The principal persons of the town took leave of him publicly at his departure, after pointing out to him the house in which he was born.

"It was a small house," says Petrarch, "befitting an exile, as my father was." They told him that the proprietors would have made some alterations in it; but the town had interposed and prevented them, determined that the place should remain the same as when it was first consecrated by his birth.

The poet related what had been mentioned to a young man who wrote to him expressly to ask whether Arezzo could really boast of being his birthplace.

Petrarch added, that Arezzo had done more for him as a stranger than Florence as a citizen.

In truth, his family was of Florence; and it was only by accident that he was born at Arezzo.