Guinizelli, Guido

Guinizelli, Guido 

Born between 1230 and 1240 in Bologna; died 1276 in Monselice. Italian poet. The father of dolce stil nuovo poetry.

In his doctrinaire canzone “Love Always Reigns in the Noble Heart,” Guinizelli glorified love as a feeling that ennobles the soul no less than the love of God. He maintained that nobility in man does not depend on his social origin. Such an exaltation of man makes Guinizelli a harbinger of the Renaissance and a direct forerunner of Dante, who called him his “father” in the art of love poetry. Guinizelli’s poetry also contains motifs of sensual passion (the sonnet “Lucia in the Colorful Cape”).

WORKS

In T. Casini, Le rime del poeti bolognesi del secolo XIII. Bologna, 1881.

REFERENCES

De Sanctis, F. Istoriia ital’ianskoi literatury, vol. 1. Milan, 1963. (Translated from Italian.)
Russo, L. Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. 1. Florence [1957].

N. G. ELINA