Guittone d'Arezzo

Poet and illustrated (born around 1235 and died in Firenze in 1294). Around 1265 he entered the "Milites Beatae Virginis Mariae" (the so-called happy friars), thus opposing worldliness. He is the most representative figure of the moment of transition between Sicilian Provençal poetry and the stil novo initiated by G. Guinizzelli.

In the very elaborate Lettere, in vernacular prose, his strong moral and civil personality stands out; but these letters are important above all because the vernacular prose language is used for the first time with ambitious artistic intentions. Recent hypotheses make G. the inventor of the sacred ballad, that is, of the lauda.