Several Powers interfered to mediate peace between Venice and Padua, but their negotiations ended in nothing, the spirits of both belligerents were so embittered.  The Pope had sent as his nuncio for this purpose a young professor of law, named Uguzzone da Thiene, who was acquainted with Petrarch.  He lodged with our poet when he came to Padua, and he communicated to him some critical remarks which had been written at Avignon on Petrarch’s letter to Pope Urban V., congratulating him on his return to Rome.  A French monk of the order of St. Bernard passed for the author of this work.  As it spoke irreverently of Italy, it stirred up the bile of Petrarch, and made him resume the pen with his sickly hand.  His answer to the offensive production flows with anger, and is harsh even to abusiveness.  He declaims, as usual, in favour of Italy, which he adored, and against France, which he disliked.

After a suspension the war was again conducted with fury, till at last a peace was signed at Venice on the 11th of September, 1373.  The conditions were hard and humiliating to the chief of Padua.  The third article ordained that he should come in person, or send his son, to ask pardon of the Venetian Republic for the insults he had offered her, and swear inviolable fidelity to her.  The Carrara sent his son Francesco Novello, and requested Petrarch to accompany him.  Our poet had no great wish to do so, and had too good an excuse in the state of his health, which was still very fluctuating, but the Prince importuned him, and he thought that he could not refuse a favour to such a friend.

Francesco Novello, accompanied by Petrarch, and by a great suite of Paduan gentlemen, arrived at Venice on the 27th of September, where they were well received, especially the poet.  On the following day the chiefs of the maiden city gave him a public audience.  But, whether the majesty of the Venetian Senate affected Petrarch, or his illness returned by accident, so it was that he could not deliver the speech which he had prepared, for his memory failed him.  But the universal desire to hear him induced the Senators to postpone their sitting to the following day.  He then spoke with energy, and was extremely applauded.  Franceso Novello begged pardon, and took the oath of fidelity.

Francesco da Carrara loved and revered Petrarch, and used to go frequently to see him without ceremony in his small mansion at Arqua.  The Prince one day complained to him that he had written for all the world excepting himself.  Petrarch thought long and seriously about what he should compose that might please the Carrara; but the task was embarrassing.  To praise him directly might seem sycophantish and fulsome to the Prince himself.  To censure him would be still more indelicate.  To escape the difficulty, he projected a treatise on the best mode of governing a State, and on the qualities required in the person who has such a charge.  This subject furnished occasion for giving indirect praises, and, at the same time, for pointing out some defects which he had remarked in his patron’s government.