Sicilian School

What distinguishes the Sicilian School from the troubadours, however, is the introduction of a kinder, gentler type of woman than that found in their Occitan models; one who was nearer to Dante's madonnas and Petrarch's Laura, though much less characterised psychologically.

The initial boost given by the Sicilian poets from the Svevs' court, the first to use a standardised vernacular to make art poetry will be passed on to many others: and all of them, not just the pedantic imitators of the Siculo-Tuscan school (such as Bonagiunta Orbicciani) but also Guinizzelli, the poets of Dolce Stil Novo and more widely all writers of verse, will have to deal, though by different degrees, with the Sicilian models, so that some peculiarities will be assimilated into standard usage of Italian poetry."

(Bruno Migliorini, Storia della letteratura italiana) Though yet confined to a few notaries and dignitaries of the emperors, such poetry shows for the first time uniform linguistic traits and a richness in vocabulary far exceeding that of the Sicilian language by which it was inspired.

The Magna curia was not based in any given city, but always moving across Southern Italy, a fact which helped the school avoid the temptation of choosing any local dialect as the starting point for their new language.

Although his experiment was short-lived, Frederic successfully created the first modern state in Europe, run by an efficient bureaucracy: its members were neither appointed from the aristocracy nor the clergy with good reason, since the former were far more interested in defending their own privileges than the welfare of the country and often plotted against him in the hope of regaining their power, while the latter were basically faithful to the Pope, his biggest enemy.

Frederic was in fact dismantling the feudal system of government inherited from the Normans, his magna curia and minor dignitaries were usually chosen from lay orders (like his poet-notaries).

He also abolished internal barriers: free trade brought prosperity to the South, making Bari (as witnessed by Cielo in his Contrasto) one of the richest cities in the Mediterranean.

Though the Sicilian School is generally considered conventional in theme or content it rather "stands out for his refined lexicon, near to the style of trobar clus and for the wise treatment of figures of speech and metaphors of stylnovistic taste taken from natural philosophy" (Cesare Segre).

Giacomo da Lentini is also widely credited by scholars (as Francesco Bruni, Cesare Segre et al.) for inventing the sonnet, a literary form later perfected by Dante and, most of all, Petrarch.

Io m'aggio posto in core a Dio servire, com'io potesse gire in paradiso, al santo loco c'aggio audito dire, o' si mantien sollazzo, gioco e riso.

The main inhibiting factor on Sicilian poetry was probably the political censorship imposed by Frederick: literary debate was confined to courtly love.

[citation needed] The north was fragmented into communes or little city-states which had a relatively democratic self-government, and that is precisely why the sirventese genre, and later, Dante's Divina Commedia and sonnets were so popular: they referred to real people and feelings, though often idealised like Beatrice.

That meant no interchangeable lines as in troubadour poetry and fewer repetitions: for a French jongleur who sang his poems these were necessary, but they sounded redundant to the Sicilian authors.

Though lyric poetry prevailed at Frederick's (and later Manfredi's) court, it is at this time that we have an interesting exception in Rosa fresca aulentissima (transl: "Fresh very perfumed rose"), widely known as Contrasto and attributed to Cielo d'Alcamo (also known as Ciullu di Vincenzullu.

In reply, the girl berates him for his "ill" intentions, vowing to protect her honour, but her prudishness is just a façade to force her admirer to keep trying harder, until at last she gives in completely to his bold advances.

The Sicilian school was later re-founded by Guittone d'Arezzo in Tuscany following the death of Manfredi, Frederick's son, so many of these poems were later copied in manuscripts that widely circulated in Florence.