Jacopo da Leona, also spelt Iacopo 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 ...

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

jurist and

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 ...

who died in 1277. A notary by profession, he became a nobleman's secretary and later a judge. Sixty of his sonnets survive.

Life and work

Beginning life as Jacopo del Tancredo in the village of Levane, Arezzo, Leona took his later surname from the Castle of Leona (''Castello di Leona''), on which his village depended. Here he learnt the work of a notary, under the patronage of the family of Ubertini of Arezzo, and one of the Ubertini, Ranieri, employed him as a secretary. Leona went with his master to Volterra, and in 1273, when Ranieri was elected as a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

, Leona was appointed as a judge. Of Leona's poetry, a songbook of sixty sonnets survives, of which the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

's manuscript Codex 3793 ('' Canzoniere Vaticano latino 3793'') contains seven. All of the sonnets belong to the years before 1277. They divide broadly into

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

and love poetry, which is original but mannered, adopting the style and themes of courtly love. Leona’s best known work, which takes the form of a dialogue, has the title "Lady, I lament me of you" (''Madonna, di voi piango e mi lamento'').Aurelio Roncaglia, ''Per due sonetti di Cecco Angiolieri ed uno di Jacopo da Leona'' (1941) in ''Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana'', vol. CXVIII (353-354), pp. 81-92 On Leona’s death,

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 ...

addressed an ode to him which calls him Giacomo da Leona and refers to him as a

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leona, Jacopo da 1277 deaths 13th-century Italian poets Italian male poets Sonneteers Year of birth unknown 13th-century Italian jurists People from the Province of Arezzo