Giacomo da Lentini

Akash Kumar (Columbia University)

Ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo, Columbia University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Dates

Born 1200
Died 1260
Activity c. 1230-c. 1260

Places

Born in Italy
Active in Italy

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Lentini's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Giacomo da Lentini is considered the principal poet of the Sicilian school of poetry that flourished in the early thirteenth century in the court of Frederick II and formally initiated the Italian lyric tradition. Acknowledged as a major poetic authority by his contemporaries as well as poets of the next generation like Dante Alighieri, Giacomo is notably thought to be the inventor of the sonnet, a lyric innovation that would exercise immense influence not only on the development of Italian poetry, but also on the whole of European letters as it migrated outward from the Italian peninsula. His love poetry goes beyond translating courtly love from pre-existing medieval lyric traditions like the Occitan and Minnesang in distilling elements of science and philosophy that raise the level of…

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2121 words

Citation: Kumar, Akash. "Giacomo da Lentini". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12946, accessed 03 December 2024.]