Thither accordingly he repaired early in the year 1341.

He embarked at Marseilles for Naples, wishing previously to his coronation to visit King Robert, by whom he was received with all possible hospitality and distinction.
Though he had accepted the laurel amidst the general applause of his contemporaries, Petrarch was not satisfied that he should enjoy this honour without passing through an ordeal as to his learning, for laurels and learning had been for one hundred years habitually associated in men's minds.

The person whom Petrarch selected for his examiner in erudition was the King of Naples.

Robert _the Good_, as he was in some respects deservedly called, was, for his age, a well-instructed man, and, for a king, a prodigy.

He had also some common sense, but in classical knowledge he was more fit to be the scholar of Petrarch than his examiner.