SORDELLO. - Italian troubadour, born at Goito c. 1200, died c. 1269.
After an adventurous and turbulent youth (at the behest of her brother, Ezzelino III da Romano, he abducted Cunizza, the wife of Ricciardo di S. Bonifacio, in Verona), in Provence, where he sought refuge with Count Raimondo Berengario IV, he seems to have adopted a more proper way of life, which accounts for his reputation as a noble knight. He accompanied Carlo I d'Angiò on the expedition to Italy: in a brief of 22 February 1261 Pope Clemente IV reproached the King for his ingratitude towards S., whose praises he celebrated. In 1269 S. received from the Angevin the investiture of certain castles in Abruzzo. The second phase of S.'s life, together with the force of the Compianto in morte di ser Blacatz, a violent satire of the rulers of the time, and of the Ensenhamento de honor, a code of noble conduct, explains the tribute Dante pays him in canto VI of the Purgatorio. Alighieri also praised S., in the De vulgari eloquentia, for the elegance of his poetic language. Besides the poems mentioned, there remain another 45 lyrics in which, despite some wanton notes, the Platonic idealization of the beloved woman prevails, sung in accents that foreshadow the dolce stil nuovo.