GUITTONE da AREZZO. — Born in Arezzo to Viva di Michele, chamberlain of the Commune, around 1225. A Guelph, he suffered exile between 1259 and 1260; instructed by his own desires to alleviate the sorrows of others, and after having suitably arranged his family’s financial affairs, he entered the Order of the Knights of St. Mary, to which he donated his authoritative word, his austere example, and finally his remaining goods by a deed drawn up on 7 September 1293 in Arezzo.
Of him there remain just over 300 poems (love poems, political, moral, and religious) and 36 letters from his later years. His language is rough or harsh; his style often deliberately obscure, frequently artificial in its contrivances; his Provençal imitation is continuous and strict. Yet there are moments of delicacy in his nostalgic love songs, vigour of tone in his political verses, and in his moral and religious poems and letters, elevation of thought and feeling; always evident, too, is the imprint of a solitary soul, even in art—evident in the singularity of his devices, the roughness of his form, and the vehemence of his affections.