Note 425 — Chapter XI

Cf. Matteo Villani, Lib. IV. In July (see letter quoted supra) we know Boccaccio to have been in Ravenna. He says to Petrarch, "Pridie quidem IIII ydus julii forte Ravennam urbem petebam, visitaturus civitatis Principem et ut ferebat iter Livii forum intravi...." He arrived, then, on July 12, and it was a friend he met in Forlì (Livii) who told him that Petrarch had entered the service of the Visconti. He reproaches him, as we have seen. Nelli, whom he here calls Simonides, was also in Ravenna. He upbraids Petrarch, as we have seen, in allegory, asking how Sylvanus (Petrarch) can desert and betray the nymph Amaryllis (Italy) and go over to the oppressor Egon (Visconti), the false priest of Pan (the Pope), a monster of crime. Cf. Corazzini, op. cit., p. 47.