phrases, to suggest the universality of imperial rule.
Collections of Pier’s documents, to which were added
some of his personal letters and various writings of his
correspondents and others, began to be made as early as
the 1270s and came to be known as the Epistole (Let-
ters), Dictamina (Formal Communications), or Summa
(Treatise) of Pier della Vigna. Circulating in several dif-
ferent redactions, they served into the fi fteenth century
and beyond as models in rhetorical instruction and were
used pragmatically in many chanceries. At least 230
manuscripts are known; their quantity and quality attest
to the importance that contemporaries and successive
generations attached to these writings. The Florentine
Guelf Brunetto Latini, writing several decades after
Pier’s death, commemorates this imperial offi cial as an
exemplary orator, and as such, master of Frederick and
of the empire.
Pier’s other surviving works and possible works in-
clude two Latin poems in rhythmical quatrains whose
attribution to Pier, though early, is not certain: one on
the months of the year and their properties, the other a
satire on the mendicants. Most of Pier’s Latin writings
and the Latin texts associated with him still lack modern
critical editions.
Pier is also a minor fi gure in early Italian literature.
He was one of the court poets of the Sicilian school and
is named in the manuscripts as the author of at least eight
pieces. Two canzoni and a sonnet (the latter is part of a
tenzone with Jacopo Mostacci and Giacomo da Lentini)
are securely attributed to Pier; a third canzone (Poi tanta
caunoscenza) is less certainly his. The modern editor of
the Sicilian school corpus, Panvini (1962–1964, 1994),
rejects, on a variety of grounds, Pier’s authorship of the
remainder.
See also Dante Alighieri; Frederick II
Further Reading
Editions: Latin Writings
Böhmer, Johann Friedrich, ed. “Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs
unter Philipp, Otto IV, Friedrich II, Heinrich (VII), Conrad
IV, Heinrich Raspe, Wilhelm und Richard, 1198–1272.” In
Regesta imperii, Vol. 5, ed. Julius Ficker and Eduard Winkel-
mann. Innsbruck: Wagner, 1881–1901. (Reprint, Hildesheim:
Georg Olms, 1971.)
Casters, Louis. “Prose latine attribuée à Pierre de la Vigne.” Re-
vue des Langues Romanes, 32, 1888, pp. 430–452. (Critical
edition of the satire against the mendicants.)
Conrad, Hermann, Thea von der Lieck-Buycken, and Wolfgang
Wagner, eds. Die Konstitutionen Friedrichs II. von Hohen-
staufen für sein Königreich Sizilien. Studien und Quellen zur
Welt Kaiser Friedrichs II, 2. Cologne: Böhlau, 1973. (Edition
and German translation of Liber Augustalis.)
Holder-Egger, O. “Bericht über eine Reise nach Italien im Jahre
1891.” Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für Ältere Deutsche Ge-
schichtskunde, 17, 1892, pp. 461–524. (Poem on the months
of the year, pp. 501–503.)
Huillard-Bréholles, J.-L.-A., ed. Historia diplomatica Friderici
Secundi, 6 vols. Paris: Plon, 1852–1861. (Reprint, Turin:
Bottega d’Erasmo, 1963. Offi cial documents in chronologi-
cal order.)
——, ed. Vie et correspondance de Pierre de la Vigne, ministre
de l’Empereur Frédéric II. Paris: Plon, 1865. (Reprint, Aalen:
Scientia, 1966. See Latin personal correspondence, pp.
289–404; and Eulogy of Frederick, pp. 425–426.)
Editions: Italian Writings
Macciocca, Gabriella, ed. Poesie volgari di Pier della Vigna. Tesi
di Dottorato di Ricerca, Dip. di Studi Romanzi, Università
degli Studi di Roma. Rome: La Sapienza, 1996.
Panvini, Bruno, ed. Le rime della scuola siciliana. Biblioteca
dell’ Archivum Romanicum, Series 1(65 and 72). Florence:
L. S. Olschki, 1962–1964, Vol. 1, pp. xliii–xlix, 125–130,
412–414, 647.
——, ed. Poeti italiani della corte di Federico II, rev. ed. Naples:
Liguori, 1994, pp. 185–192, 259.
Manuscript
Schaller, Hans Martin, with Bernhard Vogel. Handschriftenver-
zeichnis zur Briefsammlung des Petrus de Vinea. Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, Hilfsmittel, 18. Hannover: Hahn, 2002.
Critical Studies
Cassell, Anthony K. “Pier della Vigna’s Metamorphosis: Iconog-
raphy and History.” In Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio: Studies in
the Italian Trecento in Honor of Charles S. Singleton, ed. Aldo
S. Bernardo and Anthony L. Pellegrini. Medieval and Renais-
sance Texts and Studies, 22. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and
Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1983, pp. 31–76.
Delle Donne, Fulvio. “Lo stile della cancelleria di Federico II ed
i presunti infl ussi arabi.” In Atti dell’Accademia Pontaniana,
n.s., 41, 1992, pp. 153–164.
——. “Le ‘Consolationes’ del IV libro del epistolario di Pier
della
Vigna.” Vichiana, 4, 1993, pp. 268–290.
——. “Una perduta raffigurazione federiciana descritta da
Francesco Pipino e la sede della cancelleria imperiale.” Studi
Medievali, Series 3, 38, 1997, pp. 737–749. (Reprinted in
Fulvio Delle Donne. Politica e letteratura nel Mezzogiorno
medievale: La cronachistica dei secoli XII-XV. Immagini del
Medioevo, 4. Salerno: Cadone, 2001, pp. 111–126.)
Di Capua, Francesco. “Lo stile della Curia romana e il ‘cursus’
nelle epistole di Pier della Vigna e nei documenti della Can-
celleria sveva.” Giornale Italiano di Filologia, 2, 1949, pp.
97–166. (Reprinted in Francesco Di Capua. Scritti minori,
Vol 1. New York: Desclée, 1958, pp. 500–523.)
Dilcher, Hermann. Die sizilianische Gesetzgebung Kaiser
Friedrichs II: Quellen der Constitutionen von Melfi und ihrer
Novellen. Studien und Quellen zur Welt Kaiser Friedrichs II, 3.
Cologne: Böhlau, 1975. (See especially pp. 21–22, 26–27.)
Haskins, Charles Homer. “Latin Literature under Frederick II.” In
Studies in Mediaeval Culture. Oxford: Clarendon, 1929, pp.
124–147. (Reprint, New York: Frederick Ungar, 1958.)
Kantorowicz, Ernst. Frederick the Second, 1194– 1250 , trans.
E. O. Lorimer. London: Constable; New York: Smith, 1931.
(Reprint, New York: Frederick Ungat, 1957. See especially
pp. 293–307, 663–667.)
Martin, Janet. “Classicism and Style in Latin Literature.” In Re-
naissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. Robert L.
Benson, Giles Constable, and Carol D. Lanham. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982, pp. 537–568.
Meredith, Jill. “The Arch at Capua: The Strategic Use of Spolia
and References to the Antique.” In Intellectual Life at thePIER DELLA VIGNA