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Sicilian School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The birth ofFrederick II,Holy Roman EmperorandKing of Sicily
The Sicilian School was a small community ofSicilian, and to a lesser extent, mainland
Italian poets gathered aroundFrederick II, most of them belonging to his court, the
Magna Curia. Headed byGiacomo da Lentini, they produced more than three-hundred
poems ofcourtly lovebetween 1230 and 1266, the experiment being continued after
Frederick's death by his son,Manfredi. This school includedEnzio, king ofSardinia,
Pier delle Vigne,Inghilfredi,Stefano Protonotaro, Guido andOdo delle Colonne,
Rinaldo d'Aquino,Giacomino Pugliese,Giacomo da Lentini,Arrigo Testa,Mazzeo
Ricco,Perceval Doria, and Frederick II himself.
Contents
[hide]
1 Origins 2 The work of a roving school 3 Style and subject-matter 4 The limitations of Sicilian poetry 5 Realism and parody: Cielo d'Alcamo 6 Linguistic notes on the Sicilian standard 7 See also 8 References
[edit] Origins
These poets drew inspiration from thetroubadourpoetry of SouthernFrancewritten in
langue d'oc, which applied the feudalcode of honorto the relation between a man
(acting as the vassal) and a woman (acting as king or superior). This is a reversal of the
traditional role of women, traditionally dependent on men, and marks a new awarenessinmedievalsociety: the decadence offeudalismwith the increasing power of themiddle
class, causes a shift in the reading public, the epic (traditionally devoted to great
military pursuits) gradually giving way to the lyric (generally focused on love). In the
lower Middle Ages more and more women were reading books than ever before and
poetry tried to adapt to their point of view and their newly acquired role in society.
Palazzo deiNormanni, one of the places that hosted Frederick'sMagna Curia
These features are shared with French poetry, then very influential inItaly. Whatdistinguishes the Sicilian School from the troubadours, however, is the introduction of a
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kinder, gentler type of woman than that found in their French models; one who was
nearer toDante's madonnas andPetrarch's Laura, though much less characterised
psychologically. The poems of the Sicilians hardly portray real women or situations
(Frederick's song cannot be read as autobiographical), but the style and language are
remarkable, since the Sicilians (as Dante called them) created the first Italian literary
standard by enriching the existing vernacular base, probably inspired by popular lovesongs, with new words ofLatinandProvenalorigin.
[edit] The work of a roving school
"It is lyric poetry to be in the forefront of literature, inspiring a widespread enthusiasm
whose effects will be felt for centuries. The initial boost given by the Sicilian poets
from the Svevs' court, the first to use a standardised vernacular to make art poetry will
be passed on to many others: and all of them, not just the pedantic imitators of the
Siculo-Tuscan school (such asBonagiunta Orbicciani) but alsoGuinizzelli, the poets of
Dolce Stil Novoand more widely all writers of verse, will have to deal, though bydifferent degrees, with the Sicilian models, so that some peculiarities will be assimilated
into standard usage ofItalian poetry." (Bruno Migliorini,Storia della letteratura
italiana)
Though yet confined to a few notaries and dignitaries of the emperors, such poetry
shows for the first time uniform linguistic traits and a richness in vocabulary far
exceeding that of the Sicilian dialect(s) by which it was inspired. TheMagna curia was
not based in any given city, but always moving across Southern Italy, a fact which
helped the school avoid the temptation of choosing any local dialect as the starting point
for their new language. That is why the new standard turned up to be akoin, a melting
pot of many different vernaculars.
The reason for moving from city to city was mainly political. Although his experiment
was short-lived, Frederic successfully created the first modern state in Europe, run by an
efficient bureaucracy: its members were neither appointed from the aristocracy nor the
clergy with good reason, since the former were far more interested in defending their
own privileges than the welfare of the country and often plotted against him in the hope
of regaining their power, while the latter were basically faithful to the Pope, his biggest
enemy.
Frederic was in fact dismantling the feudal system of government inherited from the
Normans, his magna curia and minor dignitaries were usually chosen from lay orders(like his poet-notaries). He also abolished internal barriers: free trade brought prosperity
to the South, makingBari(as witnessed by Cielo in his Contrasto) one of the richest
cities in theMediterranean. But, keeping this modern state afloat, meant that his barons
had no power to collect taxes, their greatest source of revenues. Hence the necessity for
Frederick to bring law and order by moving his court to and through.
[edit] Style and subject-matter
Though the Sicilian School is generally considered conventional in theme or content it
rather "stands out for his refined lexicon, near to the style oftrobar clus and for the wisetreatment of figures of speech and metaphors ofstylnovistic taste taken from natural
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philosophy" (Cesare Segre). There is a visible move towards neoplatonic models, which
will be embraced byDolce Stil Novoin the later 13th centuryBolognaandFlorence,
and more markedly byPetrarch. Unlike the Northern Italiantroubadours, no line is ever
written inOccitan. Rather, the Occitan repertoire ofchivalryterms is adapted to the
Siculo-Italianphoneticsandmorphology, so that new Italian words are actually coined,
some adapted, but none really loaned. A most famous specimen isIo m'aggio posto incore byGiacomo da Lentini, who apparently inspired the movement. Giacomo da
Lentini is also widely credited by scholars (as Francesco Bruni, Cesare Segre et al.) for
inventing thesonnet, a literary form later perfected by Dante and, most of all, Petrarch.
He uses it in a number of poems. We quote here the most famous that probably inspired
the whole school:
Io m'aggio posto in core a Dio servire,
com'io potesse gire in paradiso,
al santo loco c'aggio audito dire,
o' si mantien sollazzo, gioco e riso.
sanza mia donna non vi voria gire,quella c'ha blonda testa e claro viso,
che sanza lei non poteria gaudere,
estando da la mia donna diviso.
Ma no lo dico a tale intendimento,
perch'io pecato ci volesse fare;
se non veder lo suo bel portamento
e lo bel viso e 'l morbido sguardare:
che 'l mi teria in gran consolamento,
veggendo la mia donna in ghiora stare.
Translation:
I have a place in my heart for God reserved,
So that I may go to Heaven,
To the Holy Place where, I have heard,
People are always happy and joyous and merry.
I wouldn't want to go there without my lady
The one with fair hair and pale complexion,
Because without her I could never be happy,
Being separated from my lady.
But I do not say that with blasphemous intent,As if I wanted to sin with her:
If I did not see her shapely figure
And her beautiful face and tender look:
Since it would greatly comfort me
To see my woman shine in glory.
[edit] The limitations of Sicilian poetry
The main inhibiting factor on Sicilian poetry was probably the political censorship
imposed by Frederick: literary debate was confined to courtly love. In this respect, the
poetry of the north, though stuck to thelangues d'ol, provided fresher blood for
satire.[citation needed]
The north was fragmented into communes or little city-states which
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had a relatively democratic self-government, and that is precisely why thesirventese
genre, and later, Dante'sDivina Commediaand sonnets were so popular: they referred
to real people and feelings, though often idealised like Beatrice. A sirventese is, in
effect, eminently political: it usually refers to real battles and attacks real military or
political enemies, the author often being the soldier or the knight involved in the strife,
as inGuittone d'Arezzo'sRotta di Montaperti (Defeat of Montaperti), a bloody battlewhereManfred of Sicily, Frederick's son, defeated the guelfs. Dante himself will
commemorate the event in the Commedia many years later, where, mindful of the
political strife that had him exiled, he will attack many princes and popes, such as
Boniface VIII, one of his biggest personal enemies.
Frederick's censorship is also apparent from the structure of the song: the Sicilians
transformed thetornada, the strophe which in troubadour poetry contains a dedication
to a famous person with a congedo, where the poet bids goodbye to his reader and asks
the song to bear his message to his lady. The re-shaping of the Occitan model also
involved the suppression of music. The authors were great readers and translators, but
apparently could not play any instrument, so their work was intended for reading, whichcalled for logical unity, posing a question, proposing, and finding a solution in the end.
That meant no interchangeable lines as in troubadour poetry and fewer repetitions: for a
Frenchjongleurwho sang his poems these were necessary, but they sounded redundant
to the Sicilian authors. Their poetry was music to the eye, not to the ear, and their
legacy is also apparent in Dante and Petrarch's lyrics. The sonnet is even more exacting
on this point: the separation between the octave and the sestet is purely a logical one,
the rimes drawing a visual line between the first and last part. However, the fact that
Italian poetry was being made for the reading public may have facilitated its circulation.
[edit] Realism and parody: Cielo d'Alcamo
Frederick's Augustale (c. 1250), a valued currency widely used throughoutItalyis
mentioned in the Contrasto, and helped scholars establish its date.
Thoughlyric poetryprevailed at Frederick's (and later Manfredi's) court, it is at this
time that we have an interesting exception inRosa fresca aulentissima (transl: "Fresh
very perfumed rose"), widely known as Contrasto and attributed toCielo d'Alcamo
(also known as Ciullu di Vincenzullu), about which modern critics have much exercised
themselves. This Contrasto is written in aSicilian dialectclose to that spoken in the city
ofMessina, with several influences from continental Italian variants. The subject is a
humorous fight between two young lovers, a kind of poetry quite common in theMiddleAges(as contrasti orpastorelle). It is about a young suitor who sneaks into the garden
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5/5
of a young lady from a rich Sicilian family and secretly declares his love to her. He then
tries to seduce the girl with his one-liners; she berates him for his "ill" intentions and
keeps him at bay to protect her honor, but her prudeness proves eventually to be just a
love game: she gives in completely to his bold advances. However, the language uses
much of the courtly language of lyric poetry and the result is a parody of the Sicilian
School's clichs. The Contrasto belongs to the time of the emperor Frederick II (it canbe dated between 1230 and 1250, but probably closer to the latter), and is also important
as a proof that there once existed a popular, independent of literary, poetry prior to
Frederick's times. Now most critics agree that the Contrasto of Cielo d'Alcamo is
probably a scholarly re-elaboration of some lost popular song. It is perhaps the closest
to a kind of poetry that has perished or which was smothered by the Sicilian literature of
Frederick's. Its distinguishing feature was its hilarity and down-to-earthedness as
opposed to the abstract verse of the Sicilian School. But it has been argued that its style
betrays a profound knowledge of Frederick's movement and some critics have hinted
the man who penned it must have been acquainted with or even been part of, the court
itself. Given the highly satiric and erotic vein Ciullo d'Alcamo may well be a fictitious
name. His Contrasto shows vigor and freshness in the expression of feelings: Such"low" treatment of the love-theme shows that its subject-matter is certainly popular.
This poem sounds real and spontaneous, marked as it is by the sensuality characteristic
of the people of southern Italy.
[edit] Linguistic notes on the Sicilian standard
The standard of the Sicilian school combines many traits typical of the Sicilian, Latin,
Provenal and to a lesser, but not negligible extent, Apulian and certain southern
dialects. Such amelting potgreatly helped the newItalian language: the Provenal
suffixes -ire and -ce, for example, generated hundreds of new Italian words in -ieraand -za as it. riv-iera ("river") or costan-za ("constancy"). Such affixes would be then
adopted by Dante and his contemporaries, and handed on to future generations ofItalian
writers. Dante's styles illustre, cardinale, aulico, curiale were partly developed from his
close study of the Sicilian School which he quotes widely in his studies, especially in
hisDe Vulgari Eloquentia. The Sicilian school was later re-founded byGuittone
d'ArezzoinTuscanyfollowing the death of Manfredi, Frederick's son, so many of these
poems were later copied in manuscripts that widely circulated inFlorence. This first
standard in which they were written, was, however, modified in Tuscany. In fact,
Tuscanscrivenersperceived the five-vowel system used by southern Italian dialects (i,
e, a, o, u) as a seven-vowel one (i, , , a, , , u). As a consequence, the Italian texts
may contain lines that no longer rhyme with each other (sic. -i > tusc. -, sic. -u > tusc. -). Tuscans also changed words as gloria [pron. glreea] to ghiora, aju [pron. yoo] ("I
have) to aggio [pron. adjo] etc. Though some original texts have been restored to their
original Sicilian, we must see such remakes only as tentative reconstructions of
originals that, unfortunately, may have been lost forever. Dante and his contemporaries
would take this newborn language a step further, expanding and enriching it with even
more words of Latin and Florentine origin, carefully working on the style to create
volgare illustre, a higher standard quite close to today's polite Italian.
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