s sommes en France; l'autre pour chose _que la
parleure en est plus delitable et plus commune a toutes gens_. There is
said to be a manuscript history of Venice down to 1275, in the
Florentine library, written in French by Martin de Canale, who says that
he has chosen that language, parceque la langue franceise cort parmi le
monde, et est la plus delitable a lire et a oir que nulle autre.
Ginguene, vol. i. p. 384.

[879]
Tu proverai si (says Cacciaguida to him) come sa di sale
Il pane altrui, e come e duro calle
Il scendere e 'l salir per altrui scale.

Paradis. cant. 16.

[880] Paradiso, cant. 16.

[881] Velli, Vita di Dante. Tiraboschi.

[882] The source from which Dante derived the scheme and general idea of
his poem has been a subject of inquiry in Italy. To his original mind
one might have thought the sixth AEneid would have sufficed. But besides
several legendary visions of the 12th and 13th centuries, it seems
probable that he derived hints from the Tesoretto of his master in
philosophical studies, Brunetto Latini. Ginguene, t. ii. p. 8.

[883] There is an unpleasing proof of this quality in a letter to
Boccaccio on Dante, whose merit he rather disingenuously extenuates; and
whose popularity evidently stung him to the quick. De Sade, t. iii. p.
512. Yet we judge so ill of ourselves, that Petrarch chose envy as the
vice from which of all others he was most free. In his dialogue with St.
Augustin, he says: Quicquid libuerit, dicito; modo me non accuses
invidiae. AUG. Utinam non tibi magis superbia quam invidia nocuisset: nam
hoc crimine, me judice, liber es. De Contemptu Mundi, edit. 1581, p.
342.

I have read in some modern book, but know not where to seek the passage,
that Petrarch did not intend to allude to Dante in the letter to
Boccaccio mentioned above, but rather to Zanobi Strata, a contemporary
Florentine poet, whom, however forgotten at present, the bad taste of a
party in criticism preferred to himself.--Matteo Villani mentions them
together as the two great ornaments of his age. This conjecture seems
probable, for some expressions are not in the least applicable to Dante.
But whichever was intended, the letter equally shows the irritable
humour of Petrarch.

[884] A goldsmith of Bergamo, by name Henry Capra, smitten with an
enthusiastic love of letters, and of Petrarch, earnestly requested the
honour of a visit from the poet. The house of this good tradesman was
full of repre