By and by his fame grew. So did his circle of powerful friends. In the first half of his career Petrarch worked for Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, a member of the powerful Roman noble dynasty whom Petrarch described in a sonnet as “Glorious Colonna!”13 He always moved in high places thereafter. One of his most famous patrons was Robert of Anjou, king of Naples (r. 1309–43), who harbored ambitions to be the preeminent ruler in Italy, and understood acutely the value of projecting might by associating with the leading artists and writers of his day. In 1341 Robert made Petrarch a tantalizing offer:
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