gold of Florence, to buy him a winter habit for his evening studies. I am ashamed,' says he, 'to leave so small a sum to so great a man:' and he begs all his friends to impute to his fortune alone the insignificance of his gifts. To Thomas Barbosi, of Ferrara, he makes a present of his good lute, for him to make use of in singing the praises of God. To John Dondi, physician of Padua, he gives fifty gold ducats, for a gold ring to wear in the remembrance of him.

He appoints Francis de Brossano, citizen of Milan, his heir; and desires him, not only as his heir, but likewise as his very dear son, to divide in two parts the money he should find; one for himself, and the other for the person he had assigned him. It should seem by this, he would not mention his daughter by name in a public will, as she was not born in marriage. This daughter died in child bed sixteen years after this, in the year 1384.

With respect to his little estate at Vaucluse, he gives it to the hospital in that diocese.

If Francis de Brossano should happen to die before him, in his place, he makes Lombard de Serico his heir, who knows his sentiments; and as he has always found him faithful during his life, he hopes he shall find him so after his death. This appears likewise to be a codicil in favour of his daughter.

His last bequest is to his brother Gerard, a carthusian of Montrieu: he desires his heir to write to him immediately after his decease, to give him the option of a hundred florins of gold, payable at once, or by five or ten florins every

year.

1370. A few days after he had made his will, Petrarch set out on his route. The pleasure with which he undertook this journey to Rome, made him believe he was in a condition to support it; but he soon found he had presumed too much upon his strength. When he got to Ferrara, he fell down in a fit, in which he continued thirty hours, without sense or motion, and it was supposed he was dead; however, they tried the most violent remedies, in hopes these might recal his senses; 'but I felt them no more (says he, speaking of this afterwards) than a statue of Polycletes, or Phidias.'

Nicholas II. of Est, son of Obizzon, was then lord of Ferrara, and the friend and admirer of Petrarch; he was extremely touched with his situation, had him brought to his house, and took the greatest care of him. The physicians, as well as others, thought he was dead, and the whole city was in grief. The news spread to Padua, Venice, Milan, and Pavia: crowds came from all parts of Italy to his burial. Hugues de Est, the brother of Nicholas, a young man of great merit,

who had a singular taste for the conversation of Petrarch, showed him the most tender attention and care during his whole ilness; he went to see him several times in the day, sent every moment to inquire after him, and had every thing carried to him he thought might contribute to the reestablishment of his health. Petrarch acknowledged he owed his surprising recovery, from death itself, as it were, to the bounty and affection of these two lords; and expressed the most lively gratitude for their friendship. Hugues de Est was fond of tournaments to distraction.

These tournaments were tiltings, or combats with lances; equestrian games, which presented an image of war, and helped to form warriors, and keep up among them military ardor. There were some traces of them in France in the ninth and tenth centuries, mentioned in the Chronicle of Taus, and strangers called them the combats of the French.

These warlike exercises passed from France to Germany and England; and the authors of the Byzantian history agree, that the people of the east learned these games from the French. Whatever precautions were, however, used in these games, and though edged and pointed weapons were forbidden, they were always dangerous, and sometimes they proved mortal; which induced several popes, and some councils

to prohibit them: and this was probably the reason why they were established in Italy later than elsewhere, from the respect paid to the ecclesiastical authority. A Milanese historian says, that Barnabas Viscomti was the first who ordered in that city, in the year 1350, tiltings on high saddles, and tournaments according to the custom of France and Germany; after which they soon became the fashion in all the courts of Italy. Hugues de Est was the lord in this country who distinguished himself the most in them, and acquired the highest glory. As his life had been often endangered by this practice, his relations desired Petrarch to try if he could not moderate this passion for glory, which he indulged beyond bounds. Petrarch wrote this young lord the following epistle:

'I learn with pleasure that you march rapidly on in the path of glory. It is difficult, and it is short. Far from stopping, I would assist, I would accelerate you, in so noble a career. Go; let nothing detain you: confront, if necessary, perils and death: fight for your honour, for your country, for your safety! It is for these you ought to display your valor, and sacrifice your life; but it is a madness to expose it in such useless and dangerous games as the equestrian; there is more rashness in this than true courage. Renounce these phantoms of war, I conjure you.

My age, rather than my judgment, authorizes me to speak to you in this manner: you will pardon my temerity, in consideration of my zeal. You have shown sufficiently of what you are capable in these exercises; it is time to stop: and it would be folly to pursue a course, where the peril you run is greater than the glory you can acquire. Leave these games to those men who can do nothing more, who know nothing better, and whose life or whose death are of no consequence. Your welfare is precious to your brothers and your friends, and dear to the republic. A soul like yours ought to be occupied with more noble objects. We no where read that Cesar or Scipio amused themselves with any games of this kind.'

Hugues de Est died soon after receiving this letter, in August, 1370. Tournaments, though so destructive to the nobility in France, were not put a stop to till Henry II. was killed in one of them.

When Petrarch was thus recovered, by the hospitality and affectionate care of the lords of Ferrara, he would have pursued his route, but the physicians assured him he could not get to Rome alive. Their threats would not, however, have prevented his attempting it, if his strength had seconded his desires; but he was unable to sit his horse. They brought him back to Padua,