Template:1360-10-26-Milan

1360, October 26

Francesco Petrarca does not want to leave Milan, where a severe plague was raging, as he writes to a doctor friend

Illud autem quod ex hox aere semper hactenus laudato, nunc nescio cur infami, me ad patriam tuam saluberrimasque Alpium radices anxius atque solicitus vocas [...] (p. 132) Ut ergo pestem fugiam, que hactenus urbem hanc terruit potiusquam invasit, quot sunt alia, quam diversa mortis spicula, quibus assequitur fugientes et quorum forte plurimis subductum uni caput obicio!

That you are summoning me from this region, which was always praised but is now inexplicably vilified, to your homeland and the splendidly healthy valley floor of the Alps, demonstrates, as always, your faithfulness. [...] (p. 548) How can I escape the plague that has hitherto 'terrified this city more than conquest'? The number of deadly arrows with which it pursues the fleeing is vast, so should I expose my head, which may have barely escaped the multitude, to perhaps just one?

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