Not much was heard about Capranica for a long time afterwards. The next mention of Capranica, however, brings bad tidings of warring factions, bandit attacks, bloodshed and destruction. Francesco Petrarca, in English known as Petrarch (1304–1374), a scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists, spent a month in Capranica as a guest of the noble House of Anguillara and wrote of bold farmers there who, as they worked their fields, always had a sword and a spear lying in the ruts ready to defend themselves and their homes.