more than once as authority on style. "This is what our master Horace
teaches," runs one of the passages, "when at the beginning of _Poetry_
he says, 'Choose a subject, etc.'" The imperfect idea of Horace formed
in Dante's mind is indicated by the one verse in the _Divina Commedia_
which refers to him:

L' altro è Orazio satiro che viene,--

T_he other coming is Horace the satirist_.

With Petrarch, the first great figure to emerge from the obscure vistas
of medievalism, the case was different. The first modern who really
understood the classics understood Horace also, and did him greater
justice than fell to his lot again for many generations. The copy of
Horace's works which he acquired on November 28, 1347, remained by him
until on the 18th of July in 1374 the venerable poet and scholar was
found dead at the age of seventy among his books. Fond as he was of
Virgil, Cicero, and Seneca, he had an intimate and affectionate
knowledge of Horace, to whom there are references in all his works, and
from whom he enriched his philosophy of life. Even his greatest and most
original creation, the _Canzoniere_, is not without marks of Horace, and
their fewness here, as well as their character, are a sign that
Petrarch's familiarity was not of the artificial sort, but based on real
assimilation of the poet. His letter to Horace begins:

Salve o dei lirici modi sovrano,
Salve o degl' Itali gloria ed onor,--

H_ail! Sovereign of the lyric measure_,
H_ail! Italy's great pride and treasure_;