SOURCE: Ardizzone, Maria Luisa. “Guido Guinizzelli's ‘Al cor gentil’: A Notary in Search of Written Laws.” Modern Philology 94, no. 4 (May 1997): 455-74.

In the following essay, Ardizzone explores Guinizelli's position concerning the relationship between light and God.

Se Dio non rompe in ciel ció c'ha firmato. 

(Guido Guinizzelli, “Madonna mia, quel di ch'amor consente”)

The notary Guido Guinizzelli, who probably studied in Bologna and died in about 1276, wrote the poem “Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore,” which is commonly regarded as the manifesto of the scuola of the “dolce stil nuovo,” a name that traces to Dante.¹ Tradition has preserved twenty-two texts of Guido Guinizzelli's as well as three dubiously attributed canzoni and two fragments.² His work suggests that he was well acquainted with philosophy and rhetoric. The University of Bologna, where he may have studied, guaranteed a connection between the study of philosophy and the training for the...