book v

entire]? In the course of a thousand and one arguments, now this one is proved superior, now that one, and shortly they are shown to be equal [_Sat._, v, 12, 1]. In consequence these arguments leave the reader doubtful of the issue--an uncertainty admirably expressed by the satirist in these verses [Juvenal, xi, 180, 181, ed. Fried., translated by Gifford, II, p. 161]:

“Great Homer shall his deep-ton’d thunder roll, And mighty Maro elevate the soul; Maro, who, warm’d with all the poet’s fire, Disputes the palm of victory with his sire.”

[127]. Horace, _Sat._, i, 5, 41, 42.

[128]. Macrobius gives us an example of the accusation generally made in antiquity against Vergil--_Sat._, v, 3, 16:

Continue prithee, said Avienus, to trace all that he [Vergil] borrowed from Homer. For what can be sweeter than to hear two pre-eminent poets voicing the same thoughts? These three things are held to be equally impossible: to steal either the lightning of Jove, or the club of Hercules, or the verses of Homer, and for the reason that, even if it were possible, it would seem unbecoming for any other than Jove to hurl the lightning, any other than Hercules to excel in physical strength, any other than Homer to sing the verses he sang. Still, this author [Vergil] has opportunely embodied in his poem that which the earlier bard had sung, making it appear that it is his own.

The retort referred to is not to be found in the _Saturnalia_ (a slip on Petrarch’s part), but in St. Jerome, who says (_Praefatio lib. hebr. quaest. in Genesim_, Migne, Vol. XXIII, col. 983):

Also the bard of Mantua was criticised by his rivals in this way [_sc._, as Terence by Luscius Lanuvinus]. For, having used, unchanged, certain verses of Homer, he was called a mere compiler of the earlier poets. To which he replied that it was a sign of great power to wrest the club from the hands of Hercules--“magnarum esse virium clavam Herculi extorquere de manu.”

With this compare Frac., III, p. 298. St. Jerome himself, however, must have been quoting from the life by Donatus, and in so doing gave a different turn to the reply. Donatus says (_Vita Verg._, XVI, 64, p. 66R) that Vergil replied: “Why did not they too attempt the same thefts? They would discover that it is easier to steal the club of Hercules than to pilfer a verse from Homer.”

Petrarch’s purpose is to emphasize how vigorous a poet Vergil is, and how worthy of following in Homer’s footsteps. Hence he does not have recourse to the more ancient defense which was ready to his hand in Macrobius, _Sat._, VI, 3, 1, to the effect that it was the earlier Roman poets who stole from Homer, and that Vergil borrowed from these earlier pilferers belonging to his own race. Such line of argument would have made Vergil the second thief, but it would not have made his verses the best stolen.

[129]. Lucan, _Pharsalia_, ix, 980-86 (tr. by Edw. Ridley, p. 299, vss. 1157-66):

O sacred task of poets, toil supreme, Which rescuing all things from allotted fate Dost give eternity to mortal men! Grudge not the glory, Caesar, of such fame. For if the Latian Muse may promise aught, Long as the heroes of the Trojan time Shall live upon the page of Smyrna’s bard, So long shall future races read of thee In this my poem; and Pharsalia’s song Live unforgotten in the age to come.

[130]. Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 396-401, and _Carm._, iv. 9, vss. 5, 6.

[131]. Theocritus in _Ecl._, iv, 1, and vi, 1; Hesiod in _Georg._, ii, 176.

[132]. Statius, _Theb._, xii, 816, 817.

[133]. In Petrarch’s days the _Appendix Vergiliana_ was known as the _Ludi Iuveniles_, and included what is now published by Baehrens in the _Poetae latini minores_, Vol. II. Judging from the statement of the present letter, Petrarch was acquainted with these _Ludi_, or with some of them at least. Boccaccio was the first to add the eighty _Priapea_ to his codex of the _Ludi_ (Sabbadini, p. 32). Sabbadini, p. 24 and n. 5, gives proof that Petrarch knew the _Culex_ and the _Rosae_, and on p. 31 adds that he was furthermore acquainted with some of the _Catalecta_, without giving proof.

In this letter to Homer, Petrarch states that the former’s name is mentioned in the _Ludi_. The total number of references to Homer in the _Appendix Vergiliana_ is four: _Ciris_, 65; in the epigram closing the _Catalecta_, vs. 2; _Priapea_, 68, 4, and 80, 5. In the _Rendiconti del R. Ist. Lomb._ (1906, p. 386), Sabbadini remarks at this point: “A quali e a quanti dei tre componimenti alludesse il Petrarca, non ci é dato indovinare, ma ciascuno dei tre era a quei tempi una cospicua novitá.” Personally we should be inclined to favor the _Ciris_ and the _Catalecta_, and, indeed, to give the latter reference in support of the statement of Sabbadini on p. 31. But until further proof is found, all discussion on this point is merely idle speculation.

[134]. Donatus, in speaking of Vergil, says (p. 65R): “Vergil never lacked detractors; and no wonder: even Homer had his.”

[135]. This, of course, is a reference to some statement occurring in the pseudo-Homer letter which Petrarch had received.

[136]. See above, n. [130].

[137]. Petrarch’s words are: “cum verissime dicat hebraeus Sapiens quod ‘_stultorum infinitus est numerus_’” (III, p. 301). From the manner of Petrarch’s quoting, and from the fact that Fracassetti italicizes the words in single quotation marks, it would be inferred that the citation is from the Bible. But an exhaustive search through the Concordances of both Cruden and Young has failed to reveal such a passage, though sentiments on the subject of folly and fools are quite numerous. It may be, of course, that Petrarch epitomized, or rather formulated a deduction of his own from the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

[138]. Concerning the nationality of Leonzio Pilato consult what has been said above in n. 3, par. 1.

[139]. It is generally agreed that of the three scholars said to be at Florence, Boccaccio must be one. The other two cannot be identified with certainty, but they are to be chosen from among Nelli, Salutati, and Bruni; of no one of whom, however, do we know as a fact that he was acquainted with Greek. It is for this reason that Tedaldo della Casa, who studied Greek under Leonzio Pilato, has, with greater probability, been suggested as one of the three Florentines (Baldelli). Petrarch himself has been thought of by De Sade as the fourth, but (it seems) on insufficient grounds. The fifth Florentine is without doubt Zanobi de Strada, who in 1359 was appointed apostolic secretary by Innocent VI, and who in consequence abandoned Naples and Italy for Avignon, the Babylon across the Alps.

The scholar at Bologna, too, can be named: Pietro di Muglio or de Muglo (cf. n. [121]). The Veronese humanists are Guglielmo da Pastrengo and Rinaldo da Villafranca. The Mantuan, according to De Sade and Tiraboschi, is Andrea (surnamed) Mantovano; and the one from Perugia, finally, has been variously identified with Paolo Perugino (Baldelli) and Muzio da Perugia (De Sade and Tiraboschi). Fracassetti (Vol. 5, p. 197) has omitted all mention of the humanist at Sulmona, who very probably is to be identified with Marco Barbato da Sulmona. (Consult Frac., _loc. cit._, who gives some cross-references to his own notes; and Voigt.)

[140]. Cf. n. [109].

[141]. This note of despair was wrung from Petrarch by his dismay at the existent state of affairs and by his own high ideals of scholarship. That it eventually proved to be an utterly false prophecy was due mainly to the vigorous impulse which he himself gave to the cause of humanism.

[142]. Cf. n. [123].

[143]. The famous words from the epitaph of Ennius (Cic., _Tusc._, i, 34), which Petrarch has here adapted to his purpose by the insertion of the bracketed words, “(Nam) volito vivus (docta) per ora virum” (Frac., III, p. 303).

[144]. Petrarch had owned a Greek Homer as early as 1354, when his friend Niccoló Sigero sent him a copy from Constantinople (cf. n. [111], par. 2). _Fam._, XVIII, 2, describes Petrarch’s joy at its reception, and also his sorrow at not being able to understand a word of it, which clearly proves that the first modern scholar had not made much progress after a summer’s instruction from the first teacher of Greek in the western world (see n. [109]). In Latin, Petrarch had the _Periochae_ which are attributed to Ausonius and the _Homerus Latinus_ or _Pindarus Thebanus_ (for which see n. [113]).

[145]. Fond hopes was Petrarch nourishing, and vain! We must remember that when Leonzio Pilato finished his translation of Homer in 1363, there was but one copy of it, and that that copy remained at Florence. We can well imagine Petrarch’s eagerness to peruse it. His first inquiry is made in _Seniles_, III, 6 (of March 1, 1365), by which letter he requests that some portion at least of the _Odyssey_ be forwarded to him, continuing that he is quite content to wait for the rest. From _Seniles_ V, 1 (Padua, December 14, 1365, Koerting, _Bocc._, p. 263, n. 2), we learn that when Boccaccio received this pressing note, the _Iliad_ had already been transcribed; and so he hastened to make with his own hand a transcription of that passage in the _Odyssey_ describing the descent of Ulysses to Hades. In the same letter Petrarch expresses satisfaction at hearing that this is at last on its way to him. Through some mishap, however, the precious package had not yet reached its destination at Venice by the 25th or 27th of January, 1367 (_Sen._, VI, 1; Koerting, _op. cit._; P. de Nolhac, II, p. 165). The joy of Petrarch, when he at last grasped the translation of Homer with his own hands and beheld it among the books on his own shelves, is simply expressed in the closing words of _Seniles_ VI, 2 (undated, but later than VI, 1). To conclude, the translation, which was begun by Leonzio in the latter half of 1360 (the date of _Fam._, XXIV, 12), did not reach him who was the most eager for it till seven years later.

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