It does not appear, however, that he composed any work in the course of the year 1374.

A few letters to Boccaccio are all that can be traced to his pen during that period.
Their date is not marked in them, but they were certainly written shortly before his death.

None of them possess any particular interest, excepting that always in which he mentions the Decameron.
It seems at first sight not a little astonishing that Petrarch, who had been on terms of the strictest friendship with Boccaccio for twenty-four years, should never till now have read his best work.

Why did not Boccaccio send him his Decameron long before?
The solution of this question must be made by ascribing the circumstance to the author's sensitive respect for the austerely moral character of our poet.
It is not known by what accident the Decameron fell into Petrarch's hands, during the heat of the war between Venice and Padua.

Even then his occupations did not permit him to peruse it thoroughly; he only slightly ran through it, after which he says in his letter to Boccaccio, "I have not read your book with sufficient attention to pronounce an opinion upon it; but it has given me great pleasure.