ut that
he only knew that he was a Florentine."

Every footstep of Laura's lover has been anxiously traced and
recorded. The house in which he lodged is shown in Venice. The
inhabitants of Arezzo, in order to decide the ancient
controversy between their city and the neighbouring Ancisa,
where Petrarch was carried when seven months old, and remained
until his seventh year, have designated by a long inscription
the spot where their great fellow citizen was born. A tablet
has been raised to him at Parma, in the chapel of St. Agatha,
at the cathedral, because he was archdeacon of that society,
and was only snatched from his intended sepulture in their
church by a _foreign_ death. Another tablet with a bust has
been erected to him at Pavia, on account of his having passed
the autumn of 1368 in that city, with his son-in-law Brossano.
The political condition which has for ages precluded the
Italians from the criticism of the living, has concentrated
their attention to the illustration of the dead.

Byron's visit was in 1818. Of this we may quote more on the appearance
of Mr. Moore's second volume of the Poet's Life. Meanwhile, let us add
the following graceful paper from the _Athenaeum_, June 12, 1830: the
subject harmonizes most happily with the classic title of that
journal. It will be perceived that the tourist is familiar with Mr.
Prout's drawing, or the original of our Engraving.

At Monselice we took another carriage, and dashed off to the
Euganean Hills, to visit Arqua, the last dwelling and the
burial-place of Petrarch. The road, in the feeling of M'Adam,
is antediluvian, or rather post-diluvian, for it is little
better than a water-course; but it passes through a country
where I first saw olive-trees in abundance, vines in the
luxuriance of nature, and pomegranates growing in hedges. The
situation of the little village is perfectly delightful--of
Petrarch's villa, beautiful. The apartments he occupied
command the finest view, and are so detached from the noise
and annoyances of the farm dwelling, though connected under
one roof, that I think it not impossible he made the addition.
There are four or five rooms altogether, if two little closets
of not more than six feet by three may be called rooms; yet
one of these is believed to have been his study; and in his
study, and at his lite