Guido Guinizzelli

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Guido Guinizzelli is presented by Dante as his own poetic father, the first of the poets writing in the vernacular who opened the new course of love lyric. In Purgatory he appears on the cornice of the lustful, as indicated by the critical annotation that lists him among the spirits purging lust, and he declares that he is already there purging himself. The notes to the canto describe him as the most celebrated poet in the vernacular before Cavalcanti, the author of the great canzone Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore, identified as the prototext of the stilnovismo. Dante gives him explicit testimony by calling him the father of the group of poets who with him used the new love rhymes. His poetry, which moves from Sicilian and Guittonian forms, marks a decisive turning point in Dante's poetic life. The encounter takes place on the same cornice that welcomes Bonagiunta, who in Canto XXIV polemically recognizes in him the creator of a new way of making poetry.