Page 21 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(2) (2024)

he sings about. In the new social reality in Ita- This song is significant because it is representa-
ly, the Sicilian court soon reached its maximum. tive of the Sweet New Style.
It begins to repeat itself through constant mo- Interestingly, Guinizzelli searches for a syn-
tifs and clichés, so there is a need for more nu- thesis in the love of the noble heart of the woman
anced poetic forms in place of this poetry. In the and the angel. The identification of love for God
new lyric, the spirit of civil society begins to ap- and love for woman has its inspirations in the
pear, of new democratic communities, munici- work of St. Thomas Aquinas (1920). Through the
palities, or communes in which human individ- intellectual structure of the canzone, Guinizzel-
uality begins to dominate more and more, and li asserts himself as a prover of a new doctrine
religious life becomes more secular. At the same in that period, according to which the phenom-
time, there is a tendency to establish worldly au- enon of love is much more complexly analyzed.
thority; thus, conditions are created for new eth- Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore
ical principles. Love is understood realistically; it come l’ausello in selva a la verdura; 21
is found in an everyday existential context, and né fe’ amor anti che gentil core,
the woman is not only seen as a lofty ideal, but
she occupies a real place in life (Magliozzi, At- né gentil core anti ch’amor, natura:
ch’adesso con’ fu ’l sole,
talienti, and Cotroneo 1998). sì tosto lo splendore fu lucente,
The first reactions to the old Sicilian school
appear in the learned environment of Bologna, né fu davanti ’l sole;
a city with the oldest university in Europe. The e prende amore in gentilezza loco
così propïamente
school takes its name from Dante, who mentions 5
it in the 24 cantos of Purgatory. This direction is come calore in clarità di foco.
‘new’ in content and ‘sweet’ in style. For Dante, [Borsa 2007, 162]
poetry has two stages: one is the one when the According to the canzone, love can only be From Religious Lauda to Medieval Canzone and Sonnet
feeling of love causes a particular psychological born in a virtuous heart. The new democratic re-
state, and the second is the moment when rea- ality and the new understandings of the social
son dictates to the poet to record what he felt in life of that time will also be seen in the attitude
the form of verse (Chiappelli 1978). Poetry be- according to which the nobility of the soul is a
gins to be distinguished by the rudiments of human characteristic that he acquires natural-
philosophical thought. Still, some conceptions ly; it is a natural phenomenon, not a privilege of
from the field of ethics dominate, contradicting the noble class and is not inherited according to
the Provençal lyric. The lady here is distant not blue blood, as propagated in feudalism. The in-
because she is of an unattainable social position effable ethereal love for the beloved compared to
but because she embodies virtue and is identical an angel shines in the gaze of the tender-hearted
to God. In this period, we are not talking about man and causes in him feelings directed towards
the ladies who lived in the castles but about the goodness and God (Borsa 2007). The unique-
women who could be met in everyday life in the ness of Guinizelli’s poetry is also seen in the
squares due to the development of civil life. style; it is revealed in the poet’s admiration for

Guido Guinizelli - Within the gentle heart, 5 Within the gentle heart Love shelters him,
Love shelters him As birds within the green shade of the grove.
Before the gentle heart, in Nature’s scheme,
The founder of this school was the Bologna ju- Love was not, nor the gentle heart ere Love.
rist Guido Guinizelli, and his most famous pro- For with the sun, at once,
So sprang the light immediately; nor was
gram canzone is In the tender heart always hides Its birth before the sun’s.
Amor (‘Al cor gentil rempaira semper Amore’). And Love hath his effect in gentleness
Of very self; even as
Within the middle fire the heat’s excess.