Ziorgi (of Venice), Bordello (of Mantua), etc.

NAPLES AND SICILY.--Naples and Sicily, where were founded large
universities, were the seat of a purely Italian literature in the
thirteenth century, thanks to the impetus of the Emperor Frederick II. At
this seat were Peter of Vignes (_Petrus de Vineis_), who passes as
inventor of the sonnet; Ciullo of Alcamo, author of the first known
Italian _canzone_, etc. The influence of Sicily on all Italy was
such that for long in Italy all writing in verse was termed Sicilian.

BOLOGNA; FLORENCE.--The literary centre then passed, that is in the
thirteenth century, to Bologna and Florence. Among the celebrated Tuscans
of this epoch was Guittone of Arezzo, mentioned by Dante and Petrarch
with more or less consideration; Jacopone of Todi, at once both mystic
and buffoon, in whom it has been sought, in a manner somewhat flattering
to him, to trace a predecessor of Dante; Brunetto Latini, the authentic
master of Dante, who was encyclopaedic, after a fashion, and who
published, first in French, whilst he was in Paris, _The Treasure_,
a compilation of the knowledge of his time, then, in Italian,
_Tesoretto_, a collection of maxims drawn from his previous work,
besides some poetry and translations from Latin.

The fourteenth century, which for the French, Germans, and English was
the last or even the last century but one of the Middle Ages, was for the
Italians the first of the Renaissance. Two great names dominate this
century: Dante and Petrarch.

DANTE: _THE DIVINE COMEDY_.--Dante, highly erudite, theologian,
philosopher, profound Latin scholar, not ignorant of Greek, much involved
in the agitations of his age, exiled from his home, Florence, in the