No incidents of Petrarch’s life have been transmitted to us for the first year or two after his attachment to Laura commenced.  He seems to have continued at Avignon, prosecuting his studies and feeding his passion.

James Colonna, his friend and patron, was promoted in 1328 to the bishopric of Lombes in Gascony; and in the year 1330 he went from Avignon to take possession of his diocese, and invited Petrarch to accompany him to his residence.  No invitation could be more acceptable to our poet:  they set out at the end of March, 1330.  In order to reach Lombes, it was necessary to cross the whole of Languedoc, and to pass through Montpelier, Narbonne, and Toulouse.  Petrarch already knew Montpelier, where he had, or ought to have, studied the law for four years.

Full of enthusiasm for Rome, Petrarch was rejoiced to find at Narbonne the city which had been the first Roman colony planted among the Gauls.  This colony had been formed entirely of Roman citizens, and, in order to reconcile them to their exile, the city was built like a little image of Rome.  It had its capital, its baths, arches, and fountains; all which works were worthy of the Roman name.  In passing through Narbonne, Petrarch discovered a number of ancient monuments and inscriptions.

Our travellers thence proceeded to Toulouse, where they passed several days.  This city, which was known even before the foundation of Rome, is called, in some ancient Roman acts, “Roma Garumnae.”  It was famous in the classical ages for cultivating literature.  After the fall of the Roman empire, the successive incursions of the Visigoths, the Saracens, and the Normans, for a long time silenced the Muses at Toulouse; but they returned to their favourite haunt after ages of barbarism had passed away.  De Sade says, that what is termed Provencal poetry was much more cultivated by the Languedocians than by the Provencals, properly so called.  The city of Toulouse was considered as the principal seat of this earliest modern poetry, which was carried to perfection in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, under the patronage of the Counts of Toulouse, particularly Raimond V., and his son, Raimond vi.  Petrarch speaks with high praise of those poets in his Triumphs of Love.  It has been alleged that he owed them this mark of his regard for their having been so useful to him in his Italian poetry; and Nostradamus even accuses him of having stolen much from them.  But Tassoni, who understood the Provencal poets better than Nostradamus, defends him successfully from this absurd accusation.

Although Provencal poetry was a little on its decline since the days of the Dukes of Aquitaine and the Counts of Toulouse, it was still held in honour; and, when Petrarch arrived, the Floral games had been established at Toulouse during six years.[C]