concept associates love with nobility and nobility with
character. It consequently addresses a question, much
debated by classical and medieval writers—whether
nobility is determined by one’s lineage or one’s in-
nate qualities. Unlike his predecessors, who describe
a process in which the soul is made noble by love,
Guinizzelli argues for a simultaneous appearance: né fe’
amor anti che gentil core,/ne gentil core anti ch’amor,
natura (“Nature did not make love before the noble
heart,/Nor the noble heart before love”). The second
concept redefi nes the rhetoric of praise. Earlier poets
had spoken of the angelic beloved by approximation,
addressing her as if she were an angel. Guinizzelli ob-
jectifi es her as the embodiment of spiritual values who
stands between human experience and the abstract truth
of divine creation. In contrast to Dante’s later formula-
tion of Beatrice, however, Guinizzelli’s beloved fi nally
remains secular and earthbound; she has, he says, the
likeness of an angel.
To express these concepts, Guinizzelli draws on
medieval science and philosophy, giving the poem a
richly allusive texture; and he adopts a style of closely
reasoned philosophical argumentation. Love’s existence
in the noble heart is explained through the Aristotelian-
scholastic analysis of potency and act and through the
imagery of astral infl uences imbuing a precious stone
with its properties. Love, the poet says, is like fi re on the
tip of a candle or a diamond in a vein of ore, while the
proud man’s boast of his heritage is like mud unchanged
by the sun’s power. The lover’s wish to serve his beau-
tiful lady duplicates the movement of the Neoplatonic
angelic intelligences who contemplate divine perfection
directly and instantly understand its wishes. Guiniz-
zelli also brings to the poem a Franciscan-Augustinian
metaphysics of light, which also infl uences the stilnovist
sonnets Vedut’ ho la lucente Stella diana (“I have seen
the bright morning star”) and Io vogl’ del ver la mia
donna laudare (“I want to praise my lady truly”).
Guinizzelli’s innovations in theme and style drew
criticism from conservative poets like Guittone and
Bonagiunta of Lucca; but Dante admired these innova-
tions, and Guinizzelli’s poetic craftsmanship in general.
Dante echoes Al cor gentil in Vita nuova (19 and 20)
and cites it in his discussion of nobility in Convivio
(4.20). Francesca’s apology for her adulterous love in
Inferno 5 ironically echoes it, too. But Guinizzelli’s
position in literary history was established by Dante’s
historical representation of him at several points in the
Comedy. In Purgatorio 11 Oderisi proposes a literary
succession from Guinizzelli to Cavalcanti to perhaps
a greater poet, presumably Dante. In Purgatorio 24
Bonagiunta concedes that he and other Sicilian-Tuscan
poets fell short of Dante’s dolce stil novo. In Purgatorio
26 Dante greets Guinizzelli as “the father of me and of
others my betters who ever used sweet and gracious
rhymes of love.” Dante’s portrayal consciously makes
Guinizzelli the originating fi gure in the thirteenth-cen-
tury polemic over the Italian love lyric, and it amplifi es
the break from tradition that Guittone and Bonagiunta
saw. Yet Guinizzelli’s actual position is somewhat dif-
ferent from either view. A precursor of the new style,
he was at once connected to traditional poetic practice
and committed to experiment and innovation. Unlike the
Florentine poets he infl uenced, Guinizzelli did sharply
distinguish the stilnovist elements of his work from
the infl uence of his Sicilian predecessors or his Tuscan
contemporaries. Most scholars emphasize the shifting
dimensions of his work—sometimes prestilnovist,
sometimes protostilnovist.
See also Cavalcanti, Guido; Dante Alighieri;
Guittone d’ArezzoFurther Reading
Editions
Contini, Gianfranco, ed. Poeti del Duecento, 2 vols. Milan and
Naples: Ricciardi, 1960, Vol. 2, pp. 447–485.
Edwards, Robert R., ed. and trans. The Poetry of Guido Guinizelli.
New York: Garland, 1987.
Marti, Mario, ed. Poeti del dolce stil nuovo. Florence: Le Mon-
nier, 1969, pp. 35–114.
Translations
Goldin, Frederick, trans. German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle
Ages. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor/Doubleday, 1973.
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, trans. The Early Italian Poets. In The
Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ed. William M.
Rossetti, 2 vols. London: Ellis and Elvey, 1888, Vol. 2, pp.
263–270.
Wilhelm, James J. Lyrics of the Middle Ages. New York: Gar-
land, 1990.
Critical Studies
Barolini, Teodolinda. Dante’s Poets: Textuality and Truth in the
Comedy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Bertelli, Italo. Poeti del dolce stil nuovo: Guido Guinizzelli e
Lapo Gianni. Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1963.
——. La poesia di Guido Guinizzelli e la poetica del dolce stil
nuovo. Florence: Le Monnier, 1983.
Folena, Gianfranco, ed. Per Guido Guinizzelli: Il comune de
Monselice (1276–1976). Padua: Antenore, 1980.
Ker, W. P. “Dante, Guido Guinizelli, and Arnaut Daniel.” Mod-
ern Language Review, 4, 1909, pp. 145–152. (Reprinted in
Form and Style in Poetry. London: Macmillan, 1929, pp.
319–328.)
Marti, Mario. Storia dello stil nuovo, 2 vols. Lecce: Milella,
1973.
Moleta, Vincent. Guinizzelli in Dante. Rome: Edizioni di Storia
e Letteratura, 1980.
Valency, Maurice. In Praise of Love. New York: Macmillan,
1961.
Wilkins, Ernest Hatch. “A Note on Guinizelli’s ‘Al cor gentil’ ”
Modern Philology, 12, 1914, pp. 325–330.
——. “Guinizelli Praised and Corrected.” In The Invention of the
Sonnet and other Studies in Italian Literature, pp. 111–113.
Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1959.
Robert R. EdwardsGUINIZZELLI, GUIDO