Sordello

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This article is about the 13th-century Italian troubador. For the narrative poem by Robert Browning, see Sordello (poem).
"Sordell" redirects here. For the retired footballer, see Marvin Sordell.
Sordello from a 13th-century manuscript

Sordello da Goito or Sordel de Goit (sometimes Sordell) was a 13th-century Italian troubadour, born in the municipality of Goito in the province of Mantua.

The real Sordello, so far as we have authentic facts about his life, was the most famous of the Italian troubadours. About 1220 he was in a tavern brawl in Florence; and in 1226, while at the court of in Verona, he abducted his master's wife, Cunizza, at the instigation of her brother, Ezzelino III da Romano. The scandal resulted in his flight (1229) to Provence, where he seems to have remained for some time. He entered the service of Charles of Anjou, and probably accompanied him (1265) on his Naples expedition; in 1266 he was a prisoner in Naples. The last documentary mention of him is in 1269, and he is supposed to have died in Provence. His appearance in Purgatory among the spirits of those who, though redeemed, were prevented from making a final confession and reconciliation by sudden death, suggests that he was murdered, although this may be Dante's own conjecture.[1]

His didactic poem, L’ensenhamen d’onor, and his love songs and satirical pieces have little in common with Dante's presentation, but the invective against negligent princes which Dante puts into his mouth in the 7th canto of the Purgatorio is more adequately paralleled in his sirventes-planh (1237) on the death of his patron Blacatz, where he invites the princes of Christendom to feed on the heart of the hero.[1]

Dante and Virgil encounter Sordello in purgatory, part of the Monumento a Dante a Trento by (1896).

In literature[]

Sordello was praised by Dante Alighieri in the De vulgari eloquentia (written about 1305).[1] Sordello also appears as a character in Dante's Divine Comedy (composed between 1308 and 1321), where he is featured in cantos VI, VII, and VIII of Purgatorio. Dante uses Sordello's patriotism as a starting point for an aside that presents a breakdown of Italian politics.[2] In the narrative, Sordello also serves to teach Dante and his guide, Virgil, about the workings of Ante-Purgatory, and he leads them out of it.[2]

He is the hero of the well-known poem Sordello by Robert Browning, published in 1840.[1] He is also praised for his passion in Oscar Wilde's 1881 poem "Amor Intellectualis". Furthermore, Sordello is briefly referred to in Samuel Beckett's 1951 novels Molloy and Malone Dies. Ezra Pound also references him in the Cantos. Numerous references occur in Roberto Bolaño's 2000 novella By Night in Chile, and he is a principal character in Robert Shea's two-volume historical novel The Saracen, published in 1989.

Notes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 431.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Toynbee, Paget (1968). A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante. The Clarendon Press. ISBN 1296388255.

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External links[]

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