Life and times of Petrarch - 1843 Author:Thomas Campbell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. The family of Petrarch was originally of Florence, where his ancestors held employments of trust and honour. Garzo, his great-grandfather, was a n... more »otary: a man universally respected for his integrity and judgment. Though he had never devoted himself exclusively to letters, his literary opinion was consulted by men who were esteemed, learned, and philosophical. Garzo attained to a venerable age; and, having lived a hundred and four years, he died, like Plato, in the same bed in which he had been born. Garzo left three sons, one of whom was the grandfather of Petrarch, whose name, Pietro, by the diminutives customary to the Tuscan tongue, was familiarly called Petracco, or little Peter. Petracco, like his ancestors, was a notary, and not undistinguished for his sagacity. He appliedhimself to public affairs, and had several important commissions from government. At last, in the increasing conflicts between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines—or, as they now called themselves, the Blacks and the Whites—Petracco, like Dante, was obliged to fly from his native city, along with the other Florentines of the White party. He was unjustly accused of having officially issued a false deed, and condemned, on the 20th of October, 1302, to pay a fine of one thousand lire, and to have his hand cut off, if it was not paid within ten days from the time he should be apprehended. Petracco fled, taking with him his wife, Eletta Canigiani, a lady of a distinguished family in Florence, several of whom had held the office of Gonfalonier. Petracco and his wife first settled at Arezzo, a very ancient city of Tuscany. Hostilities did not cease between the Florentine factions till some years afterwards; and, in an attempt that was made by the Whites to take Florence by assault, Petracco was pr...« less