The idea of living in Venice, this “miracle of civitas”, came to Francesco Petrarch through his deep admiration for it and from friends he had here, especially in the chancellery where his letters were used as valuable style models for diplomatic correspondence. There was also another reason. He wanted to convert his extremely valuable personal collection into a public library on the lines of those of classical antiquity. To realise this project, however, he would have to find a State that would accepted the bequest of the library and that would undertake to preserve it for posterity. Venice seemed ideal for this project: the stability of the government, the harmonious constitution, the internal peace - not affected by the struggles of the warring factions which afflicted other Italian cities, the freedom that reigned here: all contributed to making Venice the place where the new public library could have been safely preserved in perpetuity and for the benefit of all. He also took into consideration the likelihood that his stay in Venice would be seen as an honour and be facilitated. His Venetian friends, first and foremost the Grand Chancellor Benintendi de Ravagnani, were enthusiastic about the idea and prepared the Deliberation for the Great Council meeting of 4 September 1362. This would give its approval to the donation of the books to St Mark, protector and symbol of the Venetian State; the books were not to be dispersed and were to be preserved in a safe place in memory and honour of the poet. He was to have the use of a worthy residence at public expense during his lifetime and was to keep the library with him until his death. Petrarch transferred the library to Ca’ Molin delle due Torri on the quayside called Riva degli Schiavoni: about two hundred codices, though with a rather higher number of titles, given that a codex often contained more than one work within it. The library included as much of early antiquities and early Christian culture as Petrarch had been able to select over ten years of assiduous studying, research in the monastic libraries, of journeying and discovery. All this perfectly integrated to form the ideal library of a man of modern culture. After about five years, perhaps deluded by the lack of interest the city took in the library – for Venice continued to be more interested in scientific rather than humanistic culture – or perhaps because of his habitual restlessness, Petrarch left Venice in 1368 and moved to Padua and then to Arquà. The library followed him, since the donation, although not revoked, still had not been implemented. The damage for civilisation was considerable. After the poet’s death, the codices were dispersed when Giangaleazzo Visconti conquered Padua. Part of the collection was shifted to Milan and when in 1499 Luigi XII conquered the city this section was again broken up. Now the manuscripts are scattered worldwide. Of the Library of St Mark (or Marciana), that ought to have been founded at that time, but that instead was not founded until a bequest by Bessarione (in 1468) a century later, little remains of what was once a great collection. There seems to be only one codex: that containing the Epistolae Familiares, with marginal notes in Petrarch’s hand, in which there is also a letter of his to Benintendi regarding the future donation. But there are many other codices of very great interest pertaining to Petrarch, even though they did not belong to him. The most important is perhaps Cod. Lat. VI, 86, which contains various writings of his in Latin. In the first manuscript there is a magnificent portrait of the poet, almost certainly a life-study - realistic, a little melancholy. The episode of Petrarch’s bequest is therefore the story of a great opportunity that was lost. Yet mention of it remains “the subject of an uncertain and veiled tradition ... halfway between history and legend”, as Manlio Pastore Stocchi writes. And when in 1632 various antique codices were found “in a room over the passageways of the church of San Marco”, it was first thought they were those donated by the poet. Alas, after the first excitement had died down it was realised that they were nothing to do with Petrarch. Yet today, the legend of Petrarch founding the Library of St Mark persists, and is still credited by non-specialists.