In one of his letters he calls it "_orbem alterum_." Whilst Italy was harassed, he says, on all sides by continual dissensions, like the sea in a storm, Venice alone appeared like a safe harbour, which overlooked the tempest without feeling its commotion.

The resolute and independent spirit of that republic made an indelible impression on Petrarch's heart.

The young poet, perhaps, at this time little imagined that Venice was to be the last scene of his triumphant eloquence.
Soon after his return from Venice to Bologna, he received the melancholy intelligence of the death of his mother, in the thirty-eighth year of her age.

Her age is known by a copy of verses which Petrarch wrote upon her death, the verses being the same in number as the years of her life.
She had lived humble and retired, and had devoted herself to the good of her family; virtuous amidst the prevalence of corrupted manners, and, though a beautiful woman, untainted by the breath of calumny.

Petrarch has repaid her maternal affection by preserving her memory from oblivion.