SOURCE: Shaw, J. E. “Commentary” and “The Dolce Stil Nuovo.” In Guido Cavalcanti's Theory of Love: “The Canzone d'Amore” and Other Related Problems, pp. 9-50 and 128-45. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1949.

In the following essays, Shaw explicates the first two stanzas of the Canzone d'Amore and explains why it is appropriate that Cavalcanti is studied as a poet of the dolce stil nuovo.

Introductory: Stanza I

The tradition that this canzone [The Canzone d'Amore] was written in answer to the questions in the sonnet of Guido Orlandi, Onde si muove, is based on the heading given to the sonnet in the Riccardian MS 2846 by Piero di Simone del Nero in 1581, as follows: “Guido Orlandi in nome d'una donna a Guido Cavalc. et la soprascritta Canzone è la risposta, la canzone che dice è Donna mi priega perchè etc. Onde si muove et donde nasce amore. Son.”¹ Piero del Nero...