At the commencement of the thirteenth century, according to the Abbe Resnel, the universities of Europe began to dispense laurels, not to poets, but to students distinguished by their learning.  The doctors in medicine, at the famous university of Salerno, established by the Emperor Frederic ii., had crowns of laurel put upon their heads.  The bachelors also had their laurels, and derived their name from a baculus, or stick, which they carried.

Cardinal Colonna, as we have said, advised him, “nothing loth,” to enjoy his coronation at Rome.  Thither accordingly he repaired early in the year 1341.  He embarked at Marseilles for Naples, wishing previously to his coronation to visit King Robert, by whom he was received with all possible hospitality and distinction.

Though he had accepted the laurel amidst the general applause of his contemporaries, Petrarch was not satisfied that he should enjoy this honour without passing through an ordeal as to his learning, for laurels and learning had been for one hundred years habitually associated in men’s minds.  The person whom Petrarch selected for his examiner in erudition was the King of Naples.  Robert the Good, as he was in some respects deservedly called, was, for his age, a well-instructed man, and, for a king, a prodigy.  He had also some common sense, but in classical knowledge he was more fit to be the scholar of Petrarch than his examiner.  If Petrarch, however, learned nothing from the King, the King learned something from Petrarch.  Among the other requisites for examining a Poet Laureate which Robert possessed, was an utter ignorance of poetry.  But Petrarch couched his blindness on the subject, so that Robert saw, or believed he saw, something useful in the divine art.  He had heard of the epic poem, Africa, and requested its author to recite to him some part of it.  The King was charmed with the recitation, and requested that the work might be dedicated to him.  Petrarch assented, but the poem was not finished or published till after King Robert’s death.

His Neapolitan Majesty, after pronouncing a warm eulogy on our poet, declared that he merited the laurel, and had letters patent drawn up, by which he certified that, after a severe examination (it lasted three days), Petrarch was judged worthy to receive that honour in the Capitol.  Robert wished him to be crowned at Naples; but our poet represented that he was desirous of being distinguished on the same theatre where Virgil and Horace had shone.  The King accorded with his wishes; and, to complete his kindness, regretted that his advanced age would not permit him to go to Rome, and crown Petrarch himself.  He named, however, one of his most eminent courtiers, Barrilli, to be his proxy.  Boccaccio speaks of Barrilli as a good poet; and Petrarch, with exaggerated politeness, compares him to Ovid.