UBERTI, FAZIO degli. - Poet, descended from a noble Ghibelline family of Florence, b. at Pisa in the first decade of the 14th century, d. after 1368.
He was a guest at the court of the Scaligeri in Venice and of the Visconti in Milan. He wrote a Canzoniere, some lyrics of which have a courtly and amorous background, inspired by sincere and delicate feeling, while others are political in nature, addressed to the emperors of Germany, who neglected their imperial mission in Italy. Worth noting among the sonnets are those on the seven deadly sins and two laudi dedicated to the Virgin: one in the form of a prayer, the second entitled: Le allegrezze di Maria. Various poems are of doubtful authenticity. But the work from which U. expected great fame is the Dittamondo (Dicta mundi), an allegorical poem in 6 books, interrupted, however, while U. was beginning his summary of Holy Scripture. The poet imagines that the geographer Solino, whose doctrine he extensively epitomizes, acts as his guide in his wanderings through the various countries of Europe and Africa. The Dittamondo is a work of geographical and cosmographical character and includes ancient sources as well as medieval legends; nor are polemical passages lacking, in keeping with the tradition of the time. Thus it contains references against the greed of the clergy (bk. II, ch. 2), the Avignon captivity (bk. IV, ch. 22), and to Emperor Carlo IV of Boemia, exhorting him to free the sepulchre of Christ (bk. VI, ch. 5).