Not long after the death of Laura, on the 3rd of July of the same year, Petrarch lost Cardinal Colonna, who had been for so many years his friend and patron.  By some historians it is said that this prelate died of the plague; but Petrarch thought that he sank under grief brought on by the disasters of his family.  In the space of five years the Cardinal had lost his mother and six brothers.

Petrarch still maintained an interest in the Colonna family, though that interest was against his own political principles, during the good behaviour of the Tribune.  After the folly and fall of Rienzo, it is probable that our poet’s attachment to his old friends of the Roman aristocracy revived.  At least, he thought it decent to write, on the death of Cardinal Colonna, a letter of condolence to his father, the aged Stefano, who was now verging towards his hundredth year.  Soon after this letter reached him, old Stefano fell into the grave.

The death of Cardinal Colonna was extremely felt at Avignon, where it left a great void, his house having been the rendezvous of men of letters and genius.  Those who composed his court could not endure Avignon after they had lost their Maecenas.  Three of them were the particular friends of Petrarch, namely, Socrates, Luca Christine and Mainardo Accursio.  Socrates, though not an Italian, was extremely embarrassed by the death of the Cardinal.  He felt it difficult to live separated from Petrarch, and yet he could not determine to quit France for Italy.  He wrote incessantly the most pressing letters to induce our poet to return and settle in Provence.  Luca and Mainardo resolved to go and seek out Petrarch in Italy, in order to settle with him the place on which they should fix for their common residence, and where they should spend the rest of their lives in his society.  They set out from Avignon in the month of March, 1349, and arrived at Parma, but did not find the poet, as he was gone on an excursion to Padua and Verona.  They passed a day in his house to rest themselves, and, when they went away, left a letter in his library, telling him they had crossed the Alps to come and see him, but that, having missed him, as soon as they had finished an excursion which they meant to make, they would return and settle with him the means of their living together.  Petrarch, on his return to Parma, wrote several interesting letters to Mainardo.  In one of them he says, “I was much grieved that I had lost the pleasure of your company, and that of our worthy friend, Luca Christino.  However, I am not without the consoling hope that my absence may be the means of hastening your return.  As to your apprehensions about my returning to Vaucluse, I cannot deny that, at the entreaties of Socrates, I should return, provided I could procure an establishment in Provence, which would afford me an honourable pretence for residing there, and, at the same time, enable me to receive my friends with hospitality; but at present circumstances are changed.  The Cardinal Colonna is dead, and my friends are all dispersed, excepting Socrates, who continues inviolably attached to Avignon.