Ad

Anibaldum cardinalem"

and

dated "VII

Junii,"

and

a

later

form,

in which

it is

addressed

"Ad

Iohannem de Columna ordinis

predicatorum,"

and dated

"II

Kal.

Decembris,

ex itinere."3

The two

scholars

who have

most

recently

discussed

this

letter,

Foresti

and

Rizzi,

have assumed that the

unquestionable

correctness

of

the

later address

carries with

it

the correctness

of

the later

dating.4

It does not

follow, however,

that

correctness

in

the first

respect

constitutes evidence

of

correctness

in

the

second

respect;

and

in

point

of

fact

the

dating

"II Kal.

Decembris,

ex

itinere"

cannot

possibly

be correct for Fam. vI 2.

Foresti

accepts

30

November

as

the

actual date

of

the

letter;

interprets

the

rerum

fragor,

in the

passage

quoted

above from

Fam. vI

2,

as

meaning

that

"Parma

era ancora tutta

in

subbuglio

per

l'entrata

dei

Da

Correggio";

asserts

that

the

place

to which Petrarch

was

fleeing

was

Selvapiana;

and

takes the

ex

itinere

to mean that.

the

letter was written

"in

cammino

per

la

campagna

di

Parma."

It is however

extremely unlikely

that

the rerum

ragor

caused

by

the entrance

of

the

Correggi

should

have

lasted

from

May

to the

end

of

November;

it

is

ex-

tremely unlikely that Petrarch would have felt it necessary to leave the city for

2

In

Muratori,

Rerum

italicarum

scriptores,

xnI

(Milan,

1728),

cols.

742-743.

Le

familiari,

ed.

by

Vittorio

Rossi,

ii

(Florence,

1934),

47-60

and

71-94.

The

obvious

error

in

the address

of

the

early

form is due to

scribal confusion

with

the

address

of

Fam.

vi

1,

which is

"Ad

Anibaldum Tusculanum

epyscopum

cardinalem."

4

Arnaldo

Foresti,

Aneddoti

della vita di Francesca

Petrarca

(Brescia,

1928),

pp.

81-84;

and

Rizzi,

p.

58 and

n. 60.


4/4

On Petrarch's

Ep.

Fam.

VI

2

the

specific purpose

of

answering

Giovanni's

letter;

and

it

is

extremely unlikely

that

he

would have

stopped

in

the

course of

a

ride from Parma to

Selvapiana,

with

night

coming

on,

to write

a

letter. There

is no

evidence that rerum

fragor

of

any

sort

continued

in Parma for

any

considerable

length

of

time after the

entrance

of

the

Correggi.

The words do not

imply anything

more than

do

the

words

fragor

hic that

occur

in

Fam. iv

9,

written

on 23

May;

and

both Petrarch's

statement

in

the

Letter

to

Posterity

as to

the

quality

of

the

government

of

Parma

by

the

Correggi

and

the

passage quoted

above

from

the storia di Parma

indicate

quietness

rather

than

rerum

fragor.

Escape

from

whatever

the rerum

fragor

may

have

been does

not

necessarily

involve

anything

more

than

leaving

a

public place

in

Parma and

returning

to

the

place

in Parma

where Petrarch

was then living.

Rizzi

accepts

the

November date

and

Foresti's idea that

the

ex

itinere

means

"in

cammino

per

la

campagna

di

Parma";

but he

believes Foresti

to

be

wrong

in

his

opinion

that

the letter was

written

while

Petrarch was en

route

from

Parma

to

Selvapiana,

and

exclaims:

"Strano veramente che il

Petrarca

abbia

atteso

il

30

Novembre

per

andare

in

villa . . .

c'era

da

trovarvi

ben

presto

la

neve,

altro

che

i

colli

verdeggianti

e le tenere

erbe

e

i

faggi

aerei,

riparanti

dal

sole "

Rizzi,

however,

fails to see that since Petrarch after his

return from

Selvapiana

had

a

remote

and

quiet

house

in

Parma there would

have been no need for him to

leave the city for the purpose of writing a letter.

Both

men are

clearly

wrong

in

their

interpretation

of

the ex

itinere,

which can

only

mean "while on

a

journey."

There are

among

the

Familiares five

other

letters,

VII

5

and

6,

xi

9,

xxII

14,

and xxIv

2,

that have the

phrase

ex

itinere

either

in

the date line

or

the address: each of

these letters was written

in

the course

of

a

journey

that

began

in

Provence

or

North France and ended

in

Italy,

or

else

in

the course

of a

journey

that

began

in

Italy

and

ended in Provence.

V

The November date borne by Fam. vI 2 in its later form is then clearly errone-

ous.

The cause of

the error remains unknown. It

may

well

be that it was due

to

scribal

confusion with some other

letter,

originally

intended

for

inclusion

in

the

Familiares but

eventually

excluded

-

possibly

a

letter

written in

the course of

Petrarch's

November

journey

from Provence

to

Italy

in

1347.

Since

the November date

for

Fam.

vi

2

is

to be

dismissed,

there would seem to

be

no

reason

for not

accepting

as valid the date

"VII

Junii"

that

appears

at

the

end

of

the earlier form

of

the letter. There is no

respect

in which

the

assignment

of the

letter

to that date involves

any

difficulty.

NEWTON CENTRE, MASSACHUSETTS

622

Documents

E. H. Wilkins_On Petrarch's Ep. Fam. VI 2