ly
thirty-six years of age, an extraordinary elevation for so young a man;
but he possessed extraordinary merit. His mind was cultivated; he loved
literature, and easily became, as far as mutual demonstrations went, the
personal friend of Petrarch; though the Doge, as we shall see, excluded
this personal friendship from all influence on his political conduct.

The commerce of the Venetians made great progress under the Dogeship of
Andrea Dandolo. It was then that they began to trade with Egypt and
Syria, whence they brought silk, pearls, the spices, and other products
of the East. This prosperity excited the jealousy of the Genoese, as it
interfered with a commerce which they had hitherto monopolized. When the
Venetians had been chased from Constantinople by the Emperor Michael
Paleologus, they retained several fortresses in the Black Sea, which
enabled them to continue their trade with the Tartars in that sea, and
to frequent the fair of Tana. The Genoese, who were masters of Pera, a
suburb of Constantinople, would willingly have joined the Greeks in
expelling their Italian rivals altogether from the Black Sea; and
privateering hostilities actually commenced between the two republics,
which, in 1350, extended to the serious aspect of a national war.

The winter of that year was passed on both sides in preparations. The
Venetians sent ambassadors to the King of Arragon, who had some
differences with the Genoese about the Island of Sardinia, and to the
Emperor of Constantinople, who saw with any sensation in the world but
delight the flag of Genoa flying over the walls of Pera. A league
between those three powers was quickly concluded, and their grand,
common object was to destroy the city of Genoa.

It was impossible that these great movements of Venice should be unknown
at Padua. Petrarch, ever zealous for the common good of Italy, saw with
pain the kindling of a war which could not but be fatal to her, and
thought it his duty to open his heart to the Doge of Venice, who had
shown him so much friendship. He addressed to him, therefore, the
following letter from Padua, on the 14th of March, 1351:--

"My love for my country forces me to break silence; the goodness of your
character encourages me. Can I hold my peace whilst I hear the symptoms
of a coming storm that menaces my beloved country? Two puissant people
are flying to arms; two flourishing cities are agitated by the approach
of war. These cities are placed by