Galeazzo was very different from his brothers.  He had much kindliness of disposition.  One of his greatest pleasures was his intercourse with men of letters.  He almost worshipped Petrarch, and it was his influence that induced the poet to settle at Milan.  Unlike as they were in dispositions, the brothers, nevertheless, felt how important it was that they should be united, in order to protect themselves against the league which threatened them; and, at first, they lived in the greatest harmony.  Barnabo, the most warlike, was charged with whatever concerned the military.  Business of every other kind devolved on Galeazzo.  Matteo, as the eldest, presided over all; but, conscious of his incapacity, he took little share in the deliberations of his brothers.  Nothing important was done without consulting Petrarch; and this flattering confidence rendered Milan as agreeable to him as any residence could be, consistently with his love of change.

The deaths of the Doge of Venice and of the Lord of Milan were soon followed by another, which, if it had happened some years earlier, would have strongly affected Petrarch.  This was the tragic end of Rienzo.  Our poet’s opinion of this extraordinary man had been changed by his later conduct, and he now took but a comparatively feeble interest in him.  Under the pontificate of Clement VI., the ex-Tribune, after his fall, had been consigned to a prison at Avignon.  Innocent, the succeeding Pope, thought differently of him from his predecessor, and sent the Cardinal Albornoz into Italy, with an order to establish him at Rome, and to confide the government of the city to him under the title of senator.  The Cardinal obeyed the injunction; but after a brief and inglorious struggle with the faction of the Colonnas, Rienzo perished in a popular sedition on the 8th of October, 1354.

War was now raging between the States of the Venetian League and Milan, united with Genoa, when a new actor was brought upon the scene.  The Emperor, who had been solicited by one half of Italy to enter the kingdom, but who hesitated from dread of the Lord of Milan, was evidently induced by the intelligence of John Visconti’s death to accept this invitation.  In October, 1354, his Imperial Majesty entered Italy, with no show of martial preparation, being attended by only three hundred horsemen.  On the 10th of November he arrived at Mantua, where he was received as sovereign.  There he stopped for some time, before he pursued his route to Rome.

The moment Petrarch heard of his arrival, he wrote to his Imperial Majesty in transports of joy.  “You are no longer,” he said, “king of Bohemia.  I behold in you the king of the world, the Roman emperor, the true Caesar.”  The Emperor received this letter at Mantua, and in a few days sent Sacromore de Pomieres, one of his squires, to invite Petrarch to come and meet him, expressing the utmost eagerness to see him.  Petrarch could not resist so flattering an invitation; he was not to be deterred even by the unprecedented severity of the frost, and departed from Milan on the 9th of December; but, with all the speed that he could make, was not able to reach Mantua till the 12th.