her, he low has only, I n years soberressive, these annes (De . she saw him sinking into despondency, she gave him a 'Non è minore il duol, perch' altri il prema: several popes, of the Correggio lords of Parma, of the Colonna of Rome, the Visconti of Milan, the Carrara of Padua, the Gonzaga of Mantua, of Robert, king of Naples, and of Charles IV., emperor of Germany. He was invited in turn by them all, was consulted by them, and was employed by them in several affairs of importance. He was sent by the nobles and people of Rome as their orator to Clement VI.. in order to prevail on that pope to remove his residence from Avignon to Rome. He afterwards wrote a Latin epistle to Urban V., Clement's successor, urging the same request, and the pope soon after removed to Rome, at least for a Ne maggior per andarsi lamentando.' (Trionfo della Morte, ch, ii.) time. In 1340 the senate of Rome sent him a solemn inWe have dwelt at some length on this subject because it vitation to come there and receive the laurel crown as a has acquired an historical importance, and has been the sub- reward of his poetical merit. Petrarca accepted the inviject of much controversy. Unable to comprehend feelings tation, and, embarking at Marseille, landed at Naples, where with which they were unacquainted, some critics have King Robert, himself a man of learning, in order to enhance speered at the passion of Petrarca for Laura; others have his reputation, held a public examination in presence of all doubted its existence; whilst others again have disbelieved his court during three days, in which various subjects of the purity of Laura's conduct. We have now however suf- science and literature were discussed. At the termination ficient evidence to establish two facts: 1, that the attach- of these meetings, King Robert publicly proclaimed Pement of Petrarca for Laura was real and lasting; 2, that trarca to be deserving of the laurel crown, and sent an Laura's conduct was above suspicion. What her inward orator to accompany him to Rome to attend the ceremony, feelings were towards the poet we have no means of know-which took place on Easter-day in the year 1341, when ing, and Petrarca himself does not seem to have ever known. Orso dell' Anguillara, senator of Rome, crowned the poet Laura appears to have been imbued with religious senti- in the Capitol, in presence of a vast assemblage of spectators, ments, united with serenity of mind, self-possession, discre- and in the midst of loud acclamations. tion, and good sense. There have been doubts expressed concerning the identity of the Laura of Petrarca with Laura de Sade, but the evidence seems to be strong in favour of that identity. (De Sade, Mémoires pour la Vie de F. Pétrarque; Foscolo, Essays on Petrarch; Baldelli, Del Petrarca e delle sue Opere, 2nd edition, Fiesole, 1837; and the article 'Noves, Laure de,' in the Biographie Universelle.) Petrarca had ecclesiastical benefices at Parma and at Padua, which were given to him by his patrons of the Correggio and Carrara families, and he spent much of his time between those towns. From Padua he sometimes went to Venice, where he became acquainted with the Doge Andrea Dandolo, who was distinguished both as a statesman and as a lover of literature. Venice was then at war with Genoa. But the life of Petrarca was not spent in idle though Petrarca wrote a letter to Dandolo from Padua, in March, eloquent wailings. He was an active labourer in the field 1351, in which he deprecated these hostilities between two of learning, and this constitutes his real merit and his best Italian states, and exhorted him to peace. Dandolo, in his title to fame. Besides the works which he wrote, he en- answer, praised his style and his good intentions; but he couraged literature in others, and he did everything in defended the right of Venice, after the provocations that she his power to promote sound studies. Petrarca was a great had received from her rival. In the following year, after traveller for his age; he visited every part of Italy, he went a desperate battle between the fleets of the two nations in several times to France and Germany, and even to Spain. the Sea of Marmara, Petrarca wrote from Vaucluse, where Wherever he went, he collected or copied MSS., and pur- he then was, to the doge of Genoa, for the same laudable chased medals and other remains of antiquity. At Arezzo purpose, that of promoting peace. In the next year, 1353, he discovered the 'Institutions' of Quintilian; at Verona, the Genoese fleet was totally defeated by the Venetians off Cicero's Familiar letters; in another place, the epistles to the coast of Sardinia; and Genoa in its humiliation sought Atticus; at Liège he found some orations of Cicero, which the protection of John Visconti, archbishop and lord of he transcribed; he also speaks of Cicero's book 'De Gloria,' Milan, the most powerful Italian prince of his time. Peof Varro's treatise 'De Rebus Divinis et Humanis,' and of trarca was staying at Milan as a friend of Visconti, who had a compilation of letters and epigrams of Augustus, which made him one of his councillors, and as such he was present he had once seen or possessed, but which have not come at the solemn audience of the deputies of Genoa and at down to us. (Rerum Memorandarum, b. i.) He was liberal the act of surrender. In 1354 Visconti sent Petrarca on a in lending MSS., and thus several of them were lost. He mission to Venice to negotiate a peace between the two reapplied himself also to the diplomatic history of the dark publics. He was received with great distinction, but failed ages, and he investigated the means of distinguishing au- in the object of his mission. Soon after, John Visconti thentic diplomas and charters from numerous others which died, and his three nephews divided his dominion amongst were apocryphal. (Epistolæ Seniles, b. xv., ep. 5.) He was them. The youngest and the best of them, Galeazzo, enthe friend and instructor of Boccaccio, John of Ravenna, gaged Petrarca to remain at Milan near his person. In and other Italian and foreign contemporaries. He was the November, 1354, the emperor Charles IV. arrived at Mantua founder of the library of St. Mark at Venice. He encouraged from Germany; and he wrote to Petrarca, who had been in Galeazzo Visconti to found the university of Pavia. In his correspondence with him before, to invite him to his court. extensive correspondence with the most distinguished persons Petrarca repaired to Mantua, spent several days with the of his time, he always inculcated the advantages of study, emperor, and accompanied him to Milan. Petrarca wished to of the investigation of truth, and of a moral conduct; he persuade him to fix his residence in Italy; but the emperor, always proclaimed the great superiority of intellectual over after being crowned at Milan and at Rome, hastened to corporeal pleasures. He and his friend Boccaccio are justly return to Germany. However, before he left Italy, peace considered as the revivers of classical literature in Italy. was proclaimed between Venice and Genoa. In 1356 PeHis admiration of antiquity was carried to excess, not being trarca was sent by the Visconti on a mission to the emperor, tempered by the light of criticism which arose much later whom they suspected of hostile intentions towards them. in Europe. It was this classical enthusiasm that led him He met Charles at Prague, and having succeeded in his to support the tribune Rienzi, and attach too great im- mission, he returned tc Milau. In 1360 he was sent by Gaportance to his abortive schemes. Petrarca beheld Rome leazzo Visconti on a mission to Paris to compliment King as entitled to be again what she had once been, the mistress John on his deliverance from his captivity in England. In of the world, as if the thing were possible, or even desira- his familiar epistles' he describes the miserable state of ble. This error he perpetuated by his writings, and his France, and the traces of the devastation perpetrated by authority has contributed to that classical tendency of recol-fire and sword. He was well received by the king and the lections and aspirations which has led astray many Italian dauphin, and after three months spent at Paris, he returned minds. By aspiring to be what they cannot be again, they to Milan. The next year he left Milan to reside at Padua. have lost sight of what they might and ought to be as memThe introduction into Italy of the mercenary bands, called bers of the great modern European family. 'Companies,' which the marquis of Montferrat and other Italian princes took into their pay, and which committed the greatest outrages, and the plague which they brought with them into Lombardy, were the reasons which induced Petrarca to remove to Padua. In 1362, the plague having Petrarca acted an important part in the affairs of state of his time. His influence over the great and powerful is one of the most extraordinary parts of his character, but it is a well ascertained fact. He enjoyed the friendship of reached Padua, he retired to Venice, taking his books with | absolutely wrote four books of invectives against physicians him. Soon after his arrival, he offered to bequeath his He valued Dondi, not as a physician but as a philosopher library to the church of St. Mark. The offer was accepted, and he used to tell him so, but Dondi still remained attached and a large house was assigned for the reception of Petrarca to him. The news of Urban V.'s return to Avignon, and of and his books. This was the beginning of the celebrated his subsequent death, caused much grief to Petrarca, who library of St. Mark, which was afterwards increased by Car- had a great esteem for that pontiff. His successor Gregory dinal Bessarion and others. At Venice, Petrarca was XI., to whom he was also personally known, wrote to Pevisited by his friend Boccaccio, who spent three months in trarca, A.D. 1371, a most kind letter inviting him to his his company. Petrarca passed several years at Venice, court. But Petrarca was unable to move. He was often honoured by the doge and the principal senators, and now seized with fits, and sometimes given up for dead. He wrote and then making excursions to Padua, Milan, and Pavia, to Francisco Bruni, the Apostolic secretary, that he should to visit his friends the Carrara and Galeazzo Visconti. In not ask the pope for anything, but that if his Holiness chose 1368 he was present at the marriage of Galeazzo's daughter to bestow on him a living without cure of souls, for he had Violante with Prince Lionel of England. From Milan he enough to take care of his own soul, to make his old age returned to Padua, where he received a pressing invitation more comfortable, he should feel grateful, though he felt from Pope Urban V., who had fixed his residence at Rome, that he was not long for this world, for he was waning away and who wished to become acquainted with him. Petrarca to a shadow. He was not in want; he kept two horses, and had a great esteem for Urban's character; and he deter- generally five or six amanuenses, though only three at the mined, notwithstanding his age and his infirmities, on a present moment, because he could find no more. He could journey to Rome; but, on arriving at Ferrara, his strength have more easily obtained painters than transcribers. Alfailed him; he fell into a swoon, and remained for thirty though he would prefer to take his meals alone, or with the hours apparently dead. Nicholas d'Este, lord of Ferrara, village priest, he was generally besieged by a host of visitors and his brother Hugo, took the greatest care of him, and or self-invited guests, and he must not behave to them as a he was restored to life; but the physicians declared that he miser. He wanted to build a small oratory to the Virgin was unable to proceed to Rome, and he was taken back to Mary, but he must sell or pledge his books for the purpose.' Padua in a boat. Petrarca had been long subject to pal-(Variarum Epistolarum, the 43rd.) Some months after pitations and epileptic fits, the consequence of his too great (January, 1372), writing from Padua to his old college application to study. From Padua he removed, in the sum- friend Matthew, archdeacon of Liège, he says, I have been mer of 1370, to Arquà, a pleasant village in the Euganean infirm these two years, being given up several times, but Hills, where he enjoyed a pure air and retirement. He still live. I have been for some time at Venice, and now built a house there, and planted a garden and orchard: I am at Padua, performing my functions of canon. I am this is the only residence of the numerous houses which he happy in having left Venice, on account of this war between had at Parma, Padua, Venice, Milan, Vaucluse, and other the republic and the lord of Padua. At Venice I should places, which still remains, and is shown to travellers. In have been an object of suspicion, whilst here I am cherished. this retirement he resumed his studies with fresh zeal. I spend the greater part of the year in the country; I read, Among other things, he wrote his book' De sui ipsius et I think, I write; this is my existence, as it was in the time multorum aliorum Ignorantia,' intended as a rebuke to of my youth. It is astonishing that having studied so long, certain Venetian freethinkers who, inflated with the learn- I have learnt so little. I hate no one, I envy no one. In ing which they had gathered from Averroes' 'Commentaries the first season of my life, a time full of error and presumpon Aristotle, of which a Latin translation had spread into tion, I despised everybody but myself; in a more mature Italy, sneered at the Mosaic account of the creation, and at age I despised myself alone; in my old age I despise almost the Scriptures in general. Four of these young men had everybody, and myself most.... Not to conceal anything sought the society of Petrarca while he resided at Venice, from you, I have had repeated invitations from the pope, the and he was at first highly pleased with them; they were ac- king of France, and the emperor, but I have declined them, complished and witty, and fond of study. But this sympa- preferring my liberty to all.' thy did not last long. Petrarca had no blind veneration for Aristotle, and still less for Averroes; he was a believer in the Scriptures, and moreover he had no great bias for natural history, in which his visitors were skilled, and he used to observe to them that it was of greater importance to investigate the nature of man than that of quadrupeds, birds, and fishes. The four admirers of Aristotle were scandalised at his own freethinking concerning their oracle, and they held a kind of jury among them to decide upon the true merits of Petrarca. The verdict was, that Petrarca was a good kind of a man, but destitute of real learning, Bonus vir, sine literis.' This judgment spread about Venice, and made a great noise. Petrarca at first laughed at it, but his friends took up the business seriously, and urged him to defend himself, which he did in his retirement at Arquà, by the book already noticed. In this work he acknowledges his own ignorance, but at the same time he exposes the ignorance of his antagonists. With regard to Aristotle he says what others have said after him, that he was a great and powerful mind, who knew many things, but was ignorant of many more. As for Averroes, who discarded all revelation, and denied the immortality or rather the individuality of the human soul, Petrarca urged his friend Father Marsili of Florence to refute his tenets. (Epistolæ sine Titulo, the last epistle.) But the tenets of Averroes took root at Venice and at Padua, where many professors, down to the time of Leo X., among others Urbano of Bologna, Nicola Vernia, Agostino Niso, Alessandro Achillini, Pomponacio, and others, professed them, and commented on the works of the Arabian philosopher. It has even been said that Poliziano, Bembo, and others of the distinguished men who gathered round Lorenzo de' Medici and his son Leo X. entertained similar opinions. In September, 1373, peace was made between Venice and Francis of Carrara, lord of Padua. One of the conditions was that the latter should send his son to Venice to ask pardon and swear fidelity to the republic. The lord of Padua begged Petrarca to accompany his son. Petrarca appeared before the senate, and pronounced a discourse on the occasion, which was much applauded. After his return to Padua he wrote his book, De Republica optime adminis tranda, which he dedicated to his patron and friend Francis of Carrara. The following year his health grew worse; a slow fever consumed his frame. He went as usual to Arquà for the summer. On the morning of the 18th of July, one of the servants entered his library and found him sitting motionless, with his head leaning on a book. As he was often for whole hours in that attitude, the people of the house at first took no notice of it, but they soon perceived that their master was quite dead. The news of his death soon reached Padua. Francis of Carrara, accompanied by all the nobility of Padua, the bishop and chapter, and most of the clergy repaired to Arquà to attend the funeral. Sixteen doctors of the university bore his remains to the parish church of Arquà, where his body was interred in a chapel which Petrarca had built in honour of the Virgin Mary. Francesco da Brossano, his son-in-law, raised him a marble monument supported by four columns; and in 1667 his bust in bronze was placed above it. On one of the columns the following distich was engraved : Inveni requiem; spes et fortuna valete; Petrarca had had two natural children, a son and a daughter. The son died before his father. The daughter, Tullia, married, in her father's lifetime, Francesco da The air of the Euganean hills did not prove sufficient to Brossano, a Milanese gentleman, whom Petrarca made his restore Petrarca to health. His physician Dondi told him heir. He left legacies to various friends, and among others that his diet was too cold; that he ought not to drink to Boccaccio, who did not survive him long. The portraits water, nor eat fruit and raw vegetables, nor fast, as he of Petrarca are numerous, but they differ from one anooften did. But Petrarca had no faith in medicine. Hether; that which is considered the most authentic is at ysicians osopher attache 1, and f rra, whe Gregory to Pe 1 to his 14 offer is chose he bal old age he le: g awar ses, an at the Padua, in the Episcopal palace, above the door of the Rome, and also to several friends; 3, Eclogues or Bucolics, which are acknowledged by himself to be allegorical, and were in fact, like Boccaccio's eclogues, satires against the powerful of his time, and especially against the Papal court of Avignon. Ginguené, in his 'Histoire Littéraire,' and others, have endeavoured to find the key to these allegories. The sixth and seventh eclogues are evidently directed against Clement VI., and the twelfth, entitled Conflictatio,' has also some violent invectives against the Papal court. This circumstance has given rise to strange surmises, as if Petrarca were a secret heretic, an enemy of the church of Rome, belonging to some supposed secret society. We know from Petrarca's own letters, especially those styled 'sine titulo,' that he spoke very plainly to his friends concerning the disorders and vices of the Papal court, which he called the modern Babylon, the Babylon of the west. He says that Jesus Christ was sold every day for gold, and that his temple was made a den of thieves; but we also evidently see that in all these invectives he spoke of the discipline of the Church, or rather of the abuses of that discipline, and not of the dogmas, things which have been often confounded, both by the advocates and the enemies of Rome. Petrarca, like many other observing men of that and the succeeding century, could not be blind to the enormous abuses existing in the Church; but their indignation was poured out against the individuals who fostered those abuses, and they never thought of attacking the fabric itself. This was especially the case in Italy. There might be in that country secret unbelievers and scoffers at revelation, but there were no heretics. There were many who openly charged the pope and his court with heinous crimes, but who at the same time felt a sort of loathing at the very name of heretic or schismatic. The influence of traditional veneration for the authority of the Church, the persuasion of its infallibility, remained, although divested of all devotion, of all enthusiasm, of all respect even for the person of the head of that Church. The works of Petrarca are of three kinds: 1, his Italian poetry, chiefly concerning Laura; 2, his Latin poetry; 3, his Latin prose. His Italian poetry, called 'Il Canzoniere,' or 'Rime di Petrarca, consists of above 300 sonnets, about fifty canzoni, and three short poems, in terza rima, styled Trionfo d'Amore,' Trionfo della Morte,' and 'Trionfo della Fama.' Petrarca's Canzoniere' has gone through more than three hundred editions, with and without notes and commentaries. The best is that edited by Professor Marsand, 2 vols. 4to., Padua, 1819-20, with a biography of Petrarca, extracted from his own works. The character of his poetry is well known. Its greatest charm consists in the sweetness of numbers, enlivened by a variety, a rapidity, and a glow which no Italian lyric has ever possessed in an equal degree. The power of preserving and at the same time of diversifying the rhythm belongs to him alone; his melody is perpetual, and yet never wearies the ear. His canzoni (a species of composition partaking of the ode and the elegy, the character and form of which are exclusively Italian) contain stanzas sometimes of twenty lines. He has placed the cadences however in such a manner as to allow the voice to rest at the end of every three or four verses, and has fixed the recurrence of the same rhyme and the same musical pauses at intervals sufficiently long to avoid monotony, though sufficiently short to preserve harmony. It is not difficult therefore to give credit to his biographer, Filippo Villani, when he assures us "that the musical modulation of the verses which Petrarch addressed to Laura flowed so melodiously, that even the most grave could not refrain from repeating them. Petrarch poured forth his verses to the sound of his lute, which he bequeathed in his will to a friend; and his voice was sweet, flexible, and of great compass." (Foscolo, Essays on Petrarch, On the Poetry of Petrarch.) That in Petrarca's sonnets there is too much ornament, that he indulges too much in metaphors, that his antitheses are often forced, and his hyperboles almost puerile, all this is true; and yet there is so much delicacy and truth in his descriptions of the passion of love and of its thousand affecting accessories which he brings before the mind of the reader, that he awakens many associations and recollections in every heart, and this is perhaps the great secret of the charm of his poetry, notwithstanding its perpetual egotism. There is much to choose among his sonnets, many of which, especially those which he wrote after Laura's death, are far superior to the rest in loftiness of thought and expression. He borrowed little from the Latin poets, and much from the Troubadours; but his finest imitations are drawn from the sacred writings. He improved the ma terials in which the Italian language already abounded, and he gave to that language new grace and freshness. No term which he has employed has become obsolete, and all his phrases may be and still are used in the written language. Far inferior to Dante in invention, depth of thought, and in boldness of imagery, Petrarca is superior to him in softness and melody. Dante was a universal poet; he describes all passions, all actions; Petrarca paints only one passion, but he paints it exquisitely. Dante nerves our hearts against adversity and oppression; Petrarca wraps us in soft melancholy, and leads us to indulge in the error of depending upon the affections of others, and his poetry, chaste though it be, is apt to have an enervating influence on the minds of youth. At a more mature age, when man is sobered by experience, Petrarca's poetry produces a soothing effect, and, by its frequent recurrence to the transitoriness of worldly objects, may even have a beneficial moral influence. There are some of his eanzoni which soar higher than the rest in their lyric flight, especially the one which begins 'Italia mia,' and which has been often quoted; and another which he wrote in 1333, when a new crusade was in contemplation. His beautiful canzone, or 'Ode to the Virgin,' with which he closes his poetry about Laura, is also greatly admired for its sublimity and pathos. Petrarea's Latin poetry consists, 1, of the Africa,' an epic on the exploits of Scipio in the second Punic war, a dull sort of poem, with some fine passages: it was however much admired at the time; 2, Epistles, in verse, addressed to several popes, for the purpose of urging their return to Petrarea was not a man of extremes: his dislike of the Papal court of Avignon originated in two feelings, one of honest indignation against its corruptions, and another of national or rather classical attachment to Rome, which made him urge with all his powers of persuasion the return of the head of the Church to a residence in that city. When he spoke of Babylon, he alluded to the captivity of the Jews, to which he compared the residence of the popes at Avignon. Of several popes, such as Urban VI. and Gregory XI., he speaks in his letters with great respect and personal attachment. He went to Rome expressly to attend the jubilee of 1350, and, as he states in his letters to Boccaccio (Epistolæ Familiares), for the sake of obtaining the plenary indulgence, and with a firm resolve of putting an end to his career of sin.' He had an accident on the road, which made him lame, and which he said was a salutary punishment for his sins. He gives some account of that jubilee, and of the vast number of pilgrims who resorted to Rome on the occasion. After having visited the churches and performed his devotions, he wrote that he had now become free from the plague of concupiscence, which had tormented him till then, and that in looking back to his past life, he shuddered with shame. (Epistola Seniles, viii. 1.) So much for those who would persuade us that Petrarca was a concealed heretic. His hostility was local and personal; it was directed against Avignon, and not against Rome; against the corrupt dignitaries of the church, not against the Church itself. Petrarca however, although religiously disposed, was far from superstitious. He was one of the few of his age who spurned astrology, and yet, strange to say, a cardinal had nearly persuaded Pope Innocent VI. that he was a magician, because he was familiar with strange books, a very serious charge in those times. Petrarca's letter of advice to Boccaccio, when he thought of turning monk, is a lasting monument of sound religion and good sense. The Latin Epistles of Petrarca are the most important of his prose writings. We have no Italian prose of his except two or three letters to James Colonna, the autographs of which are now in the possession of Lord Holland, and which show that he was not much in the habit of corresponding in that language. Petrarca's Epistles are very numerous; they embrace a stormy and confused period of nearly half a cen tury, for the history of which many of them afford ample and trustworthy materials. Petrarca was one of the earliest and most enlightened travellers of modern Europe; he was PETRELS, the English name for the Procellarida, a family of oceanic birds, well known to the seaman when far from the land, and with which his superstition was once more busy than it is now; but even at the present day they are not unfrequently regarded as ominous, and many a hard-a-weather old quarter-master still looks upon Mother Carey's Chickens as the harbingers of a storm. Though zoologists have differed as to the genera to be included in this extraordinary group, they have been pretty well agreed as to the forms which should be congregated in it. an eye-witness of many important events; he corresponded | 8vo.; Mémoires pour la Vie de Petrarque, avec des Pièces with kings, emperors, popes, statesmen, and men of learn- justificatives,' 3 vols. 4to., Amsterdam, 1746; Foscolo, ing. His Letters have not been sufficiently noticed byEssays on Petrarch.' historians: many of them are scattered MSS. in various libraries, and we have no complete edition of them arranged in order of time. Those which have been published are classed as follows:-1, Epistolæ de Rebus Familiaribus,' in viii. books; 2, De Rebus Senilibus,' written in Petrarca's old age, in xvi. books; 3, one book Ad Viros quosdam ex Veteribus Illustriores;' these epistles are addressed to various historical characters of antiquity; 4, one book 'Variarum Epistolarum;' 5, one book 'Epistolarum sine Titulo.' To this last book Petrarca had prefixed a curious preface, in which he says, 'that well knowing truth to be odious to the world, especially in times of corruption, he had taken the precaution of writing the Bucolics in an ambiguous kind of style, in order that their real sense might be understood only by the few, and that for a similar consideration he now has collected in one separate book certain letters written to several friends at various times and upon different occasions, in order that they might not be scattered through the body of his correspondence, and be the means of having the whole condemned. Those who wished to read them would thus know where to find them, and those who thought that they ought to be suppressed, might exclude them from the rest of the collection.' Professor Levati, of Milan, has composed out of the Epistles of Petrarca a work descriptive of the manners and history of his age, in which he gives copious extracts translated into Italian: Viaggi di Francesco Petrarca in Francia, in Germania, ed in Italia,' 5 vols. 8vo., Milan, 1820. This work was severely criticised in the Biblioteca Italiana,' vol. xxiii. and xxiv. It is however an entertaining book, containing considerable information concerning Petrarca and his times which is not collected in any other work. Professor Meneghelli, of Padua, published in 1818, Index F. Petrarchæ Epistolarum quæ editæ sunt, et quæ adhuc inedita; but his list, as he himself admits, is not complete. Domenico de Rossetti, of Trieste, has published a bibliography of the works of Petrarca, their various editions, commentators, &c., and he has also edited a biography of Petrarca by his friend Boccaccio. Serie cronologica di edizioni delle Opere di Petrarca,' Trieste, 1834. The prose works of Petrarca, besides those already mentioned, are: 1, De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ,' libri ii. ; 2, De Vita Solitariâ,' lib. ii.; 3, 'De Otio Religiosorum,' The genus Procellaria of Linnæus was formed by that great zoologist for the Petrels, and it is closely fol lowed by his genus Diomedea (Albatrosses), between which and the Petrels there are many points of resemblance both in their structure and their pelagic habits. In the article LARIDE, to which family so many ornithologists have referred the Petreis, will be found the opinions of most of the leading writers who had then written upon the subject.* The Prince of Musignano (Geographical and Comparative List, 1838) makes the Procellarida the thirty-fourth family of the birds, and places them between the Larida and the Colymbida. The Prince's Procellarida (European and American only) consist of the genera Diomedea, Procellaria, Puffinus, and Thalassidroma. Mr. G. R. Gray (List of the Genera of Birds, 1840) makes the Diomedeina the first subfamily of the Larida. This subfamily comprehends the genera Pelecanoides, Puf finus, Daption, Thalassidroma, Wagellus, Procellaria, Diomedea, and Prion. M. Temminck, in his 'Manuel' (2nd part, 1820), arranges all the Petrels under the generic name Procellaria, Liun., but divides them into the following sections Swallow-like Petrels (Pétrels Pelecanoïdes. (Lacepède.) ndelles). Temminck This is the genus Haladroma of Illiger, and the genus Puffinuria of Lesson. The last-named author states that his reason for changing the generic name of the only species which serves as the type of this genus is the uncertainty in which he finds himself as to what is really the genus Pelecanoïdes of Lacepède, or Haladroma of Illiger. Some strong shades of difference, he observes, appeared to exist between the characters given by these authors and those which he cites, and he further says that he has seen nothing of the small membranous and dilatable pouch, which ought to exist under the lower mandible. The sole species above alluded to he records as Puffinuria Garnoti, Less. (Zool. de la Coq., pl. 46; Procellaria urinatrix, Gmel. ?) lib. ii.; 4, Apologia contra Gallum; 5, De Officio et Vir-admits the genera Procellaria, Puffinus, and Thalassidrona. tutibus Imperatoris; 6, Rerum Memorandarum,' libri iv. In this work, in which he has imitated Valerius Maximus, without however borrowing from him, Petrarca quotes a vast number of facts from antient and modern history, each illustrative of some principle of moral philosophy; it is in fact a treatise of practical ethics. 7, 'De verâ Sapientiâ,' being dialogues between a sophist and an uneducated man. 8, 'De Contemptu Mundi,' being imaginary dialogues between the author and St. Augustin. Petrarca had studied the Latin fathers attentively. 9, Vitarum Virorum illustrium Epitome.' Another and ampler work of Petrarca under the same title, of which the one just mentioned is only an abridgement, has remained inedited, but an imperfect Italian translation, by Donato degli Albanzoni, was published at Venice, in 1527. (D. de Rossetti, Petrarca, Giulio Celso, e Boccaccio, illustrazione Bibliologica, Trieste, 1828.) 10, 'De Vitâ Beatâ.' 11, 'De Obedientiâ ac Fide Uxoriâ. 12, 'Itinerarium Syriacum.' 13, Several orations, 'De Avaritia vitandâ,' 'De Libertate capescendâ, &c. Of his Latin style the following judgment is given by an Italian scholar: In modelling his style upon the Roman writers, he was unwilling to neglect entirely the Fathers of the Church, whose phraseology was more appropriate to his subjects; and the public affairs being, at that period, transacted in Latin, he could not always reject many of those expressions which, although originating from barbarous ages, had been sanctioned by the adoption of the universities, and were the more intelligible to his readers. In sacrificing gravity he gained freedom, fluency, and warmth; and his prose, though not a model for imitation, is beyond the reach of imitators, because it is original and his own.' (Foscolo On the Poetry of Petrarch.') Petrarca's Opera Omnia were published at Basle, in 1581, 2 vols. folio. Biographies of Petrarca have been written by Villani, Vergerio, Tomasini, Leonardo Aretino, and many others: the best arc-Baldelli Del Petrarca e delle sue Õpere,' 2 vols. . Mr. G. R. Gray gives Procellaria, Gm., Haladroma, Ill., and Puffinuria, Less., as synonyms of Pelecanoïdes; and refers, without a query, to P. Urinatrix, Gm. (Forst., Draw., t. 88-from which our cut is taken) as the species. Generic Character.-Bill enlarged, composed of many pieces soldered together, the edges smooth and re entering; the upper demi-bill composed of two pieces, furnished with feathers at the base up to the nostrils, which are very open, forming an oval circle, the aperture of which is above, separated one from the other by a simple internal partition; this partition supports a slight ledge which divides cach nasal fossa in half; the enlarged portion of the upper demibill goes beyond the lower mandible, and terminates at the contraction of the bill, which is narrow, convex, very much curved, and very robust. The lower mandible is formed equally of two soldered pieces; that of the edge is narrow, inserted in the upper demi-bill; that below is formed by In the article LARIDÆ, vol. xiii., p. 333, right-hand colunin, line 35 from the top, for Herondelles,' read Hirondelles.' See post. p. 45. two branches, slightly convex, separated outwards, where the petrel; at the same time, its short wings and consequent I little power of flight, its form of body and shape of tail, its habits of diving, and the absence of a hind toe to its foot, and its choice of situation, make it doubtful whether its relationship is not equally close with the auks as with the petrels. It would undoubtedly be mistaken for one of the former, when seen either on the wing, or when diving and quietly swimming about the retired channels of Tierra del Fuego. (Journal and Remarks.) Prior as is the claim of Lacepède's generic name, there can be no doubt that M. Lesson's designation is much more consonant to the habits of the bird. Puffinus. (Ray.) M. Garnot describes the sole species above noticed, as follows:-Size of the Blue Petrel, from the extremity of the bill to the tail, 8 inches. The plumage has no brilliancy; a blackish-brown on the upper part of the back glazed with a slight tint of blue and a lustrous white on all the fore- Generic Character. - General characters those of the true parts of the body are the two colours which it presents. Petrels, from which Puffinus is distinguished by the bill Beneath the wings, as well as on the sides, the hue is greyish-being longer, by the extremity of the lower mandible, which white. follows the curvature of the upper, and by the tubular nostrils opening not by a common aperture, but by two distinct orifices. The head approaches, a little, that of the Pelagic Petrel; the bill is articulated and hooked like that of the Puffins, but differs from that genus in the aperture of the nostrils, which is turned upwards in the form of a heart on a playing card; a partition separates the two nasal conduits; the colour is black; the palmated feet, which want the hindtoe, are of the same colour, and are placed very near the tail, which is intermediate between that of the Petrels and the Grebes. The eye, which is situated a little above the level of the commissure of the mandibles, has the iris of a redbrown. Total length 8 inches 6 lines. M. Garnot further describes the tongue as elongated, thick, and dentilated on its edges; the stomach large and occupying nearly the whole abdominal cavity, measured from the cardiac to the pyloric orifice three inches and some lines. The intestine, which forms many duplicatures, or folds, is from 21 to 22 inches long. The two caca are scarcely perceptible. The stomach was full of an oily grey matter, and its internal surface was covered with mucous follicles: the very small gizzard is composed of muscular fibres united by a cellular tissue not of a close texture. The liver, which has not much volume, is divided into two parts. The spleen is very small. The pancreas is but little developed. The testicles were rounded, yellow, and of the size of peas. The larynx, which is three inches long, has no partition in the lower portion, whence M. Garnot concludes that there is no lower larynx; two muscles are there fixed. The heart is small. Locality and Habits.-This species is found in great flocks along the coast of Peru, flying moderately well in a precipitous manner, and skimming the sea, but it prefers repose on the surface, and dives very frequently, like the Grebes, doubtless for the purpose of capturing the small fish which form its food. M. Garnot thinks that it is intermediate between the Petrels, whose bill and feet it very nearly possesses, and the Grebes, whose port and habit of diving it has; and hence he proposes for it the name of the GrebePetrel. The parts between Sangallan and Lima are the localities mentioned by M. Garnot Pelecanoides Urinatrix. Mr. Darwin notices Puffinuria Brerardii as one more example of those extraordinary cases of a bird evidently belonging to one well-marked family, yet both in its habits and structure allied to a very distinct tribe. This bird never leaves the quiet inland sounds,' says Mr. Darwin; when disturbed, it dives to a distance, and on coming to the surface with the same movement takes wing. After flying for a space in a direct course, by the rapid movement of its short wings, it drops as if struck dead, and then dives again. The form of the beak and nostrils, length of foot, and even colouring of the plumage, show that this bird is a P. C., No. 1108. This is the genus Thiellus of Gloger, Thalassidroma, Sw., and Nectris, Klug. Example, Puffinus Anglorum. Summit of the head, nape, and all the upper parts of the body generally, the wings, the tail, the thighs, and the borders of the lower tail-coverts, of a lustrous black; all the lower parts of a pure white; the black and white of the sides of the neck are in demi-tints which produce a kind of crescents; bill blackish-brown; feet and toes brown, membranes yellowish. Length nearly 13 inches. Male and female. (Temminck.) In the 4th part of his Manuel,' M. Temminck observes that the natural colour of the feet being badly indicated, he gives it from Graba. The trenchant posterior border of the tarsi and the external toe are deep brown; the other parts of the tarsus are flesh-coloured, and the membranes of a livid tint with brown streaks. Iris deep brown. Young of the Year.-All the lower parts of a more or less deep ash-colour. This is the Procellaria Puffinus of Brunnich and Latham, Puffinus Arcticus of Faber, Der Nordische und Englische Sturmtaucher of Brehm, Pétrel Manks of Temminck, Puffingen Fanaw of the antient British, and Shearwater Petrel, Manks Puffin, and Manks Shearwater of the moderns. Localities; Habits; Utility to Man; &c.-Willughby says: At the south end of the Isle of Man lies a little islet, divided from Man by a narrow channel called the Calf of Man, on which are no habitations, but only a cottage or two lately built. This islet is full of conies, which the Puffins, coming yearly, dislodge, and build in their burroughs. They lay each but one egg before they sit, like the Razorbill and Guillem, although it be the common persuasion that they lay two at a time, of which the one is always addle. They feed their young ones wondrous fat. The old ones early in the morning, at break of day, leave their nests and young, and the island itself, and spend the whole day in fishing in the sea, never returning or once setting foot on the island before evening twilight; so that all day the island is so quiet and still from all noise, as if there were not a bird about it. Whatever fish or other food they have gotten and swallowed in the day-time, by the innate heat or proper ferment of the stomach is (as they say) changed into a certain oily substance (or rather chyle), a good part whereof in the night-time they vomit up into the mouths of their young, which, being therewith nourished, grow extraordinarily fat. When they are come to their full growth, they who are intrusted by the lord of the island (the earl of Darby) draw them out of the cony-holes; and that they may the more readily know and keep an account of the number they take, they cut off one foot and reserve it, which gave occasion to that fable, that the Puffins are single-footed. They usually sell them for about ninepence the dozen, a very cheap rate. They say their flesh is permitted to be eaten in Lent, being for the taste so like to fish. We are told that they breed not only on the Calf of Man, but also on the Scilly Islands. Notwithstanding they are sold so cheap, yet some years there is thirty pounds made.of the young Puffins taken in the Calf of Man, whence may be gathered what number of birds breed there.' Speaking of the flesh, the same author says, that from its extraordinary fatness, it is esteemed unwholesome meat, unless it be well seasoned with salt. Pennant states that they are salted and barrelled, and when they are boiled, are eaten with potatoes. He further says that they quit the VOL. XVIII.-G |