[Footnote 20: _Ibid._ p. 948. Cf. the fine letter on the duty of collecting and preserving codices (_Fam. Epist._ lib. iii. 18, p. 619). 'Aurum, argentum, gemmæ, purpurea vestis, marmorea domus, cultus ager, pictæ tabulæ, phaleratus sonipes, cæteraque id genus mutam habent et superficiariam voluptatem: libri medullitus delectant, colloquuntur, consulunt, et vivâ quâdam nobis atque argutâ familiaritate junguntur.'] [Footnote 21: _De Libris Ciceronis_, p. 949. Cf. his _Epistle to Varro_ for an account of a lost MS. of that author. _Ibid._ p. 708.] [Footnote 22: _Ibid._ p. 948. Cf. _De Ignorantiâ_, pp. 1053, 1054. See, too, the letter to Nicolaus Syocerus of Constantinople, _Epist. Var._ xx. p. 998, thanking him for the Homer and the Plato, in which Petrarch gives an account of his slender Greek studies. 'Homerus tuus apud me mutus, immo vero ego apud illum surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel aspectu solo, et sæpe illum amplexus et suspirans dico.... Plato philosophorum princeps ... nunc tandem tuo munere Philosophorum principi Poetarum princeps asserit. Quis tantis non gaudeat et glorietur hospitibus?... Græcos spectare, et si nihil aliud, certe juvat.' The letter urging Boccaccio to translate Homer--'an tuo studio, meâ impensâ fieri possit, ut Homerus integer bibliothecæ huic, ubi pridem Græcus habitat, tandem Latinus accedat'--will be found [Transcriber's Note: original missing 'in'] _Ep. Rer. Sen._ lib. iii. 5, p. 775. In another letter, _Ep. Rer. Sen._ lib. vi. 2, p. 807, he thanks Boccaccio for the Latin version.] [Footnote 23: _De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ_, p. 43. A plea for public as against private collections of useful books. 'Multos in vinculis tenes,' &c.]