Poets and thinkers

Bertran de Born

Provençal poet and viscount of Hautefort in Gascony, who lived in the second half of the twelfth century, identified in the verses of Canto XXVIII of the Inferno. Dante recalls him as a singer of arms and for his liberality.

Profile

Bertram dal Bornio is Bertran de Born, viscount of Hautefort in Gascony, who lived in the second half of the twelfth century. He is counted among the greatest poets of the Provençal language: Dante cites him in the De vulgari eloquentia as a singer of arms and praises his liberality in the Convivio. His songs generally treat political and military subjects; in the most celebrated, Be·m platz, he describes the tragic beauty of battles, with wounded and mutilated bodies and the stumps of lances still fixed in the corpses. Dante recalled that text, placing Bertran in this bolgia, which seems to gather in itself the mutilated and wounded of all battles ancient and modern. The spirit presents himself to the pilgrims declaring his own identity with the verse «sappi ch'i' son Bertram dal Bornio, quelli».

In the text

Linked verses

1 verses
CanticaCantoVersoTestoOpen verse
InfernoCanto XXVIII134sappi ch’i’ son Bertram dal Bornio, quelliOpen verse