II - COMMENTARY ON SOME OF HIS SONNETS

the sweetest and most constant love I feel has given to these [verses], it is impossible for anyone but me to understand it. Because, even if I had narrated the circumstances to someone, it would be as impossible for him to understand them as for me to convey the absolute truth of the experience. And therefore, I return to the aforementioned verse of our Florentine poet Lorenzo refers here to Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374), whose work defined the Italian lyric tradition., who says that where there is someone who understands love through experience (both this love I have so highly praised, and any specific love and affection toward me):

original: "spero trovar pietá non che perdono"; this is the final line of the first sonnet in Petrarch's Canzoniere.

It remains, then, only to respond to the objection that might be made regarding my having written in the vernacular language original: "lingua vulgare." This refers to the spoken Italian of the time, as opposed to Latin, which was the traditional language of scholarship and high culture., which, according to the judgment of some, is not capable of or worthy of any excellent matter or subject.

And to this part, I respond: a thing is not less worthy because it is more common; on the contrary, it is proven that every "good" is better the more it is communicable and universal, as is the nature of that which is called the Highest Good original: "Sommo Bene." A philosophical term referring to the ultimate source of all goodness, often identified with God in Renaissance thought.; for it would not be "highest" if it were not infinite, nor can anything be called "infinite" except that which is common to all things.

And therefore, it does not seem that being common to all of Italy takes dignity away from our mother tongue; rather, one must think upon the actual perfection or imperfection of said language. And, considering which conditions give dignity and perfection to any idiom or language, it seems to me there are four; of which one, or at most two, are the true and proper praises of the language itself, while the others depend more on the custom and opinion of men, or on fortune. That which is the true praise of a language is its being copious and abundant, and fit to express well the sense and the concept of the mind. And for this reason, the Greek language is judged more perfect than Latin, and Latin more than Hebrew, because one expresses the mind of whoever has spoken or written something better than the other. The other condition that most dignifies a language is the sweetness and harmony that results more from one than from another; and, although harmony is a natural thing, proportioned to the harmony of our soul and our body, nonetheless it seems to me—due to the variety of human geniuses, which, if they are not well-proportioned and perfect, all