I - EPISTOLA TO FREDERICK OF ARAGON

in which [this language] not only in those first two, Dante and Petrarch, but also in these others whom you, my Lord, have revived, infinite and most illustrious examples shine forth.

The use of rhyme, according to what Petrarch writes in a Latin letter Petrarch discusses the origins of rhyme in his Epistolae familiares (Letters on Familiar Matters), specifically in Book XI, letter 4., was once highly celebrated among the ancient Romans; having then been interrupted for a long time, it began to flourish again in Sicily not many centuries ago This refers to the "Sicilian School" of poets at the court of Frederick II in the 13th century., and, having spread from there through France, it finally arrived in Italy as if at its own home.

The first, therefore, among our own people to set his hand to portraying the lovely image of this new style Known in Italian as the "Dolce Stil Novo" (Sweet New Style), a refined, philosophical movement in 13th-century lyric poetry. was Guittone of Arezzo, and in that same age the famous Bolognese Guido Guinizelli; both were highly adorned in philosophy, grave and full of wisdom. Yet the first was somewhat rough and severe, and not lit by any light of eloquence; the other was so much more lucid, sweet, and ornate than he, that our honored Dante does not hesitate to call him his father, and the father of those others who:

original: "miglior, che m' / rime d'amore usâr dolci e leggiadre." These lines are from Dante’s Purgatorio, Canto XXVI, where Dante pays homage to Guinizelli.

This man [Guinizelli] was certainly the first by whom the beautiful form of our language was sweetly colored, which before him had been only dimly sketched by that rough Arezzo native Referring to Guittone d'Arezzo.. Shifting behind these men shines the delicate Guido Cavalcanti, a Florentine, a most subtle dialectician A practitioner of logic and philosophical debate. and the most excellent philosopher of his century. This man, just as he was handsome and graceful in body and of the most noble blood, so in his writings he resembles something even more beautiful, noble, and refined than the others; he was most sharp in his inventions, magnificent, admirable, most grave in his wisdom, copious and elevated in his order, composed, wise, and prudent. All these blessed virtues of his are adorned with a charming, sweet, and rare style, as if with a precious garment. Had he exercised his talents in a wider field, he would have undoubtedly occupied the highest honors; but above all his other works, one canzona A complex song-form or poem; here referring to Cavalcanti's famous and difficult philosophical poem "Donna me prega" (A Lady Asks Me). is most marvelous, in which this graceful poet subtly described every quality, virtue, and attribute of love; for which reason, in his own age, it was judged to be of such great value that