ity, it was again Boccaccio who insisted on the
claims of Petrarch to the most distinguished position. He himself
accepted the mission of inviting his friend to Florence, and of
announcing to Petrarch at the same time that the forfeited estates of
his family had been restored to him. In this manner an intimate
friendship grew up between them to be parted only by death. Common
interests and common literary pursuits were the natural basis of their
friendship, and both occupy prominent positions in the early history of
that great intellectual revival commonly called the Renaissance.

During the 14th century the study of ancient literature was at a low ebb
in Italy. The interest of the lay world was engrossed by political
struggles, and the treasures of classical history and poetry were at the
mercy of monks, too lazy or too ignorant to use, or even to preserve
them. Boccaccio himself told that, on asking to see the library of the
celebrated monastery of Monte Cassino, he was shown into a dusty room
without a door to it. Many of the valuable manuscripts were mutilated;
and his guide told him that the monks were in the habit of tearing
leaves from the codices to turn them into psalters for children, or
amulets for women at the price of four or five _soldi_ apiece.
Boccaccio did all in his power to remove by word and example this
barbarous indifference. He bought or copied with his own hand numerous
valuable manuscripts, and an old writer remarks that if Boccaccio had
been a professional copyist, the amount of his work might astonish us.
His zealous endeavours for the revival of the all but forgotten Greek
language in western Europe are well known. The most celebrated Italian
scholars about the beginning of the 15th century were unable to read the
Greek characters. Boccaccio deplored the ignorance of his age. He took
lessons from Leone Pilato, a learned adventurer of the period, who had
lived a long time in Thessaly and, although born in Calabria, pretended
to be a Greek. By Boccaccio's advice Leone Pilato was appointed
professor of Greek language and literature in the university of
Florence, a position which he held for several years, not without great
and lasting benefit for the revival of classical learning. Boccaccio was
justly proud of having been intimately connected with the foundation of
the first chair of Greek in Italy. But he did not forget, in his
admiration of classic literature, the great poets of his own country