(La) Compiuta Donzella, called either di Firenze or Fiorentina, was the earliest woman

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

of the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about ...

, active in the second half of the 13th century.This discounts the probably legendary

Nina Siciliana (La) Nina Siciliana was the composer of one Italian sonnet, and a candidate to be the first Italian woman poet. She only came to light in 1780, along with 74 other poets, in the ''Étrennes du Parnasse'' (or ''Choix de Poësies''). She is now cons ...

and

Gaia da Camino Gaia da Camino (Treviso, c. 1270 - Portobuffolé, after 14 August 1311) was an Italian noblewoman and poet hailing from Treviso, Italy. Her family was descended from the Lombards. She is mentioned briefly in Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. Bi ...

, of whom no works survive. Three of her sonnets survive in a single manuscript, and one is half of a '' tenzone''. ''Compiuta'' may be her given name, but more probably a ''senhal'' (code name). Her full name translates "the accomplished young lady from

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

". Her existence was once in doubt and she was considered a construct of the poets, but this view has been discarded. In ''A la stagion che 'l mondo foglia e fiora'' ("In the season when the world sends forth leaves and flowers"), Compiuta complains of her father's choice of a husband for her. She is miserable at springtime, when other lovers are rejoicing. In ''Lasciar voria lo mondo e Dio servire'' ("I would like to leave the world to serve God"), she bemoans the state of the world: lack of nobility, meanness of spirit, and dishonesty. She desires to enter a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

, but her father will not let her. In her only ''tenzone'', ''Ornato di gran pregio e di valenza'', with an admiring man who wishes to meet her, she responds with pleasant interest. The famous Italian poet

Guittone d'Arezzo Guittone d'Arezzo (Arezzo, 1235 – 1294) was a Tuscan poet and the founder of the Tuscan School. He was an acclaimed secular love poet before his conversion in the 1260s, when he became a religious poet joining the Order of the Blessed Virgi ...

, who mentions her by name in his fifth letter, may have addressed it to her. Compiuta's vocabulary was influenced by her knowledge of

Occitan literature Occitan literature (referred to in older texts as Provençal literature) is a body of texts written in Occitan, mostly in the south of France. It was the first literature in a Romance language and inspired the rise of vernacular literature thro ...

and the work of the

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...

s. Thus, she contrasts ''cortesia'' (courtliness) with ''villania'' (villainy), terms borrowed from the setting of aristocratic court. ''Fin pregio'' (courtly virtue) and ''fin'amanti'' (courtly lovers) are in the courtly love tradition. Compiuta may have had access to the poems of the ''

trobairitz The ''trobairitz'' () were Occitan female troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries, active from around 1170 to approximately 1260. ''Trobairitz'' is both singular and plural. The word ''trobairitz'' is first attested in the 13th-century ro ...

''. Her place as a very early vernacular poet was not ignored by contemporaries. Mastro Torrigiano wrote two sonnets about her: one wondering whether she was unnatural (for her sex) or miraculous ("a divine

sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local tradi ...

"), a second praising her for surpassing the norms of her sex.

Notes

References

*Janet L. Smarr. "Compiuta Donzella di Firenze". ''Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia'', Christopher Kleinhenz, ed. Routledge, 2004. .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donzella, Compiuta 13th-century Italian poets Italian women poets 13th-century Italian women Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 13th-century women writers