The courier, who brought these tidings to Milan, gave a distressing account of the state of Genoa.
There was not a family which had not lost one of its members.
Petrarch passed a whole night in composing a letter to the Genoese, in which he exhorted them, after the example of the Romans, never to despair of the republic.

His lecture never reached them.

On awakening in the morning, Petrarch learned that the Genoese had lost every spark of their courage, and that the day before they had subscribed the most humiliating concessions in despair.
It has been alleged by some of his biographers that Petrarch suppressed his letter to the Genoese from his fear of the Visconti family.

John Visconti had views on Genoa, which was a port so conveniently situated that he naturally coveted the possession of it.

He invested it on all sides by land, whilst its other enemies blockaded it by sea; so that the city was reduced to famine.