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FRANCESCO PETRARCA, 1304-1374
Letter to Cicero (Rerum famil., XXIV, 3)
On paper
Italy, second half of the 15th century
Mellon MS 14, ff. 39v - 40r
From an early age, when other children were reading Aesop’s
fables, Petrarch says that he was drawn to Cicero. He
avidly sought Cicero’s writings, and in Verona in
1345 he discovered the famous collection of Cicero’s
Letters to Atticus. Petrarch's elation at the
discovery was, however, closely accompanied by shock and
dismay as he read the letters and found that the Cicero
known to him through history did not measure up to the
real Cicero as shown in the letters. In this letter (Rerum
famil. XXIV, 3), reproduced in Mellon MS 14, Petrarch
confronts Cicero directly, and demands,
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“Oh, you constantly
troubled and anxious man, or to use
your own words, ‘Oh, impulsive and unhappy
old man,
what did you intend to do with such contentious
and
worthless enemies?’” |
Some years later and probably after the death of Petrarch,
Pier Paolo Vergerio Sr. extended the ficticious correspondence
by writing a response from Cicero to Petrarch. A copy
of that letter also appears in Mellon MS 14, after Petrarch’s
letter.
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