Italian jurist and poet (1270 ? c. 1336)
Cino da Pistoia
(1270 – 1336/37) was an Italian jurist and poet. He was the university teacher of
Bartolus de Saxoferrato
and a friend and intellectual influence on
Dante Alighieri
.
Life
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Cino was born in
Pistoia
, Tuscany. His full name was
Guittoncino dei Sinibaldi
or, Latinised,
Cinus de Sighibuldis
. His father was a nobleman from the House of Sinibaldi.
Exiled from Pistoia in 1302, he was able (unlike
Dante
) to return to his native city after a few years and hold public office. He supported the Emperor
Henry VII
, and composed a
canzone
on his death in 1313.
Cino received his doctorate in law from the
University of Bologna
, where he studied under
Dinus de Rossonis
. From 1321 he was a professor of law, teaching in
Siena
,
Florence
and
Perugia
and also in
Naples
when the young Boccaccio was there. Two of his students were
Bartolus
(in Perugia) and
Francesco Petrarca
(in Bologna).
In 1334, he was elected
Gonfaloniere
of Pistoia, but did not take up the office. Cino is buried in the
Cathedral of Saint Zeno
in Pistoia.
Works
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Cino's works as
Latin
jurist include a
Lectura in Codicem
and an unfinished
Lectura in Digestum vetus
. The
Lectura in Codicem
(1312?1314), his most important legal work, was a commentary on the
Justinian Code
which blended pure
Roman law
with contemporary statutes and
customary
and
canon law
, thereby initiating Italian common law.
In
Italian
Cino is the most prolific writer of lyric poetry between
Guittone d'Arezzo
and Petrarch, with a secure surviving corpus of twenty canzoni, eleven
ballate
and 134
sonnets
, notable for purity of language and harmony of rhythms. Most of these are love-poems celebrating Selvaggia dei Vergiolesi (d.1310). In the
De vulgari eloquentia
(2.2)
Dante
assigns him prime place amongst love poets in Italian.
His friendship with Dante appears to have been a long-standing one, although it may be that Terino da Castelfiorentino, not Cino (as has been thought), was the author of one of the replies to Dante’s early ‘A ciascun alma presa e gentil core’ (
Vita Nova
3). Cino composed a
canzone
on the death of
Beatrice
in 1290, and there are another six sonnets to Dante from Cino and five by Dante to Cino, with Dante initiating the exchange in two cases. They seem to have been particularly close during the first years of Dante’s exile. In the
De vulgari eloquentia
Dante links the two of them in his poetic rolls of honour as ‘Cynus et amicus eius’. He also addresses the third of his letters (1306?) ‘to the Pistoian exile’. On the death of Dante in 1321 Cino wrote the celebratory ‘Su per la costa, Amor, de l’alto monte’. There are, however, two sonnets (one of which is not definitely by Cino) which are critical of the
Divine Comedy
.
Cino is the link between the
Dolce Stil Novo
and the greater lyric poetry of Petrarch, whose musicality his own practice anticipates. His poetic correspondents include
Guido Cavalcanti
and Onesto da Bologna, who jibed at the dreaminess of the Dolce Stil Novo. Cino was also close to his fellow student
Giovanni d'Andrea
. The opening of the canzone, ‘La dolce vista e’l bel guardo soave’, is cited respectfully by Petrarch (
Canz.
70) and the whole poem is re-written in ottava rima in
Boccaccio
’s
Filocolo
(5.62?5). Petrarch also wrote a sonnet on his death (
Canz.
92).
Portrayals
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Cino is the narrator of
Ezra Pound
's dramatic monologue "Cino."
[1]
[2]
Works
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]
- Lectura in Codicem
(in Latin). Lugduni: [Compagnie des Libraires de Lyon]. 1547.
- Le rime
(in Italian). Milano: Istituto Editoriale Italiano. n.d.
References
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Sources
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External links
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