To meet this want, Petrarch was born A.D. 1304. He was gifted with a gentler temper than his great predecessor, and steered his bark with a rare prosperity amidst the perils of a stormy age. Invited to the same courts where Dantè had languished in neglect, Petrarch acted the part of a mediator; and his presence was solicited by opposite factions like that of the blind old Œdipus, produced by turns by his unnatural sons, as a pledge of the justice of their claims in the eyes of the Thebans. Petrarch had seen Dantè at his paternal house, in Arezzo, and the stern features of that solitary genius left an indelible impression among the gorgeous dreams of his young mind. Following the destinies of his parent, and of universal humanity, he went early to the western court at Avignon, where he dissolved his heart in his writings, and anticipated the laurel which was to press heavily on his dazzling but weary brow. If Dantè and Petrarch are to be regarded as the morning stars of modern literature, it should be noted that the bright luminary of Boccaccio came early into the auspicious group. The latter was born A.D. 1313, at Paris. Petrarch gave purity and elegance to the Italian sonnet, and Boccaccio created the first masterpiece of native prose. These two kindred minds, coming into efficient co-operation at the close of Dantè's tempestuous career, took up the mantle at the moment it fell from the shoulders of the great prophet, and achieved the consummation of his mission. They first met at the court of King Robert in Naples, and thenceforth strengthened a mutual esteem, while they indulged genial tastes in the favorite haunts of their evening walks around Virgil's tomb. By a rare phenomenon, these three creative and predominant minds were produced in the same country, in the same age, and their grandest works were executed in the same city. Each of them was so tempered as to adapt the timely triad to widely different and yet equally important purposes. These supreme lights, however, did not shine alone, but each was accompanied by subordinate planets and satellites, which, as they received their effulgence from the supreme luminary, so were they gradually eclipsed, until they disappeared in the distance of age. The three patriarchs of literature in the cycle of Leo X., thus rapidly glanced at, turned the attention of their countrymen from the bewilderments of romance to more substantial worth. Dantè, with the energies of a Titan, threw out great masses of thought; and the lyrical finish of Petrarch, with the garrulous graces of Boccaccio opened other quarries of attractive material. The two last mentioned both died in 1374.