ITALY (POETRY.) 



Frederic Barbarossa, the German emperor, at Turin, 

 in 1162, attended by a train of Provencal poets. The 

 emperor was so delighted with their gaya ciencia, 

 that he not only made munificent presents to the 

 minstrels, but also composed a madrigal in their 

 language himself. At the court of Azzo VII. of 

 Este, at Ferrara (1215 1264), some distinguished 

 Provencals Rambaldo di Vacheiras, Raimondo d'Ar- 

 tes, Americo di Reguilain resided, and sang the 

 praises of his daughters, Constanza and Beatrice. 

 Here also flourished Maestro Ferrari, a native of that 

 city, who, as well as many other Italians (Alberto 

 Quaglio, Percivalle Doria, Alberto de' Marchesi 

 Malaspina, &c.), sang in the Provengal language. 

 No one acquired so great a reputation as Sordello of 

 Mantua, who visited Provence for the purpose of 

 making himself familiar with the language and 

 poetry of the country. Only a few fragments of 

 these Italian troubadours are extant; but the first 

 attempts to compose in the Italian language are not 

 to be looked for in Lombardy, where the vicinity to 

 Provence did not allow a taste for native poetry to 

 spring up. Besides, the Italian of Lombardy was 

 the least agreeable to the ear. The Genoese and 

 Venetians were too much occupied with commerce ; 

 the Florentines, disturbed by domestic factions, were 

 ignorant of the spirit of chivalry, and the popes were 

 absorbed in theology and the canon law, and strangers 

 to the spirit of poetry. In Sicily only could Italian 

 poetry develope itself, because the Sicilians, always 

 a, poetical people, spoke a dialect sufficiently soft 

 to afford the means of graceful verse. Neither 

 commerce nor scholastic disputes occupied their 

 thoughts, and their beautiful climate invited them 

 to repose, and to fill the moments of leisure with 

 poetry. They could not draw the poets of Prov- 

 ence to their country so easily as the Lombards, nor 

 could they themselves so easily visit that country of 

 love and poetry ; but enough of the Provengal songs 

 reached them, to awaken them to similar attempts in 

 their own language. They had also a court rich in 

 every knightly and noble accomplishment. Frederic 

 II. the German emperor, resided, for a time, in Pa- 

 lermo (from 1198 1212) he who crowned a poet 

 with his own hand, to whose court, as the old nove- 

 list relates, thronged troubadours, musicians, orators, 

 artists, champions, and all persons of any kind of 

 skill, from all countries, because of his munificence, 

 and his courtesy, whose noble character is praised by 

 Dante ; but, not satisfied with hearing the verses of 

 others, Frederic and his court composed poetry them- 

 selves, and productions of his, of his natural son Enzo, 

 and his celebrated chancellor, Pietro delle Vigne, are 

 still extant. One of the most distinguished Sicilian 

 poets of that time was Ciullo d'Alcamo, of whom we 

 possess a song entirely Provengal in form and char- 

 acter. We have also the names and fragments of 

 Jacopo da Lentino, surnamed il Notaj'o, of Guide, 

 and Oddo delle Colonne, Ranieri, Ruggieri, and 

 Inghilfredi of Palermo, of Arrigo Testa, Stefano, pro- 

 thonotary of Messina, and Monna Nina, who come 

 down to the period of Dante, and were the cause that 

 every thing composed in Italian was then called 

 Sicilian. After the year 1300, Sicily gave no farther 

 models to Italy ; but the real founders of Italian 

 poetry appear in Bologna, Florence, and other cities 

 of Tuscany. The oldest known to us is, perhaps, Fol- 

 cacchiero de'Folcacchieri, but the most important is 

 Guido Guinicelli of Bologna. A number of poets 

 appeared in Tuscany, whose names Crescimbeni 

 enumerates, and of whom he gives specimens. In 

 the thirteenth century, Guittone d'Arezzo (author of 

 a book of poems and forty letters, interspersed with 

 verses), Brunette Latini (author of two poetical works 

 // Tetoretto and 11 Pataffio), Guido Cavalcanti 



(author of a celebrated canzone and other poems), 

 Ugolino Ubaldini (author of an excellent idyl in the 

 form of irregular canzonf), and Dante of Majaiio 

 (author of a book of poems;, deserve mention ; but 

 we find hardly a poet of eminence in the other pro 

 vinces. By the side of the amatory poets Jacopone 

 da Todi stands alone as a sacred poet. The forms 

 of the early Italian poetry are borrowed from Arnaud 

 Daniel, and other Provengals, and are, for the most 

 part, the same which, in a more perfect state, char- 

 acterize the later Italian poetry, viz., canzoni, sonnets, 

 ballads, and sestine. With the Sicilians, we already 

 find the ottave also. Its character is, even at this 

 early period, decidedly marked. Its ruling spirit is 

 love an idealizing love, to which the spirit of Chris- 

 tianity contributed the tendency to adore and attri- 

 bute perfection to the beloved object. Whether the 

 new character which appears in all the productions 

 of this time had its origin, as some maintain, in the 

 spirit of Christianity, or only in certain feelings which 

 sprang up at this time, and naturally connected them- 

 selves with Christianity, at least in appearance, we 

 shall not here venture to decide, and refer the reader 

 to the article Chivalry. It is certain that the modern 

 spirit is essentially different from the ancient. (See 

 Classical.) After this preparatory period of Italian 

 poetry was passed, appeared the great Florentine, 

 Dante Alighieri (born 1265). He left at once the 

 trodden path, and stands without predecessor or fol- 

 lower among all the great names which ornament 

 Italy. We do not speak of the form of his Divina 

 Commedia, which, from its nature, could not but be 

 unique, but of the peculiarity of his genius ; but even 

 his great poem, in which, as he says, heaven and 

 earth assisted, and which cost the poet the study of 

 years, is connected with love, his Beatrice being his 

 guide in the highest spheres of heaven ; and we should 

 greatly misconceive the poet and his age, if we should 

 suppose that this circumstance was merely intended 

 to commemorate his early passion. The spirit of the 

 age unavoidably led him to exhibit love as the great 

 mover of the human soul. (See Dante.) As Dante's 

 production is important in the history of the human 

 mind and the progress of civilization, it is of equal 

 importance in the history of Italian literature. Dante 

 made the Italian dialect the lawful currency of litera- 

 ture. His intention to write his poem in Latin 

 hexameters sufficiently shows in what a state he 

 found the Italian language ; how little the light play 

 of graceful rhymes had developed it for his great 

 object. Hence his apology for attempting so serious 

 a subject in the lingua volgarc. The enthusiasm for 

 Dante's poem was so great, that in Florence, Bologna, 

 and Pisa, professorships were early established for the 

 explanation of his Commedia. In Florence, Boccac- 

 cio was the first who filled this chair. Of the com- 

 mentators we shall mention, besides the later Lan- 

 dino, only Dante's own sons, Pietro and Jacopo, with 

 Benvenuto of Imola, and Martino Paolo Nidobe- 

 ato. The archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Visconti, 

 appointed two theologians, two philosophers, and 

 two juris-consults of Florence, to undertake jointly 

 the interpretation of the theology, philosophy, and 

 jurisprudence of Dante. Besides Dante, there flour- 

 ished several other poets, among whom Cino da 

 Pistoia (q. v.) is the most distinguished. He excelled 

 in tender love poems, in which he celebrated his 

 mistress Selvaggia, and was the precursor of Petrarca, 

 for whom he also prepared the language. Cecco 

 d'Ascoli, also a contemporary of Dante, wrote a 

 didactic poem, in five books, on physics, morals, and 

 religion, under the title Acerba (properly Acerbo or 

 Acervo). Francesco da Barberino composed his 

 Documenti d'Amore, in which he treats of virtue and 

 its rewards, in rude and irregular verses, and liis 



