I am surprised at the prodigious expense the Romans were at to build houses in the most exposed situations, in order to shelter them from the severities of the weather; for in the heats of summer the valleys of the Apennines, the mountains of Viterbo, and the woods of Umbria, furnished them with charming shades; and even the ruins of the houses which they built in those places are superb." Our poet's residence at Naples was evidently disagreeable to him, in spite of the company of his friends, Barrilli and Barbato.

His friendship with the latter was for a moment overcast by an act of indiscretion on the part of Barbato, who, by dint of importunity, obtained from Petrarch thirty-four lines of his poem of Africa, under a promise that he would show them to nobody.

On entering the library of another friend, the first thing that struck our poet's eyes was a copy of the same verses, transcribed with a good many blunders.

Petrarch's vanity on this occasion, however, was touched more than his anger--he forgave his friend's treachery, believing it to have arisen from excessive admiration.

Barbato, as some atonement, gave him a little MS.
of Cicero, which Petrarch found to contain two books of the orator's Treatise on the Academics, "a work," as he observes, "more subtle than useful." Queen Giovanna was fond of literature.