FRANCESCO PETRARCA is now known to so few, save as a lyric poet whose sonnets are somewhat out of fashion, that it seems necessary to explain why his letters possess a singular interest for all who desire to understand the progress of European culture since the Middle Ages. That an Italian critic should venture to rank him with Erasmus and Voltaire, each in his age the intellectual arbiter of Europe, will seem to many a surprising if not absurd aberration of national pride. Yet, in bringing these three names together, Carducci claims for his countryman no higher place than that accorded to him by modern scholars in France and Germany. Those who have most conscientiously studied the beginning of the transition from Mediæval to Modern times, agree in recognising in him one of those incomparable leaders of humanity who have not only dominated the literary life of their own generation, but have directed men's thoughts into new channels for ages to follow.
3
