1363-1372
THE EMBASSIES TO THE POPE--VISITS TO VENICE AND NAPLES--BOCCACCIO'S
LOVE OF CHILDREN
Boccaccio returned from Venice to Tuscany some time before September,
1363, not long before, as we may think, for the letter Petrarch wrote
him on September 7[485] seems to have followed close on his heels. It
appears that as he was on the eve of leaving Petrarch, for the last
time as it proved, he had learned that the plague which was raging in
Central and Southern Italy had carried off Lello di Pietro Stefano
and Francesco Nelli, their common friends, Lelius and Simonides,
as Petrarch calls them. Disliking to be the bearer of ill-tidings,
Boccaccio had departed from Venice, leaving Petrarch to learn of this
disaster from others, and a good part of the letter Petrarch wrote
him, immediately after he was gone, it seems, is devoted to deploring
the death of their friends.
"An hour after your departure," he writes, "the priest whom I had
charged to carry a letter to my friend Lelius returned bringing me
my letter unopened. It was not necessary for him to speak; his face
told me the news.... But while with my hand I soothed this new wound,
and tried to catch my breath, a second blow fell upon me. He in whose
arms he expired told me of the death of our Simonides.... You are
almost the only companion in learning left to me.... This year 1363,
which is the sixteenth from the beginning of our miseries [from the
plague of 1348], has renewed the attack on many noble cities, among
others on Florence.... To this disaster is added the fury of a war
against the Pisans ... of which the issue is still uncertain."
Petrarch might well be uneasy. Though never a good patriot as
Boccaccio always was, he could not but be moved at the misfortunes of
Florence, which had only escaped the attentions of Pandolfo Malatesta
by placing herself almost at the mercy of Hawkwood and his White
Company of Englishmen, fighting in the Pisan service. That winter,
to the astonishment of all, a campaign was fought, for the English
laughed at the Italian winter, colder maybe, but so much drier than
their own, and by the spring Visconti had made peace with the Pope
and with the Marquis of Montferrat, so that they were able to send
Baumgarten's German company, 3000 strong, to the assistance of the
Pisans, who had now not less than 6000 mercenaries in their service.
Those were very anxious times in Florence, the whole _contado_ being
at the mercy of Hawkwood, and when, by the intervention of the Pope,
peace was signed in the autumn of 1364, she must have been thankful,
more especially as Pisa engaged to pay her 100,000 florins indemnity
within ten years.
The Pope, however, was far from satisfied with Florence. He found
her to have been lukewarm in the service of the Church when Romagna
and the Marche rebelled, which, if true, was not surprising, for
he had played fast and loose with her liberty, and now accused
her of neglecting his interests and of attempting to detach other
cities from his cause. These among other accusations; in return he
threatened no longer to grant her his goodwill.
The whole situation was serious. The temporal power of the Church
with the victories of Albornoz was again growing in Italy; it was
now certain that the Pope would one day return. It was necessary
to placate him. And again in this delicate mission the Florentines
employed Boccaccio.
It cannot have been with very great enthusiasm that Boccaccio learned
he was once more to cross the Alps on a mission as difficult as
any he had handled. He had returned from Venice in 1363 quieted,
altogether reconciled, for a time at any rate, with himself,
determined not to abandon his work. Ever since 1359, certainly,
he had devoted himself to learning, to the study of Greek and the
Latin classics, of the great early Christian writers, and to the
accumulation of knowledge. For ten years now, ever since the failure
of his mission in 1354, he had not been asked to undertake diplomatic
business, and whether or no that neglect had been due to his failure
or to his intercourse with Pino de' Rossi, who in 1360 was implicated
in a conspiracy against the Guelfs, it cannot have been anything
but distressing, we may think, to one so patriotic, so interested
in politics too, as Boccaccio, to have been so long neglected, only
to be made use of again in his old age. But the true patriot is
always ready to serve his country, be she never so neglectful, and
so, in spite of the interference with his plans, and the hardness
and trials of the journey, it was not altogether, we may be sure,
without a sort of pride and gladness that he set out for Avignon in
August, 1365.[486] His business was to convince the Pope that the
Florentines were "the most faithful and most devout servants of Holy
Church." Besides the letters which he bore for Francesco Bruni and
others in Avignon, Boccaccio also carried one from the Republic to
the Doge of Genoa,[487] and he remained in that city for a season.
It is to his stay there that, as he tells us in the _argomento_,
his thirteenth Eclogue refers. In that poem he tells us that he and
the poet called Dafni had a discussion with a merchant Stilbone, of
which Criti was judge. Stilbone eagerly praises riches at the expense
of poetry, reminding Dafni how many are the perils that menace that
fragile glory which poets value so highly, such as fire and war,
which may easily destroy their works. Dafni, on the other hand,
celebrates the power of poetry, which recalls the minds of men from
the depths of Erebus. Criti praises both riches and poetry, but does
not decide between them.
While Boccaccio was in Genoa, it seems, Petrarch thought he should
have visited him in Pavia on his way to Avignon, but owing to
the need for haste, the fatigue of the way, and the difficulties
he feared to encounter at his age on the route, he was compelled
not to do so. Later, on December 14, Petrarch wrote him of his
disappointment:--[488]
"You have done well to visit me at least by letter, since you did
not care, or you were unable, to visit me in person. Having heard
that you were crossing the Alps to see the Babylon of the West, far
worse than that of the East, because she is nearer to us, I was
uneasy about the result of your voyage until I heard that you had
returned. Knowing now for many years, by my frequent journeys, the
difficulties of the roads, and remembering the weightiness of your
body and the gravity of your spirit, friends of a studious leisure,
and by consequence enemies of such cares and of such business, not
a day, not a night has passed tranquilly for me. I thank God that
you have remained safe and sound.... Assuredly, if you had not been
very pressed, it would not have been difficult, since you were in
Genoa, to come on here. It is only two days' journey. You would have
seen me ... and you would have seen what you have not seen it seems
to me--the town of Pavia (Ticinum) on the banks of the Ticino....
But since circumstances have willed that I should be deprived of
your greeting, as you say, because of the fatigue of the journey and
your mistrust of your strength, and because of the shortness of the
time at your disposal and the order of the fatherland which awaits
your return, I could have desired at least that you should have met
my friend Guido [Guido Settimo], Archbishop of Genoa. In seeing him
you would have seen me, for since infancy I have lived with him in
perfect conformity of will and sentiment. And, believe me, you would
have seen a man who, though weak in body, has a spirit of great
energy; you would have said you had never seen any one more full of
vitality...."
Petrarch was evidently hurt that Boccaccio had not been able to go to
Pavia. It was necessary, however, for him to reach Avignon with all
speed. And there, indeed, he was welcomed by Petrarch's friends. For
that letter, so full of regrets, continues:--
"But to end my complaints with a congratulation, I am glad that in
Babylon itself you have seen those friends that death has left me,
and, above all, him who, as you say, is a veritable father: my dear
Filippo, Patriarch of Jerusalem. To paint him in a few words, he is
a man as great as his title, and indeed he is worthy of the Papacy
if one day that should add itself to his merits. You write me that
without having known you till then, he held you in a long embrace
and pressed you closely and affectionately, even as I myself would
have done, in the utmost friendship, in the presence of the sovereign
pontiff and his astonished cardinals...."
Boccaccio seems to have remained in Avignon till November. His
mission did not meet with much success: the Pope was hard to persuade
and to convince. For all this trouble and fatigue Boccaccio received
from the Republic ninety florins of gold, at the rate of four
florins a day. This certainly could by no means have met all his
expenses. Poor as he was, he had to pay for the honour of serving his
country.[489]
That was probably the most important, though, as we shall see, not
the last of Boccaccio's missions. It was the eve of the Pope's return
to Rome, and once more Italy seemed to be in sight of a kind of peace.
The year 1366 was probably spent by Boccaccio at Certaldo in
meditation and work; but in 1367, troubled again in spirit, as it
seems, and very poor, he suddenly decided to set out for Venice to
see Petrarch.
He left Certaldo on March 24,[490] but coming to Florence, "the
continual rains, the dissuasions of friends, and the fear of the
dangers of the way," added to the tales of those who had made the
journey from Bologna, caused him to hesitate. Then he learned that
Petrarch had left Venice for Pavia, and was once more a guest of the
Visconti, so that he was on the point of giving up his journey. But
the desire to see again some of those friends he had met before in
Venice, and, above all, the thought of seeing Petrarch's daughter
and her husband, "Thy Tullia and her Francesco," whom he had not met
before, decided him to continue a journey he accomplished not without
much weariness.
On the way, as it happened, he met Petrarch's son-in-law
Franceschino da Brossano di Amicolo, whose character, voice, and
beauty he praises so highly. "After festive and friendly greetings,
after learning from him that you were safe and sound, and much other
good news concerning you, I began to consider him, his form and
beauty (cœpi aliquandiu mecum meditari pregrandem hominis formam),
his quiet and pleasing face, his calm words ... how I praised your
choice. Finally he left me, for he had business to do. And I in the
earliest dawn went aboard my little boat (naviculam) and immediately
set out for the Venetian shore, where I landed and would have
sent at once to announce myself, but some of our brother citizens
were already about me and offering me hospitality.... In spite,
however, of Donato's pressing invitation, I went off with Francesco
Allegri.... I tell you all this in all these words to excuse myself
for not having accepted the offer you made me so warmly by letter;
but if my friends had not been there to meet me I should have gone
to an inn rather than have dwelt in the house of Tullia while her
husband was absent. However, although you know in this and in many
other things the integrity of my heart towards you, all others would
not know it, and some would have jeered in spite of my white hair
(canum caput) and my age and my fatness and feebleness, which should
surely shut their mouths. This kind of thing is easily and willingly
believed by evil-minded scandal-mongers, who prefer a lie to the
truth.
"After reposing myself a little I went to salute Tullia, who had
already heard of my arrival.... She met me joyfully, blushing a
little, and looking on the ground, with modesty and filial affection,
and she saluted and embraced me....
"Presently we were talking in your charming little garden with some
friends, and she offered me with matronly serenity your house, your
books, and all your things there. Suddenly little footsteps--and
there came towards us thy Eletta, my delight, who, without knowing
who I was, looked at me smiling. I was not only delighted, I greedily
took her in my arms, imagining that I held my little one (virgunculam
olim meam) that is lost to me. What shall I say? If you do not
believe me, you will believe Guglielmo da Ravenna, the physician,
and our Donato, who knew her. Your little one has the same aspect
that she had who was my Eletta, the same expression, the same light
in the eyes, the same laughter there, the same gestures, the same
way of walking, the same way of carrying all her little person; only
my Eletta was, it is true, a little taller when at the age of five
and a half I saw her for the last time.[491] Besides, she talks in
the same way, uses the same words, and has the same simplicity.
Indeed, indeed, there is no difference save that thy little one is
golden-haired, while mine had chestnut tresses (aurea cesaries tuæ
est, meæ inter nigram rufamque fuit). Ah me! how many times when I
have held thine in my arms listening to her prattle the memory of my
baby stolen away from me has brought tears to my eyes--which I let no
one see."
[Illustration: A WOODCUT FROM THE "DECAMERON." (VENICE, 1602.) TITLE
TO DAY V
_(By the courtesy of Messrs. J. & J. Leighton.)_]
That love of children so characteristic in an Italian, and yet so
surprising in Boccaccio to those who without understanding the
real simplicity of his nature have been content to think of him as
a mere teller of doubtful stories, is one of the most natural and
beautiful traits in his character. The little Eletta, "my delight,"
appears like a ray of sunshine in a lonely and even gloomy old age,
which we may think perhaps, had Violante lived, might have been
less bitter, less hard to bear than it proved to be. Nor is this by
any means the only glimpse he gives us of his interest in children.
Apart from the neglected portraits of the _Decameron_, we find him
referring to them, their health and upbringing, in the _Commentary
on the Divine Comedy_, when he speaks of the danger they are in from
careless or neglectful nurses, who put them to rest or sleep in the
light and thus hurt their eyes and induce them to squint; and yet he
can believe, though probably with less than the common conviction,
that a squint is the sign of an evil nature dangerous alike to the
afflicted person and to those whom he may encounter.
The letter to Petrarch, however, does not end with Eletta. Boccaccio
proceeds to speak of Tullia and her husband Francesco, who presently
returned to Venice, and finding him there would have made him his
guest, and when he refused insisted on his daily presence at his
table. Nor was this all, for Boccaccio tells us that on the eve of
his departure, Francesco, knowing him to be very short of money,
managed to get him into a quiet corner, and putting his strong hand
on the feeble arm of his guest, would not let him depart till he had
given him succour, rushing away before he could thank him. "Knowing
me to be poor," Boccaccio writes, "on my departure from Venice, the
hour being already late, he led me into a corner (in secessu domus me
traxit) and in a few words, his great hands on my feeble arm (manibus
illis giganteis suis in brachiolum meum injectis), forced me in spite
of my embarrassment to accept his great liberality and then escaped,
saying good-bye as he went, leaving me to blame myself. May God
render it him again!"
It is perhaps in that letter we see Boccaccio better than in any
other of his writings; the greatest man then in Italy playing with a
little child, obliged in his poverty to accept assistance from one
who was almost a stranger. It was on the 30th June that Boccaccio
wrote that letter to Petrarch from Florence, so that he would seem to
have arrived home about midsummer.
In the following year we catch sight of him again in the service of
the Republic, first, as one of the Camarlinghi,[492] later, on an
embassy to the Pope, who had set out for Italy in April, and had
entered Rome in October, 1367.[493]
In 1365 Urban had been besieged in Avignon by Duguesclin on his way
to Spain, and had had to pay an enormous ransom as well as to absolve
his enemy and his followers from all censures. This mishap, coupled
with the invitation of the Romans, the passionate exhortations of
Peter of Aragon, the eloquent appeal of Petrarch, and the urgent
call of Albornoz, seems to have induced the Pope to undertake this
adventure, which he had always looked forward to. He sailed, in spite
of the opposition of the King of France, for Corneto, and at last
came safely to Viterbo, which he entered in state on June 9, 1367,
"with such grace and exultation that it seemed the very stones would
cry, 'Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord.'"[494] In
Viterbo the Pope began to arrange a league against the Visconti, but
he was already having trouble with Siena, and on August 20 the great
Albornoz died. In September, too, a French tumult broke out in the
city, and though Florence, Siena, and even Rome sent aid, Urban was
besieged for three days, and was doubtless very glad to set out under
the escort of the Marquis of Ferrara on October 14 for Rome. Two
days later he entered the City in triumph riding on a white mule; he
was received with "universal joy and acclamation."
In the spring of 1368 the Emperor, in accordance with his long
unfulfilled promise to the league, came into Italy with an army to
bridle the Visconti. The Papal forces and those of Giovanna of Naples
joined his, but achieved nothing. Then the Emperor came into Tuscany.
The rising of the Salimbeni followed in Siena, and the Emperor passed
through Siena on his way to Viterbo. On October 21 he entered Rome
leading the Pope's mule on foot.
It seems to have been at this moment that the Florentines thought
well to send an embassy to Urban and to choose Boccaccio once more
as their ambassador. All we know about the affair is, however, that
on December 1, 1368, Urban wrote to the Signoria of Florence that he
understood from their ambassador Giovanni Boccaccio that they desired
to assist him in reforming the affairs of Italy, and that Boccaccio,
whom he praises, bears his reply _viva voce_.[495]
The truth of the matter was that all Italy was uneasy. The advent of
the Emperor had ruined the peace of Tuscany, Lombardy was ablaze with
war, the Papacy was divided against itself. The French party--five
French cardinals had altogether refused to leave Avignon--now ceased
urging the Pope to return. Helpless and disillusioned, Urban was at
the mercy of the circumstances in which he found himself, and a year
later he in fact abandoned Italy again, setting out for Avignon in
September, and dying there in December, 1369.
It has been said that in 1368 Boccaccio went to Padua to see
Petrarch.[496] But this seems extremely unlikely, for quite apart
from the fact that his growing infirmities made such a journey
difficult, as we have seen in the previous year the circumstances
of the time made such a journey almost impossible. Even Petrarch, a
born traveller, a man who delighted in journeying, found it extremely
difficult to make his way from Milan in July of that year, where he
had been present at the marriage of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, to
Violante, Duke Galeazzo Visconti's daughter, to Padua. "He chartered
a boat," we read, "coaxed a half-frightened company of boatmen to
work her, with no weapons to defend himself, and sailed down the Po.
The adventure had an astonishing success. Through the river-fleets
and between the manned squadrons of both armies sailed this invalid
old man of a perfect courage, and the officers of both hosts vied
with one another in doing him honour. His voyage was a triumphal
progress...." But Boccaccio was not the world-famed Petrarch.
What does seem certain is that in 1370 he went to Naples, where
he remained till 1371. This journey southward seems to have been
undertaken at the invitation of a certain Abbate Niccolò di
Montefalcone, who, probably during a sojourn in Tuscany, having
borrowed his Tacitus of Boccaccio, invited the poet to visit him in
his convent, the Certosa di S. Stefano, in Calabria.[497] He set
out from Certaldo much charmed by the affection which the Abbate had
professed for him, and delighted at the prospect of visiting his
convent, with its shady woods and tranquil country-side watered by
limpid streams; a place rich in books and in peace. But he had not
reached his destination before he learned that the Abbate had left
Calabria, as he suspected on purpose to avoid him. He was compelled
to turn aside in the winter rains and to take refuge in Naples.
There, justly angry at the treatment he, a poor and old man, famous
too, and the friend of Petrarch, had received at the hands of a
rascal, he wrote the wretched monk a letter which, that posterity
may add its indignation to his, has happily come down to us. In that
letter, so full of just resentment, Boccaccio accuses this blackguard
of being a liar and a hypocrite. It is in fact impossible to excuse
this unworthy but too common son of the Church from the accusations
of Boccaccio. He must have known that the poet was old and infirm and
very poor, yet apparently to amuse himself he put him to the great
expense of energy and money which such a journey entailed.[498] In
Florence it was said Boccaccio had gone to make him a monk.
That letter to the Abbate bears the date of xiii. Kal. Feb. and was
written in Naples. The year is indicated by the fact that Boccaccio
speaks there of the death of Urban V and the election of his
successor, Gregory XI.[499] It seems certain then that in January,
1371, Boccaccio was in Naples.[500] There he was befriended by Conte
Ugo di S. Severino, who as soon as he heard of his arrival and his
poverty came to salute him and to offer to maintain him during his
stay, and on his departure presented him with gifts "more worthy of
the giver than the receiver."
While he was in Naples he also met a friar minor, by name Ubertino di
Corigliano, who had been sent by Frederic of Sicily to conclude peace
with Queen Giovanna. He was a professor of theology, a learned man
and good talker. Boccaccio spoke with him of the revival of learning.
"God," he says, "has been moved to compassion for the Italian
name.... For in our days great men have descended from heaven, unless
I am mistaken, gifted with great souls, who have brought back poetry
from exile to her ancient throne."[501] Who were these men but
Dante, "worthy to be named before all," and his master Petrarch. He
does not add himself, as he well might.[502]
He seems to have left Naples in the autumn of 1371 and to have
returned to Certaldo, where we find him in 1372, for he writes thence
to Piero di Monteforte a letter dated "Nonis Aprilis."[503] From
that quiet retreat, save to go to Florence, where indeed he had yet
to hold the most honourable post of his whole life, he did not stir
again, during the few years that remained to him.
FOOTNOTES:
[485] _Sen._, III, 1.
[486] On August 9 and 16 the Republic had written letters to the
Maestri della Fraternità and to Francesco Bruni rebutting the
charges the Pope had made against her. These letters were to be
shown to the Pope. On August 20 the instructions of the Republic to
Giovanni Boccaccio were drawn up in a long memorandum. See _Arch.
Stor. Ital._, Ser. I, App., Vol. VII, p. 413 _et seq._ The Pope
replies more than a year later on September 8, 1366, thanking the
Republic for the letters with which Francesco Bruni had acquainted
him, especially for soliciting him to return to Italy. He says he is
determined to return for the good of the Church and of Italy, and
particularly of Florence, who has shown herself so devoted to the
Holy See. _Ibid._ See also CORAZZINI _op. cit._, p. 395, and HORTIS,
_G. B. Ambasciatore in Avignone_ (Trieste, 1875).
[487] HORTIS (_G. B. Ambasciatore_) has published this letter.
[488] _Senil._, V. 1. Boccaccio had received instructions to hurry
back to Italy. "Vos autem domine Johannes sollicitetis commissionem
vestrum et rescribentes vestrum etiam reditum festinetis."
[489] Cf. HORTIS, _G. B. Ambasciatore_.
[490] For the following particulars see Boccaccio's letter to
Petrarch. _Ut te viderem_, CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p. 123.
[491] The Eclogue XIV tells us much that otherwise we should never
have known as to Boccaccio's children. It is there we hear of his
little daughter Violante, whom he there calls Olympia, and who died
"at an age when one goes straight to heaven." "Pro Olympia," he
says, in the letter already quoted, to Matteo da Signa, "intelligo
parvulam filiam meam olim mortuam, ea in ætate, in qua morientes
cœlestes effici cives credimus; et ideo ex Violante cum viveret,
mortuam _cœlestem_ idest _Olympiam_ voco." Boccaccio conceived this
Eclogue in a wood, and therefore he calls himself Silvio. The Eclogue
roughly is as follows: Boccaccio in a sleepless and restless night
full of unhappy regrets longs for the day. Suddenly a light illumines
all and he hears a singing. It is the voice of Violante (Olympia),
who salutes her father. "Fear not," she says, "I am thy daughter.
Why should you be afraid? Canst thou doubt? Dost thou think that
Violante would deceive her father? I come to thee to sweeten thy
sorrow." To her Boccaccio (Silvio) answers: "I recognise thee, love
does not deceive me nor my dreams; O my great delight, only hope of
thy father. What god has taken thee from me, O my little daughter?
They told me when I returned to Naples thou wert dead, and believing
this, how long, how long I wept for thee, how long, how long I
mourned thee, calling thee back to me. But what splendour surrounds
thee; who are thy companions? O marvel, that in such a little space
of time you should have grown so, for you seem, little daughter mine,
to be already marriageable." And Violante answers: "It was but my
earthly vesture that, dear, you buried in the lap of earth. These
vestments, this form, this resplendent body the Madonna herself has
given me. But look on my companions, have you never seen them?"
And Boccaccio: "I do not remember them, but neither Narcissus, nor
Daphnis, nor Alexis were more beautiful." And Violante: "And dost
thou not recognise thy Mario, thy Giulio, and my sweet sisters? They
are thy children." And Boccaccio: "Come, O children mine, whom I have
held in my arms, on my breast, and with glad kisses heal my heart.
Let us make a joyful _festa_, and intone a hymn of joy. Let the wood
be silent, and let Arno run noiselessly." Then follows a hymn sung by
Violante in honour of Jesus Christ (Codro) and of the Blessed Virgin:
the most beautiful of all Boccaccio's Latin songs. And Violante
departs promising, when her father will hardly let her go, that he
shall soon be with her for ever in heaven.
We see here that Boccaccio had two sons, Giulio and Mario, and at
least three daughters, Violante and her sisters.
[492] Cf. CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 259. I give the document he
quotes:--
"Camarlinghi--Marzo-Aprile 1367-68--Quaderno no. 183--Uscita di
condotta.
"[30 Aprile]
"Domino Iohanni Boccaccij
Mariotto simonis orlandini Barne
valorini et Bindo domini Iacobi
de Bardis
civibus florentinis extractis secundum ordinamenta Comunis flor.
in conducterios et ad offitium conducte stipendiariorum Comunis
Flor. pro tempore et termino quatuor mensium inceptorum die primo
mensis novembris proximi preteriti, pro eorum et cuiuslibet eorum
salario quatuor mensium predictorum, initiatorum ut supra, ad
rationem libarum vigintiquatuor fl. parv. pro quolibet eorum, vigore
extractionis facte de eis, scripte per ser Petrum ser Grifi notarium,
scribam reformationum consilii et populi Comunis flor ... etc. etc.
(_solita formula_) in summum, inter omnes, ad rationem predictam ...
libras Nonaginta sex fl. parv."
[493] The embassy of 1365 was not the last Boccaccio was engaged in.
It is generally said that he went again to the Pope in November,
1367. MAZZUCCHELLI, _Gli Scrittori d' Italia_, p. 1326, n. 77,
quoted by HORTIS, _G. B. Ambasciatore_, p. 18, note 3, says: "Ai
detta imbasciata del Boccaccio ad Urbano V fatto nel 1367 si
conserva notizia nell' Archivio de Monte, Comune di Firenze, che con
gentilezza ci è stata communicata con Lettera del Signor Manni. Quivi
si vede come i detti due ambasciatori prima di partirsi prestarmo
agli 11 di Novembre di quello anno il giuramento di esercitare con
buona fede la detta imbasciata alla presenza di Paolo Accoramboni da
Gubbio esecutore in Firenze degli ordini di Giustizia." But Boccaccio
could not have gone to see the Pope in Avignon in November, 1367,
for the Pontiff set out for Italy on April 30, as we have seen. In
December, 1368, as we shall see, Pope Urban in Rome wrote to the
Signoria di Firenze in praise of Boccaccio. It seems certain, then,
that Boccaccio went on embassy to Rome in November, 1368.
[494] Cf. E. G. GARDNER, _S. Catherine of Siena_ (Dent, 1908), p. 63
_et seq._ I cannot refrain from recommending this excellent study of
the fourteenth century in Italy to all students of the period. It is
by far the best attempt yet made to understand the mystical religion
of the period in Italy summed up by S. Catherine of Siena.
[495] Cf. CANESTRINI, in _Archivio Stor. Ital._, Ser. I, App. VII, p.
430, under date Deci, 1368.
"Urbanus Episcopus, Servus Servorum Dei, Dilectis filiis Prioribus
Artium et Vexillifero Iustitie, ac Comuni Civitatis Florentie,
salutem et apostolicam benedictionem.
"Dilectum filium Iohannem Boccatii, ambassatorem vestrum,
contemplatione mittentium, ac suarum virtutum intuitu, benigne
recepimus; et exposita prudenter Nobis per eum pro parte vestra,
audivimus diligenter; ac sibi illa que, secundum Deum et pro nostro
et publico bono, ad quod presertim in Italie partibus, auctore
Domino, reformandum et augendum, plenis anhelamus affectibus,
convenire credidimus, duximus respondendum; prout ipse oretenus
vos poterit informare. Datum Rome, apud Sanctum Petrum, Kalendis
decembris, Pontificatus nostri anno sexto."
[496] See ZARDO, _Il Petrarca e i Carraresi_ (Milano, 1867), cap.
ii. p. 41 _et seq._ To this year Signor Zardo would refer the letter
of Boccaccio to Petrarch _Ut te viderem_, in which he describes his
visit to Venice, where he saw Tullia and Francesco. If Boccaccio was
in Padua in 1368, we have no evidence for it.
[497] Cf. the letter to Niccolò di Montefalcone in CORAZZINI, _op.
cit._, p. 257 _et seq._
[498] Boccaccio does not forget to ask him for the return of his
Tacitus, and thus shows us that he possessed the works of this
historian, which he not seldom quotes in the _De Genealogiis Deorum_.
Cf. HORTIS, _Studi_, pp. 424-6, and PAGET TOYNBEE, _Boccaccio's
Commentary on the Divine Comedy_ in _Modern Language Review_
(Cambridge, 1907), Vol. II, No. 2, p. 119. Boccaccio was certainly
acquainted with the twelfth to the sixteenth books of the _Annals_
and the second and third books of the _Histories_. How did he come
into possession of this treasure? HORTIS (_loc. cit._) suggests that
he found the MS. when he paid his famous visit (when we do not know)
to the Badia of Monte Cassino. It is Benvenuto da Imola, Boccaccio's
disciple, who tells us of this visit. "My reverend master Boccaccio,"
he says in his Commentary on the _Divine Comedy_, Paradiso, xxii.
74, "told me that, being once in the neighbourhood of Monte Cassino,
he paid the monastery a visit and asked if he might see the library.
Whereupon one of the monks, pointing to a staircase, said gruffly,
'Go up; it is open.' Boccaccio went up and saw to his astonishment
that the library, the storehouse of the monastic treasures, had
neither door nor fastening; and on entering in he found grass growing
on the windows and all the books and benches buried in dust. When
he came to turn over the books, some of which were very rare and of
great value, he discovered that many of them had been mutilated and
defaced by having leaves torn out or the margins cut--a discovery
which greatly distressed him. In answer to his enquiries as to how
this damage had been caused, he was told that it was the work of some
of the monks themselves. These vandals, desirous of making a little
money, were in the habit of tearing out leaves from some of the MSS.
and of cutting the margins off others, for the purpose of converting
them into psalters and breviaries which they afterwards sold" (see
PAGET TOYNBEE, _Dante Studies and Researches_ (Methuen, 1902), p. 233
_et seq._) Boccaccio does not seem to have shown his MS. to Petrarch,
who nowhere quotes Tacitus or shows us that he knows him.
[499] Urban died 19th December, and Gregory was elected on the 30th
December, 1370.
[500] Boccaccio also speaks of his journey elsewhere. In a letter
to Jacopo da Pizzinghe (CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p. 189) he says:
"Incertus Neapoli aliquamdium fueram vere præterito: hinc enim
plurimo desiderio trahebar redeundi in patriam, quam autumno nuper
elapso indignans liqueram." In another to Niccolò degli Orsini, he
says: "Laboriosam magis quam longam, anno præterito perigrinationem
intraverim, et casu Neapolim delatus sim, ibi præter opinatum amicos
mihi ignotos comperi, a quibus frenatæ domesticæ indignationis meæ
impetu, ut starem subsidia præstitere omnia." Cf. HORTIS, _Studi_,
_u.s._, p. 285 note. Hortis is of opinion that the word _casu_
indicates the change of route necessitated by the falsity of Niccolò
da Montefalcone. On the dates of these and other letters, see HORTIS,
_u.s._ I find myself absolutely in agreement with him.
[501] See letter to Niccolò degli Orsini (CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p.
317).
[502] CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p. 327.
[503] Cf. CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p. 337. We have four letters which
Boccaccio wrote during these years: that to Matteo d' Ambrosio, dated
"iv Idus Maias," which HORTIS (_op. cit._, p. 285) argues belongs
to 1371; that to Orsini, which the same critic gives to June, 1371;
that to Jacopo da Pizzinghe, which he gives to the summer of the same
year; and that to Piero di Monteforte, dated from Certaldo "Nonis
Aprilis," which he gives to 1372. BALDELLI, followed by WITTE (_op.
cit._, p. xl), thinks the letter to Matteo d' Ambrosio belongs to
1373, and thus argues that Boccaccio was twice in Naples: in the
winter of 1370-1, and again in the autumn of 1372 to May, 1373. But
Hortis shows it is impossible that the letter to Ambrosio is of
May, 1373, since on 19 March, 1373, Boccaccio was in Certaldo when
the Bishop Angelo Acciaiuoli committed to him an office--"confidens
quam plurimum de fidei puritate providi viri D. Joannis Boccaccii
de Certaldo Civis et Clerici Florentini." Cf. MANNI, _Ist. del
Decameron_, p. 35, and Hortis, _op. cit._, pp. 208, n. 1, and 284, n. 3.