Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/31

* ITALIAN LITERATURE. 19 improve the style by bringing it closer to that cf composition in Latin. Of the Tuscan poets the most important was Guittoue del Viva of Arezzo (1220-94), a member of the Frati goden- ti. In his earlier poems he adhered closely to the strict Provencal manner. In the later ones, replete with Latinisms in vocabularj' and con- struction, he introduces speculation of a moral, religious, and philosophical nature, and, what is still mors interesting, he addresses to his fellow-citizeus remarks on matters of contem- porary political interest. This attention to po- litical matters of the day is stressed also in other members of the Florentine group, of whom Monte Andrea and Frescobaldi may receive a passing mention. The greatest departure from the mannerisms of the Sicilian school was made by the Bolognese group of writers, and the best cf all these was Guido Guinizelli (c.1230-70), who was the first true poet in Italian. In his better can::oni and sonnets he applies Guittone"s iimovations to much better purpose, and in verses combining beauty of form with spontaneity of expression he discusses the origin and character- istics of love. From Guinizelli dates the dolce stil nuovo, which reached its height of excellence in the sublime poetry of Dante. The methods of Guittone and Guinizelli were adopted by the Florentine Chiaro Davanzati (c. 1230-?), whose conception of love is, however, rather more theo- logical than purely philosophical. In many ways like Guinizelli, and especially so in the genuine- ness of his poetic note, was the Florentine Rus- tieo di Filippo (e.l230-c.l280), who in his son- nets was the first to import a humorous element into Italian verse. More generally known to fame than he is still another Florentine, Brunet- te Latini (c.l220-c.l294), whom a too literal interpretation of a statement made by Dante (Inferno, xv. ) has caused to be considered as the latter's tutor. He was certainly a great fac- tor in promoting culture in his own time. To Brunetto Latini, in addition to prose works and certain minor poems, there must also be ascribed the first allegorical poem in Italian, the Tesoret- to. Possibly he intended this to be a sort of pref- ace to his encyclopjcdic work. Li Jivres dou tresor, which he wrote in French. The verse so far men- tioned was more or less learned in its nature ; of a more popular origin was the verse that ap- peared in connection with the religious move- ments of the thirteenth century of the Flagel- lants, the Franciscans, and others. To about 1224 belong the famous Laiides Crealtirarum or Cantlco del sole of Saint Francis of Assisi, and throughout the thirteenth century there were produced in both Umbria and Tuscany many Untdi. a sort of religious verse, which, given the form of a dialogue, developed into the first dramas of Italy. Many of these laudi were composed bv .Tacopo (or Jacopone) dei Benedetti of Todi (c'.1230-1306), a tertiary of the Fran- ciscans from 1268 on. In Xorthern Italy there flourished a didactic poetry written for the in- culcating of moral and religious teaching by clerics who stood in close relations with the peo- ple, and who had, moreover, the intention of counteracting the efforts of the jongleurs that were spreading a knowledge of the French rhnn- snnx dr (fexte and other profane literature. The earliest of these writers was perhaps Gherardo Patecchio (Girardo Pateg, c.1228), author of the Tedii and the Splanamento de li proverbii de ITALIAN LITERATURE. Salomone. Hardly later than the middle of the thirteenth century was the Lihro of L'gugon de LaoJho (Lodij, a rhj-med account of Christian beliefs. The liermon of the Milanese Pietro da Barsegape seems to have been written not later than 1264. More culture is visible in the didactic and narrative verse of the monks, Bon- vesin da Riva and Giacomino da Verona, produced during the second half of the thirteenth century. Giacomino's poems belong to the class of litera- ture dealing with visions of the other world, as does also an anonymous poem — styled atro- lare — which originated in Reggio. To Xorthern Italy, a favorite haunt of the wandering jongleurs, belongs also at this time much narrative verse in Italian showing the foreign material of the chansons de geste (ef. the Biiovo d'Antona, almost wholly Italian in treatment), and the beast epic (cf. Rainardo e Lesengrino, in two Venetian versions), thorough- ly acclimated in Italy, after having passed through Franco-Italian intermediary forms. . There was some writing of history in verse, but more interest attaches to Guidaloste da Pistoia's camone on the taking of Torniella by the Sie- nese (1253), and especially to a Bolognese sir- ventese on the conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, composed shortly after 1280. Proofs are not lacking of the existence of a crude and thoroughly popular poetry (cf. the cantastorie) , which was occasional in its nature and had ref- erence to matters chiefly of local significance. Some elements of this spontaneous poetry of the people entered the more strictly literarj- forms; thus they were adopted by the didactic poets of the north, who strove to popularize their works, by the authors of religious lyrics, and even by certain poets of Tuscany and the South (Gia- comino Pugliese, etc.), who utilized them in their love poems. Exceedingly popular in its nature, and yet influenced by literary conven- tions, is the so-called Contrasto di Cielo dal Camo (or d'Alcamo; consult A. d'Ancona. Studj siilla letteratura italiana dei primi secoli. Ancona, 1884), which, ascribed by a misreading of the manuscript to a f'iuUo d'Alcamo. was long er- roneously thought to be the earliest Italian poem. It really belongs to the period between 1231 and 1250, and has the form of a love debate between a maiden and an over-ardcBt admirer. Italian prose of literary moTuent did not appear until the second half of the thirteenth century. As has been said, many narrative and didactic works were written in Latin, iloreover, like Brunetto Latini, certain other Italians adopted French for their productions: thus, Aldobrando, a Tuscan, composed in French prose his little treatise Le regime du corps (1250), and Rus- ticiano da Pisa employed the same language in his compilation of tales about Arthur and his knights (c.1270) and in his account of the jour- ney of ilarco Polo. Italian prose was first used to any great extent in translations of Latin didactic, moral, and historical works, and ot French legends of an heroic or a religious nature. From French came the Dodici conti morali. the Fatfi di Cesare, the Istorietta troiana (based on Benolt de Sainte-More's Roman de Troie). the Trirnla rifondii. and the Tristano. all apparently of the thirteenth century, as is also at least one of the versions of the Libro dei fieffe f!aii. The Discipltnn elcricnle came in through a French version of Petrus Alphonsus's Latin text.