NOTES
Cola di Rienzo at Avignon. Travelled again; discovered Cicero's letters to Atticus at Verona. Stayed for some time in Parma, where he held a benefice; whilst there heard of Laura's death, April 1348. Cardinal Giovanni Colonna died about the same time. Went to Florence, where he was Boccaccio's guest; then to Rome, Arezzo, and Padua. Lived in Milan for some time; in favour with the Visconti; went to Paris in 1360 as ambassador for Galeazzo to the French king. Between 1362 and 1368 was otten in Venice, then at Padua. Fell ill on a journey to Ferrara, and went to Arquà on the Euganean Hills; he was found dead, with his head resting on the book which he had been reading, July 19, 1374. His chief works are: In Italian, the Canzoniere, the Trionfi; in Latin, the Africa, an epic in hexameters on the second Punic War; the 12 Eclogues of the Carmen Bucolicum; 77 Epistolae Metricae; the De Contemptu Mundì or Secretum, dialogues between Petrarch and St. Augustine; the De Vita Solitaria, the De Ocio Religiosorum, the De Remediis utriusque fortunae, and various other historical, polemical, and geographical works. He wrote innumerable letters; the most famous is the Epistola ad Posteros, c. 1370.
87. Spirto gentil. Possibly addressed to Cola da Rienzo. vi. Orsi, Lupi, etc. The Orsini, Savelli, dei Tuscoli, and dei Caetani, enemies of the Colonna family.
88. Italia mia... iii. 13. Mario aperse sì 'l fianco, at Aquae Sextiae, b. c. 102, when he beat the Teutones. His men complained of the want of water, and he pointed to the enemies' camp and told them to buy it there with their blood. v. 3. che alzando 'l dito, alluding to the mercenaries who only pretended to fight. 12. un nome, the vain reputation of the enemies.
90. Trionfo della Morte. I. terz. 11. una donna, Death. 17. costor, the dead. questa spoglia, 'my body'; una = unica. 28. u’ = dove.
