The Correspondence of Coluccio Salutati (Vol. 1)

and the words of Monte Benini

preceding merits. In these, and in those matters which Monte Benini, an honorable Florentine citizen, related by word of mouth, God knows how sweetly I was delighted (1). Nor is it a wonder; for what is sweeter, what is more pleasant, than to see the benevolence of the great

assuring him of Bertoldo's benevolence, they were most dear to him.

heaped upon oneself—not merely beyond one’s deserts, but even without the support of merit? But this is truly the custom of the noble—of the noble, I say, who establish nobility not in riches, nor in power, nor in the glory of ancestors, but in virtue alone: not to wait until another is bound to them by favors, but by anticipating, to make those whom they have chosen to love beholden to them. In this matter, therefore, it has followed as it ought. From that source indeed began to burst forth that fervor of benevolence to which the bond of my obligation was rightly to be referred. I give thanks, therefore, to God, and I return thanks to your

He offers himself entirely to his service

Nobility, who have brought into the light a latent affection of love, so that an opportunity might be granted to this devotion of mine to demonstrate, at least in word, the secret desire of my mind, since I am not yet permitted to do so in deed. You have, therefore, a particular and devoted servant, upon whom you may securely enjoin all things and, if anything should arise to be done within the scope of my ability, command. Florence, the twenty-sixth day of June.