The Correspondence of Coluccio Salutati (Vol. 1) (1891) - Page 26

reconciled Cicero will confirm the friendship toward me, and he will teach, with the Terentian phrase original: "Terentiano verbo", that the quarrels of lovers are the integration of love (¹).

I could not contain my bile, nor could I help but vomit forth the venom conceived from your quarrels while my stomach was full. And let this single letter suffice for the long phylacteries original: "filateriis", a metaphor for long-winded, repetitive complaints of insults that you, in such a troubled state, have spun out.

He begs him to lay aside all resentment henceforth

Henceforth, I shall speak with you in a calmer style; I pray you, put an end to your curses, and do not provoke me against my will. Know one thing: you did not get your book back because of your importunity, but because I finally recovered it from a scholar who had held it for a year and more. Furthermore, I found it having been lost in that

and he justifies his own delay.

whirlwind of civil affairs (²); and because, in the end, after I had waded through the lies of many scribes, I had a copy made. Fare happily, and, to end with a Ciceronian phrase, take care of your health, love us, and convince yourself that you are loved by me like a brother (³). Florence, the twelfth of July.

TO FRIAR GEROLAMO DA UZZANO (⁴).

[Autograph without address in Riccardian Codex 872: LAMI, Catalog of manuscripts preserved in the Riccardian Library of Florence, Leghorn, 1756, p. 141; MEHUS, Life of A. Traversari, p. 303; MITTARELLI-COSTADONI, Annals of Camaldoli VI, 136.]

Florence, 1381? He sends him the treatise On the World and Religion composed at his request.

I send you a little gift, labored over during these last few nights with the aim of correction. If you or others derive any benefit from it, let the praise be to God, the Creator of all, whom I pray will be pleased to commend me in your holy prayers. Fare happily and for long.
Your Coluccio.

(1) TERENCE, Andria III, 3, 23. The text gives "irae" (wrath).
(2) He certainly alludes to the riots of the Ciompi.
(3) CICERO, Letters to Atticus I, 5.
(4) Niccolò di Lapo da Uzzano, a Florentine, doctor of sacred canons, secular cleric, and canon of the cathedral, yielding to an impulse of ascetic fervor, became a friar on February 25, 1379, in S. Maria degli Angeli, taking the name Gerolamo. Salutati was among those who most approved of his resolution; indeed, to fortify his friend's spirit, he promised to write a book that would demonstrate the excellence of the monastic life. But...