The relationship between Petrarch and Philippe de Vitry, whom he dubbed ?the only true poet in France?, has long been known but remains almost unstudied.1 It was, however, taken seriously both by contem poraries and by the 'protohumanist' scholars of the later fourteenth century. In a commentary on the Bucolicum carmen, Francesco Piendibeni da Montepulciano, Chancellor of Perugia, made clear not only that Vitry's reputation had survived into the first generation of Petrarch scholarship, but also that it was rapidly established in the exegesis of the poet's works. Identifying Vitry with the ?Gallus? of the Fourth Eclogue (?Gallus hic fuit Phylippus de Victriaco, clarissimus musicus et philosophus et Petrarce summe notus?), Piendibeni commented that ?Gallus erat unus famulus francigena musicus qui Petrarcham infestabat assidue ut poesym et rhetoricam edoceret... Gallus autem admirantus eloquantiam Petrarca, id est Tirrheni?.2 These remarks are important in themselves, but they gain added weight set against