Page 310 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

310 from Italy to the Canary Islands

What possibility remains to men to accommodate their condition?
Here Petrarca observes two different behaviours of man, that of the daily
routine, in a sense active, and that of solitude, not that the life of the lat-
ter is idle, especially if there is room for reading, devotion, and not least
healthy conversation with friends that make one feel better thanks to the
logos, remembrance, keeping Memory alive. This work has an eminently
moral intent. After his so to speak classicist phase, characterized by works
such as Africa, De viris illustribus, here is the idea of a quiet secluded life,
the Poet being far away from the noise and squabbles of the world, intent
only on improving his own interiority through study.
Below, in a passage of this work, is the purpose/cornerstone of the
Poet’s research.
“Mittere retro memoriam, serque omnia secula et per omnes terras
animo vagari; versari passim et colloqui cum omnibus, qui fuerunt gloriosi
viri; atqueita presentes malorum omnium opifices oblivisci, nonnunquam et
teipsum, et supra se elevatum animuminferre rebus ethereis, meditari quid
illic agitur et meditatione desiderium infiammare…Qui, quod inesperti non
intelligunt, non ultimussolitarie vite fructus est. Inter hec,ut notiora non
sileam, et lectioni dare operam et scripture, legere quod scripserunt primi,
scrivere quod legannt ultimi, et beneficii literarum a maioribus accepti,
qua in illos non possumus, in posteros saltem gratum ac memorem animum
habere, in eos quoque qua possumus non ingratum, sed nomina illorum
vel ignota vulgare, vel obsolefacta renovare, vel senio obruta erure et ad
pronepotum populus veneranda transmittere; illos sub pectore, illos ut
dulce aliquid in ore gestare, denique modis omnibus amando, memorando,
celebrando, si non parem, certe debitam meritis referre gratiam.” (De vita
solitaria, I, 6).

“To take memory back in time and wander with the soul for all the land,
for all ages, to meet here and there and talk to all those who were famous
men, and, thus to forget the present architects of all our ills, and sometimes
even yourself, and to push the soul, raising it above itself, among the heav-
enly things, to meditate on what happens up there, and after this medita-
tion, to make more ardent your desire for the sky... This, and he who has
not felt it cannot understand, is one of the fruits, and certainly not the last,
of the solitary life. Meanwhile, not to be silent about things better known,
to devote oneself to writing and reading, and, tired of one, to find relief in