GUIDO GUINIZELLI (GIOVANNI) — Son of Guinicello di Magnano and Guglielmina Ghisolieri, husband of Beatrice della Fratta, judge and poet, born in Bologna between 1230 and 1240, exiled in 1274 for siding with the Ghibelline Lambertazzi faction, and died in exile at Monselice before 1276.
Only twenty-four of his poems survive, two of them fragmentary (v. *Rimatori del dolce stil novo*, ed. L. Di Benedetto, Bari 1939): most are Sicilian in style, some moral or realistic, two are correspondence poems (one praising Guittone, the other rebuking Bonagiruta with indignation), and a few are noteworthy for their novelty and innovation. He redefined love as a spiritual force that purifies and elevates, thus conferring true nobility—one of spirit and intellect. Above all, he transformed poetic expression by blending enthusiasm for ideas with a taste for imagery drawn from science, of which he was a master, and then cloaking it in enchanting brilliance. As for themes, love is either a dazzling light or a binding force; yet even as it elevates, it may make one forget the Creator for the creature who bears “an angel’s semblance.”