Whilst Petrarch was forming his new establishment at Venice, the news arrived that Pope Innocent VI. had died on the 12th of September.  “He was a good, just, and simple man,” says the continuator of Nangis.  A simple man he certainly was, for he believed Petrarch to be a sorcerer on account of his reading Virgil.  Innocent was succeeded in the pontificate, to the surprise of all the world, by William Grimoard, abbot of St. Victor at Marseilles, who took the title of Urban V. The Cardinals chose him, though he was not of their Sacred College, from their jealousy lest a pope should be elected from the opposite party of their own body.  Petrarch rejoiced at his election, and ascribed it to the direct interference of Heaven.  De Sade says that the new Pope desired Petrarch to be the apostolic secretary, but that he was not to be tempted by a gilded chain.

About this time Petrarch received news of the death of Azzo Correggio, one of his dearest friends, whose widow and children wrote to him on this occasion, the latter telling him that they regarded him as a father.

Boccaccio came to Venice to see Petrarch in 1363, and their meeting was joyous.  They spent delightfully together the months of June, July, and August, 1363.  Boccaccio had not long left him, when, in the following year, our poet heard of the death of his friend Laelius, and his tears were still fresh for his loss, when he received another shock in being bereft of Simonides.  It requires a certain age and degree of experience to appreciate this kind of calamity, when we feel the desolation of losing our accustomed friends, and almost wish ourselves out of life that we may escape from its solitude.  Boccaccio returned to Florence early in September, 1363.

In 1364, peace was concluded between Barnabo Visconti and Urban V. Barnabo having refused to treat with the Cardinal Albornoz, whom he personally hated, his Holiness sent the Cardinal Androine de la Roche to Italy as his legate.  Petrarch repaired to Bologna to pay his respects to the new representative of the Pope.  He was touched by the sad condition in which he found that city, which had been so nourishing when he studied at its university.  “I seem,” he says, “to be in a dream when I see the once fair city desolated by war, by slavery, and by famine.  Instead of the joy that once reigned here, sadness is everywhere spread, and you hear only sighs and wailings in place of songs.  Where you formerly saw troops of girls dancing, there are now only bands of robbers and assassins.”

Lucchino del Verme, one of the most famous condottieri of his time, had commanded troops in the service of the Visconti, at whose court he made the acquaintance of Petrarch.  Our poet invited him to serve the Venetians in the war in which they were engaged with the people of Candia.  Lucchino went to Venice whilst Petrarch was absent, reviewed the troops, and embarked for Candia on board the fleet, which consisted