The other friend to whom Petrarch attached himself in the house of James Colonna was a young German, extremely accomplished in music.

De Sade says that his name was Louis, without mentioning his cognomen.

He was a native of Ham, near Bois le Duc, on the left bank of the Rhine between Brabant and Holland.

Petrarch, with his Italian prejudices, regarded him as a barbarian by birth; but he was so fascinated by his serene temper and strong judgment, that he singled him out to be the chief of all his friends, and gave him the name of Socrates, noting him as an example that Nature can sometimes produce geniuses in the most unpropitious regions.
After having passed the summer of 1330 at Lombes, the Bishop returned to Avignon, in order to meet his father, the elder Stefano Colonna, and his brother the Cardinal.
The Colonnas were a family of the first distinction in modern Italy.
They had been exceedingly powerful during the popedom of Boniface VIII., through the talents of the late Cardinal James Colonna, brother of the famous old Stefano, so well known to Petrarch, and whom he used to call a phoenix sprung up from the ashes of Rome.

Their house possessed also an influential public character in the Cardinal Pietro, brother of the younger Stefano.