Petrarch never wrote more sonnets on his beloved than during the course of this year.

Laura had a fair and discreet female friend at Avignon, who was also the friend of Petrarch, and interested in his attachment.

The ideas which this amiable confidante entertained of harmonizing success in misplaced attachment with honour and virtue must have been Platonic, even beyond the feelings which Petrarch, in reality, cherished; for, occasionally, the poet's sonnets are too honest for pure Platonism.

This lady, however, whose name is unknown, strove to convince Laura that she ought to treat her lover with less severity.

"She pushed Laura forward," says De Sade, "and kept back Petrarch." One day she recounted to the poet all the proofs of affection, and after these proofs she said, "You infidel, can you doubt that she loves you ?" It is to this fair friend that he is supposed to have addressed his nineteenth sonnet.
This year, his Laura was seized with a defluxion in her eyes, which made her suffer much, and even threatened her with blindness.