Dante Alighieri, most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer, and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.
A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, and the Sicilian School of poets who surrounded him then spread the form to the mainland. The earliest sonnets, however, no longer survive in the original Sicilian language, but only after being translated into Tuscan dialect.
A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem.
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 was used for the first time by Dante Alighieri in Purgatorio, the second canticle of the Divina Commedia. In the Divina Commedia Purgatory he meets Bonagiunta Orbicciani, a 13th-century Italian poet, who tells Dante that Dante himself, Guido Guinizelli, and Guido Cavalcanti had been able to create a new genre: a stil novo.
Guido Cavalcanti was an Italian poet. He was also a friend and intellectual influence on Dante Alighieri.
Jacopo Mazzoni was an Italian philosopher, a professor in Pisa, and friend of Galileo Galilei. His first name is sometimes reported as "Giacomo".
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 regional varieties and vernacular dialects.
A sestet is six lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem. A sestet is also the name given to the second division of an Italian sonnet, which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by a sestet, of six lines.
Christian poetry is any poetry that contains Christian teachings, themes, or references. The influence of Christianity on poetry has been great in any area that Christianity has taken hold. Christian poems often directly reference the Bible, while others provide allegory.
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 in Palermo. Headed by Giacomo da Lentini, they produced more than 300 poems of courtly love between 1230 and 1266, the experiment being continued after Frederick's death by his son, Manfred.
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.
Il Canzoniere, also known as the Rime Sparse, but originally titled Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, is a collection of poems by the Italian humanist, poet, and writer Petrarch.
William Baer is an American writer, editor, translator, and academic. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright (Portugal), and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Dante da Maiano was a late thirteenth-century poet who composed mainly sonnets in Italian and Occitan. He was an older contemporary of Dante Alighieri and active in Florence.
Chiaro Davanzati was an Italian poet from Florence, one of the Siculo-Tuscan poets, who introduced the style of Sicilian School to the Tuscan School. He was one of the most prolific Italian authors before Dante: at least 122 sonnets and sixty-one canzoni by Chiaro are known, many of them in tenzone with other poets. Only Guittone d'Arezzo produced more lyrics in the thirteenth century.
Catherine Tufariello is an American poet and former professor at Cornell University, the College of Charleston, and the University of Miami.
Bonagiunta Orbicciani, also called Bonaggiunta and Urbicciani, was an Italian poet of the Tuscan School, which drew on the work of the Sicilian School. His main occupation was as a judge and notary. Fewer than forty of his poems survive.
Cielo d'Alcamo, also spelled Ciullo, was an Italian poet, born in the early 13th century. He is considered one of the fathers of Italian medieval jester poetry. His traditional surname has been differently identified by other scholars as Dalcamo. Cielo d'Alcamo and fellow 13th century poet Giacomo da Lentini are credited as the inventors of the love sonnet.
The Abbot of Tivoli was an Italian poet of the thirteenth century. His birth and death dates are not known, but he was alive at least between 1230 and 1250.
Ruggero de Amicis was a Sicilian high administrator and diplomat under the Emperor Frederick II. He served as justiciar of western Sicily between 1239 and 1240, then as captain and master justiciar of all Sicily and Calabria from 1240 until 1241. He was Frederick's ambassador to Ayyubid Egypt from 1241 until 1242. He was also active as a vernacular lyric poet, one of the earliest members of the Sicilian school. In 1246, he joined a conspiracy against the emperor and was arrested. He died in prison.
