Document 2: Francesco Petrarch. "Letter to Posterity" 1372 "…. I have always possessed extreme contempt for wealth...I have on the contrary led a happier existence with plain living and ordinary fare...the pleasure of dining with one's friends is so great that nothing has ever given me more delight than their unexpected arrival.

I possess a well-balanced rather than a keen intellect--one prone to all kinds of good and wholesome study, but especially to moral philosophy and the art of poetry. The later I neglected as time went on, and took delight in sacred literature...Among the many subjects that interested me, I dwelt especially on antiquity [Roman empire time period], for our own age always repelled me, so that, had it not been for the love of those dear to me, I should have preferred to have been born in any other period than our own. In order to forget my own time, I have constantly striven to place myself in spirit in other ages, and consequently I delighted in hi