The Life of Petrarch; Collected from Memoires Pour La Vie de Petrarch Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1809 edition. Excerpt: ...face on the matter, and appeared every where with a countenance which hid the feelings of his heart. Petrarch scarcely ever left him; and the prince employed every moment in conversing with him he could steal from public affairs, and these fatiguing ceremonies. He received the iron crown in the church of St. Ambrose, from the hands of Robert Viscomti, archbishop of Milan, in the presence of the patriarch of Aguilon, his brother, and a great number of lords and bishops. In this ceremony, the emperor made knights of John Galeas, son of Galeas Viscomti, and Blanche of Savoy; and Mark, son of Barnabas, and his queen: and two infants only two years old. The three brothers were declared vicars of the empire for all the estates they possessed in Italy. They gave to the emperor fifty thousand florins of gold, twelve horses covered with a fine cloth, lined with ermine, and six hundred soldiers to escort him to Rome. A bishop had predicted that the eagle should submit to the viper: as the viper was painted on the Milanese standards, this prophecy seemed to be verified. The emperor looked upon himself at Milan to be in a magnificent prison: he got out of it as soon as he could, and his impatience caused him to lose his imperial gravity. Villani says that he ran through the states of the Viscomtis with the precipitation of a merchant who is going to a fair: and he did not fairly breathe till he was out of their dominions. Petrarch accompanied him five miles beyond Placentia. The prince renewed his entreaties that he would go with him to Rome. Petrarch excused himself with all the civility possible, and with much difficulty obtained leave to depart. When they were bidding farewel, a Tuscan knight, in the train of the emperor, took Petrarch by the hand, and, ..