Cecco Angiolieri - Biography, Works, Criticism

Poet, born in Siena, C Italy. Nothing is known of his life except from his sonnets, the only kind of verse he wrote, which reveal a cynical, sardonic character. He attacked Dante in three poems.

Biography

Cecco Angiolieri was born in Siena in 1260, son of Angioliero, who was himself the son of Angioliero Solàfica who was for several years a banker to Pope Gregory IX;

In 1281 he was with the Guelphs of Siena who were besieging their Ghibelline fellow citizens in the Torri di Maremma, near [Roccastrada]], Tuscany, and he was fined many times for deserting the battlefield without permission. His Sonnet 100, dated between 1289 and 1294 seems to confirm that the two knew each other, since Cecco refers to a person (a mariscalco) whom they both knew personally ("Lassar vo' lo trovare di Becchina, / Dante Alighieri, e dir del 'mariscalco'"). We can deduce from Sonnet 102 (from 1302-1303), addressed to Dante who was already in Verona, that during this period, Cecco was in Rome ("s'eo fatto romano, e tu lombardo"). The sonnet also shows a definitive break between Cecco and Dante ("Dante Alighier, i' t'averò a stancare / ch'eo so lo pungiglion, e tu se' 'l bue").

From a later document (February 25, 1313) we know that five of his children (Meo, Deo, Angioliero, Arbolina and Sinione- another daughter, Tessa, had already left the household) renounced their inheritance because the estate was too far in debt. It is therefore possible to assume that Cecco Angiolieri died in Siena around 1310, perhaps between 1312 and the beginning of 1313.

Works

There are about 150 sonnets attributed to Angiolieri (including some twenty of dubious provenance), which pick up the goliardic tradition and the tradition of poesia giocosa, and which, using colorful and realistic expressions, were impudent and light-heartedly blasphemous. One of Cecco's more well-known poems is the sonnet "S'ì fosse foco, arderei 'l mondo".

Criticism

The most recent criticism holds that it is not correct to search for autobiographical references in his compositions, given the strangely literary character of his poems.