![Inf](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Inf._10_Guglielmo_Girardi_e_aiuti%2C_Farinata_e_Cavalcanti%2C_1478_ca..jpg)
Guido Cavalcanti (between 1250 and 1259 – August 1300) was an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
poet. He was also a friend and intellectual influence on
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
.
Historical background
Cavalcanti was born in Florence at a time when the
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
was beginning its economic, political, intellectual and artistic ascendancy as one of the leading cities of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
. The disunited Italian peninsula was dominated by a
political particularism
In political science, political particularism is the ability of policymakers to further their careers by catering to narrow interests rather than to broader national platforms.
Political science
In a political system governed by particularis ...
that pitted city-states against one another, often with this factionalism contributing to the fractious and sometimes violent political environments of each ''comune''. The domination of medieval religious interpretations of reality, morality and society were challenged by a rise of a new urban culture across Europe that gradually supplanted rural, local, ecclesiastical and feudal ways of thinking. There was an accompanying return to study, and to interpretation and emulation of the classics, known as a revival of antiquity. New secular and
humanistic views laid the foundations for modern life in
Western Civilization
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
. As
Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss historian and author of ''
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
''The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy'' (german: Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien) is an 1860 work on the Italian Renaissance by Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt. Together with his ''History of the Renaissance in Italy'' (''Die Gesch ...
'' wrote, "It was not the revival of antiquity alone, but its union with the genius of the Italian people which achieved the conquest of the western world." In sum, Cavalcanti lived during and helped shape this time of great innovation that was spurred on by a desire to explore, create and experiment with new things.
The politics of Florence
Cavalcanti was the son of
Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a
Guelph
Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...
whom Dante condemns to torment in the sixth circle of his
Inferno
Inferno may refer to:
* Hell, an afterlife place of suffering
* Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire
Film
* ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film
* Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker
* Inferno (1973 fi ...
, where the heretics are punished. Unlike Dante, Guido was an atheist. As
Giovanni Boccaccio (Decameron, VI, 9) wrote during the generation after Cavalcanti's death, "''Si diceva tralla gente volgare che queste sue speculazioni erano solo in cercare se trovar si potesse che Iddio non-fosse''" (People commonly said his speculations were only in trying to find that God did not exist).
During his lifetime, Florence was politically torn by the struggle between the
Guelphs and Ghibellines,
factions supporting, respectively, the Pope and the
Holy Roman Emperor in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries. Although the struggle for power between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire had originally arisen with the
Investiture Conflict
The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monast ...
of the 11th century, it was subsequently fed by a desire of either the
Papacy
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
or
Holy Roman Emperor either to share in or to control the economic boom that was taking place in the leading cities of northern Italy during this time.
The division between
Guelphs and Ghibellines was especially important in Florence, although the two sides frequently rebelled against each other and took power in many of the other northern Italian cities as well. Essentially the two sides were now fighting either against German influence (in the case of the Guelphs), or against the temporal power of the Pope (in the case of the Ghibellines). In Florence and elsewhere the Guelphs usually included merchants and burghers, while the Ghibellines tended to be noblemen.
Towards the end of the 13th century, the Guelphs had secured their control of Florence through their multiple victories over the Ghibellines, including the battle at
Benevento in 1266, and at
Campaldino and Caprona in 1289. In 1267, as part of a political reconciliation, Guido married Beatrice, the daughter of
Ghibelline
The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, rival ...
party leader
Farinata degli Uberti
Manente degli Uberti (1212 – 11 November 1264), known as Farinata degli Uberti, was an Italian aristocrat and military leader of the Ghibelline faction in Florence. He was considered to be a heretic by some of his contemporaries, including Dan ...
. Their marriage union proved unsuccessful, as the feuds between Guelph and Ghibelline families persisted.
By 1293, a rebellion of middle-class Florentine merchants toppled both sides of noble families. Nobles were then forbidden to claim public office, until 1295, when they were offered eligibility to join Florence's guilds. As a member of the Cavalcanti family, Guido had claimed ancestry dating back to the German barons of Charlemagne's court. He refused to occupy a position as a merchant, as he felt it offensive to his station and his heritage.
By this time, the Guelphs began to fight among themselves. Guido Cavalcanti allied himself to the Cerchi, and outwardly expressed his disdain for his rival,
Corso Donati Corso Donati was a leader of the Black Guelph faction in 13th- and early 14th- century Florence.
Bologna and Pistoia
In the late thirteenth century, power in Florence and the other Tuscan cities was divided between the Podestà, an outsider who se ...
.
In 1300, Florence was divided into the Black Guelphs and the White Guelphs. The Blacks continued to support the Papacy, while the Whites were opposed to Papal influence.
In June 1300, the Florentines had become tired of brawling between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs. A counsel of judges, Dante Alighieri amongst them, exiled the leaders of both factions and their accomplices, including Cavalcanti.
He was sent to Sarzana, where, after only a few months he decided to try to return to Florence. Guido Cavalcanti died of fever (probably
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
) in August of the same year on his journey home.
Guido's marriage to Beatrice degli Uberti should not be seen in the context of modern relationships where people marry each other for love, but rather in the context of his own age, when
marriage was often motivated by business and/or political interests. As such, Guido's poetry, which dwells on love, should be seen as a philosophical exploration of love and not as that of a husband bound into and seeking satisfaction outside a marriage made for political purposes.
Dolce stil novo
Cavalcanti was a part of the Tuscan poetic movement known as the
Dolce stil novo
''Dolce Stil Novo'' (), Italian for "sweet new style," is the name given to a literary movement in 13th and 14th century Italy. Influenced by the Sicilian School and Tuscan poetry, its main theme is Divine Love. The name ''Dolce Stil Novo'' w ...
(Sweet New Style), whose members are referred to by their Tuscan name, the ''stilnovisti''. The formative influences on the ''stilnovisti'' came from two main sources.
First, there was the poetry 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 ...
and
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 ...
, who began the tradition of
courtly love, known by its then contemporary term, as ''fin'amor'' in the ducal and princely courts of
Aquitaine
Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 Janu ...
, Provence,
Champagne
Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...
and
ducal Burgundy, at the end of the eleventh century. Based on the
Occitan language
Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Vall ...
of south France, this courtly poetry, which was a part 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 ...
, spread throughout all European cultivated circles in the 12th and 13th centuries. (Many of its poets can be found here in this
list of troubadours and trobairitz
This is a list of troubadours and trobairitz, men and women who are known to have written lyric verse in the Old Occitan language.
They are listed alphabetically by first name. Those whose first name is uncertain or unknown are listed by nickna ...
.)
Second, there was the poetry of the
Sicilian School
The Sicilian School was a small community of Sicilian and mainland Italian poets gathered around Frederick II, most of them belonging to his imperial court. Headed by Giacomo da Lentini, they produced more than 300 poems of courtly love betwe ...
, which was a small community of Sicilian, and to a lesser extent, mainland Italian poets gathered around
Frederick II, most of them belonging to his court, the
Magna Curia
''Magna Curia'' (Latin language, Latin for ''The Great Court'') or The Bethlen Castle is a palace located in Deva, Romania, Deva, Romania.
History
In 1582, the Hungarian captain Ferenc Geszty, in charge of the Cetatea Deva, Deva Castle's garrison ...
. Headed by
Giacomo da Lentini
Giacomo da Lentini, also known as Jacopo da Lentini or with the appellative Il Notaro, was an Italian poet of the 13th century. He was a senior poet of the Sicilian School and was a notary at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Gi ...
, they produced more than 300 poems of
courtly love between 1230 and 1266, the experiment being continued after Frederick's death by his son, Manfredi. This school included
Enzio, king of Sardinia,
Pier delle Vigne
Pietro della Vigna (also Pier delle Vigne, Petrus de Vineas or de Vineis; Capua, ca. 1190 – Pisa, 1249) was an Italian jurist and diplomat, who acted as chancellor and secretary (logothete) to Emperor Frederick II. Falsely accused of ''lèse-maje ...
,
Inghilfredi,
Stefano Protonotaro, Guido and
Odo delle Colonne,
Rinaldo d'Aquino,
Giacomino Pugliese,
Arrigo Testa,
Mazzeo Ricco,
Perceval Doria
Perceval Doria (born c. 1195, died 1264) was a Genoese naval and military leader in the thirteenth century. A Ghibelline, he was a partisan of the Hohenstaufen in Italy and served the Emperor Frederick II and Manfred of Sicily as vicar of Romagna ...
, and Frederick II himself.
The poets of Stilnovismo included the early forerunner
Guido Guinizelli
Guido Guinizelli (ca. 1225–1276) was an esteemed Italian love poet and is considered the "father" of the Dolce Stil Novo. He was the first to write in this new style of poetry writing, and thus is held to be the '' ipso facto'' founder. He was bo ...
, Guido Cavalcanti and
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
, plus
Cino da Pistoia
Cino da Pistoia (1270 – 1336/37) was an Italian jurist and poet.
He was born in Pistoia, Tuscany. His full name was ''Guittoncino dei Sinibaldi'' or, Latinised, ''Cinus de Sighibuldis''. His father was a noble man from the House of Sinibald ...
,
Lapo Gianni, Gianni Alfani, and Dino Frescobaldi. Far from being a derivative school of poetry that mimicked its French and Sicilian poetic ancestors, Stilnovismo brought an originality to and completely transformed the poetry of courtly love in that: 1) It was an urban poetry of the Tuscan
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
, not of an aristocratic court. 2) It explored the philosophical, spiritual, psychological and social effects of love. 3) It championed the Tuscan
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
. 4) It did all this while expressing the heart and mind of the poet in original verse that utilized the
sonnet,
ballata
The ''ballata'' (plural: ''ballate'') is an Italian poetic and musical form in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. It has the musicapenim
AbbaA, with the first and last stanzas having the same texts. It is thus most similar to the Fre ...
and
canzone
Literally "song" in Italian, a ''canzone'' (, plural: ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition w ...
forms of poetry. Cavalcanti was a central part of this accomplishment.
Early poetry
In one of his earlier poems, Guido transforms the imagery of ''fin'amor'', with its beautiful ladies and armed knights, into an idea that love has a philosophical component related to human intelligence and moral purity by equating it with a wise heart. He then proceeds to create a series of images of nature's serene beauty, which he then explains are all transcended by his lady's beauty, grace and noble heart; i.e., her emotions that are pure, based on wisdom, something he is incapable of.
In this simple, but beautiful sonnet, we have, then, both something emblematic of the best poetry of the
Dolce stil novo
''Dolce Stil Novo'' (), Italian for "sweet new style," is the name given to a literary movement in 13th and 14th century Italy. Influenced by the Sicilian School and Tuscan poetry, its main theme is Divine Love. The name ''Dolce Stil Novo'' w ...
, while at the same an example of Cavalcanti's poetic idiom that is at once powerful, persuasive and, here, mellifluous.
The crowning achievement of Cavalcanti's poetic youth is his ''canzone'' ''Io non pensava che lo cor giammai'' in which he embodies his philosophical thoughts in a vernacular masterpiece. An analysis of two passages from this fifty-six line poem reveals his core ideas on love.
Influenced by
Averroës
Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an
Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psyc ...
, the twelfth century Islamic philosopher who commented on
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
, Cavalcanti saw humans with three basic capacities: the vegetative, which humans held in common with plants; the sensitive, which man shared with animals; and, the intellectual, which distinguished humans from the two lower forms. Averroës maintained that the proper goal of humanity was the cultivation of the intellect according to reason. Further, Averroës maintained that the intellect was part of a universal consciousness that came into the body at birth and returned to the universal consciousness after death. As such, it meant there was no afterlife, and, as well, the thing that gives an individual his or her identity was not the intellect, but the sensitive faculty, the appetites and desires of the body. Hence, the goal for Averroës and Cavalcanti was the perfection of the sensitive capacity through reason in order to achieve a balance between the body's physical desires and the intellect. This balance was considered the ''buon perfetto'', the "good perfection." Guido thought this balance could not be achieved, which is why he speaks of “tormented laments” that makes his soul cry, that make his eyes dead, so he can feel “neither peace nor even rest in the place where I found love and my Lady.”
This passage explains the conflict between the sensitive and intellectual, as Guido's heart shivers as his "our lowly minds couldn't sustain what our intellects saw." All this is driven by the lofty beauty of his lady.
Poetic maturity
![Guido Cavalcanti e la brigata godereccia, miniatura del XV secolo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Guido_Cavalcanti_e_la_brigata_godereccia%2C_miniatura_del_XV_secolo.jpg)
Cavalcanti is best remembered for belonging to that small but influential group of Tuscan poets that started what is now known as
Dolce Stil Novo
''Dolce Stil Novo'' (), Italian for "sweet new style," is the name given to a literary movement in 13th and 14th century Italy. Influenced by the Sicilian School and Tuscan poetry, its main theme is Divine Love. The name ''Dolce Stil Novo'' w ...
, to which he contributed the following (note: translations provided in parentheses do not match the titles by which are widely known in English manuals but are meant to be a more literal rendering of the Italian originals): "Rosa fresca novella" (New, Fresh Rose), "Avete in vo' li fior e la verdura" (You Are Flowers in the Meadow), "Biltà di donna" (A Woman's Beauty), Chi è questa che vèn (Who's This Lady That Comes My Way), "Li mie' foll'occhi" (My Crazy Eyes), "L'anima Mia" (My Soul), "Guido Orlandi", "Da più a uno" (From Many to One), "In un boschetto" (In A Grove), "Per ch'io no spero" (Because I Do Not Hope), "Voi che per gli occhi mi passaste il core" (see below), and "Donna me prega" (A Lady Asks Me), a masterpiece of lyric verse and a small treatise on his philosophy of love. Starting from the model provided by the French
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, they took
Italian poetry
Italian poetry is a category of Italian literature. Italian poetry has its origins in the thirteenth century and has heavily influenced the poetic traditions of many European languages, including that of English.
Features
* Italian prosody is a ...
a step further and inaugurated the ''volgare illustre'', that higher standard of
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 ...
that survives almost unchanged to the present day. The founder of this school,
Guido Guinizzelli
Guido Guinizelli (ca. 1225–1276) was an esteemed Italian love poet and is considered the "father" of the Dolce Stil Novo. He was the first to write in this new style of poetry writing, and thus is held to be the ''ipso facto'' founder. He was bor ...
, a law professor at
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
's University wrote the first poem of this kind, a poem whose importance does not so much lie in its literary merits but in outlining what would be the fundamentals of the Stil Novo program, which was further perfected by a second generation of poets, including
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
,
Cino da Pistoia
Cino da Pistoia (1270 – 1336/37) was an Italian jurist and poet.
He was born in Pistoia, Tuscany. His full name was ''Guittoncino dei Sinibaldi'' or, Latinised, ''Cinus de Sighibuldis''. His father was a noble man from the House of Sinibald ...
,
Lapo Gianni, and Guido himself. As Dante wrote in his ''De Vulgari Eloquentia'', I, XIII, 4:
"Sed quanquam fere omne Tusci in suo turpiloquio sint obtusi, nunnullos vulgaris excellentiam cognovisse sentimus, scilicit Guidonem, Lapum, et unum alium, Florentinos et ''Cynum Pistoriensem'' (...) ("Although most Tuscans are overwhelmed by their bad language, we judge that some have known the excellence of the vernacular, namely Guido, Lapo and another
.e: Dante himself all from Florence, and Cino da Pistoia".
Scholars have commented on the Dolce stil novo with Dante as probably the most spiritual and platonic in his portrayal of Beatrice (''
Vita Nuova
''La Vita Nuova'' (; Italian for "The New Life") or ''Vita Nova'' (Latin title) is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and ve ...
''), but Cino da Pistoia is able to write poetry in which "there is a remarkable psychological interest in love, a more tangible presence of the woman, who loses the abstract aura of Guinizzelli and Guido's verse" (Giudice-Bruni), and Guido Cavalcanti interprets love as a source of torment and despair in the surrendering of self to the beloved. An example in kind, and one of Guido's most widely read
lyrics
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...
is a sonnet entitled ''Voi che per gli occhi mi passaste il core'' (Transl. ''You, Whose Look Pierced through My Heart''), dedicated, to his beloved Monna (lady)
Vanna
Vanna () is a given name that first appeared in recorded European history circa 1294. The Italian medieval feminine name originated in Tuscany, and is particular to Florence, Italy.
Though similar in pronunciation to the Italian name Giovanna, an ...
:
Although there are many poems that exemplify Cavalcanti's poetic maturity, ''Certe mie rime a te mandar vogliendo'' is unparalleled in its originality, for here Guido adapts his medium of love to speak of his inner psychological state and the uncertainty of Dante's reaction in this example of
occasional poetry
Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage.
Term
As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the wo ...
. This is creativity at its highest, for Cavalcanti transforms the medium into a unique response to a real world problem.
Guido tells Dante of how desire, how "wanting" has ruined his heart. He dramatically reinforces his condition through the appearance of Love—the medieval and Renaissance view of Love as
Cupid matured into a grown man—in the guise of death, as if Guido is indeed on the verge of leaving this world. Love then warns him not to send this poem to Dante, who is not ready to deal with Guido's condition, given the depth of friendship Dante feels for him. Love also acknowledges that what he makes humanity suffer is "unjust," In sum, because of the love he has felt in life, Guido is ruined, and because of the depth of friendship Dante holds for him, Guido fears he may be ruined as well, seeing him in such a state.
Poetic masterpiece "Donna me prega"
Through his study of
Averroës
Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an
Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psyc ...
, and perhaps due to his native temperament, Cavalcanti held the pessimistic view that humans were limited in the sort of ultimate attainment they could achieve. The intellect could never be brought into a harmony based on reason with bodily desires.
The crowning achievement of Guido's poetic career is his masterpiece, the philosophical
canzone
Literally "song" in Italian, a ''canzone'' (, plural: ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition w ...
''Donna me prega'' (A lady asks me). It is a full-fledged treatise of his personal thoughts and beliefs on love. Through it, he transforms all that came before him and influenced him:
courtly love, the
troubadours
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 ...
, the
Sicilian School
The Sicilian School was a small community of Sicilian and mainland Italian poets gathered around Frederick II, most of them belonging to his imperial court. Headed by Giacomo da Lentini, they produced more than 300 poems of courtly love betwe ...
and his peers of the
Dolce stil novo
''Dolce Stil Novo'' (), Italian for "sweet new style," is the name given to a literary movement in 13th and 14th century Italy. Influenced by the Sicilian School and Tuscan poetry, its main theme is Divine Love. The name ''Dolce Stil Novo'' w ...
.
Guido says he was prompted to write it by his mistress, according to a formula very widespread in the tradition of love poetry. As such, Guido's doctrine draws on the greatest medieval poets or scholars, such as
Chrétien de Troyes and
Brunetto Latini
Brunetto Latini (who signed his name ''Burnectus Latinus'' in Latin and ''Burnecto Latino'' in Italian; –1294) was an Italian philosopher, scholar, notary, politician and statesman.
Life
Brunetto Latini was born in Florence in 1220 to a Tusc ...
. There are several hints to the
Roman de la Rose
''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''The Romance of the Rose'') is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegorical dream vision. As poetry, ''The Romance of the Rose'' is a notable instance of courtly literature, purporting to prov ...
, then considered the "Bible" of courtly love. For example, in the famous line "a man who does not experience it
ove
Ove or OVE may refer to
* Ove (given name)
* Ové, a surname
* Ove Peak in Antarctica
*'' A Man Called Ove (novel)'', a novel by Fredrik Backman
*'' A Man Called Ove'', a 2015 Swedish film based on the novel
* Danish Organisation for Renewable Ener ...
cannot picture it", a common axiom variously quoted from the troubadours to Dante's
Vita Nuova
''La Vita Nuova'' (; Italian for "The New Life") or ''Vita Nova'' (Latin title) is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and ve ...
. "Donna me prega", a remarkable anatomy of love, is divided into five stanzas of fourteen variously rhymed lines of eleven syllables each. The subject is divided into eight chapters dealing with
#Where love is located in the human body
#What causes it
#What his faculties (virtues) are
#His power (what it can do or cause)
#His essence (what it is made of)
#His motions (or alterations it causes in the
human body or
mind)
#What makes us call it love
#The possibility of probing its effects using our
sight
Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the visible spectrum reflecte ...
.
In short, the sensitive, like the rational
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...
is located in the brain, but does not produce love-feelings unless the eyes meet those of a particular woman who has exclusive affinity to him. This complies with
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
's theory of cause and effect, whereby no effect can proceed from an object if the object has not the potential to accomplish it. When a woman's look meet the eyes of a man, the potential for love grows into passion, a spirit or fluid that possesses all his faculties. Such a passion needs more and more love to satisfy its ever-growing appetite, until (when desire outstrips human limits) he is led to
insanity
Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or t ...
and death.
This highly philosophical ''canzone'' was extremely influential, and it was commented upon by authors including
Dino del Garbo
Dino di maestro B(u)ono del Garbo da Firenze (c.1280, Florence - 30 September 1327, Florence) was an Italian medieval physician and philosopher. He was also known as ''Dino da Firenze, Aldobrandino'' and in Latin as ''Dinus Florentinus''. He studi ...
, pseudo-Giles,
Giles of Rome
Giles of Rome O.S.A. (Latin: ''Aegidius Romanus''; Italian: ''Egidio Colonna''; c. 1243 – 22 December 1316), was a Medieval philosopher and Scholastic theologian and a friar of the Order of St Augustine, who was also appointed to the ...
,
Marsilio Ficino,
Pico della Mirandola,
Iacopo Mini, and
Fracesco de Vieri (see Enrico Fenzi, ''La canzone d'amore di Guido Cavalcanti e i suoi antichi commenti'', Melangolo, 1999).
While this has very little to do with modern
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
, Guido's philosophy of ''spiritelli'' was part of the guiding principles of
Arabic medicine
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, considered very advanced in Dante's time. The merit of such philosophy in Cavalcanti's
verse is its ability to describe what goes through the poet's mind in a very detailed, personal manner, creating sensuous, autobiographic poetry. This is revolutionary compared to the rhetoric and academic-seeming manner of the
Sicilian and Neo-Sicilian Schools that had preceded the Dolce Stil Novo and, perhaps, a sign of the changing times.
Mentions in Dante's ''Divine Comedy''
Guido Cavalcanti indirectly appears twice in Dante's ''Divine Comedy''. The first occurs in Inferno X, where Dante encounters the souls of heretics. They are condemned in the sixth circle of Hell, trapped inside burning tombs. Guido's father,
Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti, is among these heretics, and proceeds to ask Dante about his son. Dante refers to Guido in the past tense, thus leading Cavalcante to believe that Guido is dead. Dante, later feeling guilty, asks
Farinata degli Uberti
Manente degli Uberti (1212 – 11 November 1264), known as Farinata degli Uberti, was an Italian aristocrat and military leader of the Ghibelline faction in Florence. He was considered to be a heretic by some of his contemporaries, including Dan ...
, another heretic, to inform Cavalcante that Guido remains alive.
Guido's name arrives once more in Purgatory XI, mentioned by
Oderisi da Gubbio
Oderisi da Gubbio (Gubbio, circa 1240 - Rome, 1299) was an Italian painter and manuscript illuminator of the 13th century. Few details of his life are known. Documents to his activities in Bologna span from 1262 to 1271. In 1292, he was called to ...
to Dante on the terrace of pride. The former employs the fame of
Guido Guinizelli
Guido Guinizelli (ca. 1225–1276) was an esteemed Italian love poet and is considered the "father" of the Dolce Stil Novo. He was the first to write in this new style of poetry writing, and thus is held to be the '' ipso facto'' founder. He was bo ...
, soon overpowered by that of Guido Cavalcanti, to justify the fleeting nature of fame in their larger discussion of vanity. Through Oderisi's words, Dante further asserts himself, as a poet, to be the next in line, replacing Guido in terms of public interest.
It has been suggested that Guido Cavalcanti's presence in Dante's Divine Comedy permeates further than Dante's two mentions of him by name. His cynical beliefs towards the subject of desire, demonstrated in ''Donna me prega'' with images of wrath and death, have been proposed as inspiration for Dante's ''contrapasso'' observed in Inferno V,
where the carnal sinners are tossed uncontrollably by the winds of a never-ending storm.
The difference between the two literary works, in their contexts, is in their treatment of love, since Guido believed that all love led to a loss of rationale. Dante, opposed to this belief, used Guido's definition for a perverted love instead, within the circle of lust.
Legacy
Cavalcanti is widely regarded as the first major poet of
Italian literature
Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian, including ...
: Dante sees in Guido his mentor; his meter, his language deeply inspire his work (cfr.
De Vulgari Eloquentia
''De vulgari eloquentia'' (; "On eloquence in the vernacular") is the title of a Latin essay by Dante Alighieri. Although meant to consist of four books, it abruptly terminates in the middle of the second book. It was probably composed shortly aft ...
), though Guido's esthetic
materialism would be taken a step further to an entirely new spiritual, Christian vision of the gentler sex, as personified by Beatrice whose soul becomes Dante's guide to
Paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
.
Guido's controversial personality and beliefs attracted the interest of
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was some ...
, who made him one of the most famous heretical characters in his
Decameron
''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...
, helping popularise the belief about his
atheism. Cavalcanti would be studied with perhaps more interest during the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
, by such scholars as
Luigi Pulci and
Pico della Mirandola. By passing to Dante's study of the Italian language, Guido's style has influenced all those who, like cardinal
Pietro Bembo, helped turn the ''volgare illustre'' into today's
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 ...
.
Cavalcanti was to become a strong influence on a number of writers associated with the development of
Modernist poetry in English
Modernist poetry in English started in the early years of the 20th century with the appearance of the Imagists. In common with many other modernists, these poets wrote in reaction to the perceived excesses of Victorian poetry, with its emphasis ...
. This influence can be traced back to the appearance, in 1861, of
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...
's ''The Early Italian Poets'', which featured translations of works by both Cavalcanti and Dante.
The young
Ezra Pound admired Rossetti and knew his Italian translations well, quoting extensively from them in his 1910 book ''
The Spirit of Romance''. In 1912, Pound published his own translations under the title ''The Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti'' and in 1932, he published the Italian poet's works as ''Rime''. A reworked translation of ''Donna me prega'' formed the bulk of Canto XXXVI in Pound's long poem ''
The Cantos
''The Cantos'' by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a ''canto''. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date ...
''. Pound's main focus was on Cavalcanti's philosophy of love and light, which he viewed as a continuing expression of a
pagan,
neo-platonic
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some ide ...
tradition stretching back through the troubadours and early medieval Latin lyrics to the world of pre-Christian
polytheism
Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, t ...
. Pound also composed a three-act opera titled ''Cavalcanti'' at the request of Archie Harding, a producer at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. Though never performed in his lifetime, excerpts are available on audio CD.
Pound's friend and fellow
used an adaptation of the opening line of ''Perch'i' no spero di tornar giammai'' ("Because I do not hope to turn again") to open his 1930 poem ''
''.
available through Wikisource.
* Maria Corti, ''La felicità mentale. Nuove prospettive per Cavalcanti e Dante'', Turin, Einaudi, 1983.
* Tobias Eisermann, Cavalcanti oder die Poetik der Negativität, Band 17 in Romanica et Comparatistica: Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Studien, herausgegeben von Richard Baum und Willi Hirdt, Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr GmbH, 1992;
* Giudice, A. and Bruni, G. ''Problemi e scrittori della letteratura italiana''. Turin, Paravia, 1973.
* Dante, ''Divina Commedia'', ed.
. Florence, La Nuova Italia, 1982.
* AA.VV., ''Antologia della poesia italiana'', ed C.Segre and C. Ossola. Turin, Einaudi, 1999
* Migliorini, B. ''Storia della lingua Italiana''. Florence, Sansoni, 1987
* Dante, ''Vita Nuova''. Milan, Garzanti, 1982.
New York, Italica Press, 1992;
*Guido Cavalcanti, ''Complete Poems'', translated by Anthony Mortimer. Oneworld Classics.