Petrarch: Four Dialogues for Scholars ed. by Conrad H. Rawski (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 5~5 obvious and needlessly to repeat some phrases. Though he seriously tried to analyze the relationship between Logic and Mathematics, the author's results left much to be desired. Frequent shifting in languages (Latin-English) might sufficiently account for the score of typographical errors. It is important to note that " deductione " on the last line of page 273 should read "inductione." Notwithstanding these minor criticisms all logicians are indebted to Fr. Schmidt for his scholarly contribution. Providence OoUege Providence, R. I. DENNIS c. KANE, O.P. Petrarch: Four Dialogues for Scholars. Edited and newly translated into English by Conrad H. Rawski. Cleveland: The Press of Western Reserve University, 1967. Pp. 209, with notes, bibliographies, and indexes. $7.45. Among all the Renaissance writers of the Black Death era, the Venetian Petrarch clearly reflects the melancholy which was to characterize the movement through the early part of the sixteenth century. Dr. Rawski has aptly selected four dialogues which clearly represent the dialectics of his time: " On the Abundance of Books," " On the Fame of Writers," " On the Master's Degree," " On Various Academic Titles," and appended three letters which offer a clearer indication of his character: A Letter to Boccaccio, from Pavia, October 28, 1366; a Letter to Donato Albanzani, from Padua, April 22, 1367; and a Letter to Giovanni Malpaghini, from Arqua, sometime before the end of 1370. In the last-cited letter, Petrarch not only recognizes the illness of his time (melancholy), but also what seemed to be the most obvious natural remedy, namely, study as involving as much travel as possible. Dr. Rawski's scholarship, as manifested in his extensive bibliographie& and notes, can hardly be disputed. His record of historical events related to Petrarch's life, his cross references to ancient Roman and Greek authors (notably\ Cicero, Seneca, and Boethius), other Petrarch works not directly represented in this book, as well as both common and contemporary medieval sources, and his accounts of Latin and English philology make this book an especially valuable reference work on the fourteenth-century culture of western Europe. Daminican Houae of StudiiJ8 Washington, D. 0. F. c. LEHNER, 0. P. ...