Italy

Abstract

The influence of the troubadours is first seen in Italian verse in the work of the aristocratic poets at the cosmopolitan court of Frederick II of Sicily, between 1220 and 1250. All the poetry of the Sicilian School, as it is called, is on the theme of love, and its sentiments tend to be conventional. The two characteristic forms are the canzone, the rather elaborate song of courtly love corresponding to the canso, and the newly invented sonnet. Later in the thirteenth century, Northern Italian poets compose in the same modes. The poems that follow range from the graceful Dolce meo drudo, by King Frederick, to the energetic Mamma lo temp’è venuto, which draws on a more earthy tradition.