His name in literature was so considerable that Filippo Villani thought it worth while to write his life.

Petrarch wrote his funeral eulogy, and alludes to Dionisio's power of reading futurity by the stars.

But Petrarch had not a grain of faith in astrology; on the contrary, he has himself recorded that he derided it.
After having obtained, with some difficulty, the permission of Cardinal Colonna, he took leave of his friends at Avignon, and set out for Marseilles.

Embarking there in a ship that was setting sail for Civita Vecchia, he concealed his name, and gave himself out for a pilgrim going to worship at Rome.

Great was his joy when, from the deck, he could discover the coast of his beloved Italy.