Guido Guinizzelli born in Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

, Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, was an Italian poet and 'founder' of the Dolce Stil Novo

Dolce Stil Novo

Dolce Stil Novo , or stilnovismo, is the name given to the most important literary movement of 13th century in Italy. Influenced by both Sicilian and Tuscan poetry, its main theme is Love . Gentilezza and Amore are indeed topoi in the major works of the period...

. He was the first to write in this new style of poetry writing, and thus is held to be the ipso facto founder.

The famous Florentine poet Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...

 considered himself to be a disciple of Guinizzelli:

...quand' io odo nomar sé stesso il padre

mio e de li altri miei miglior che mai

rime d'amor usar dolci e leggiadre...

(Purgatorio, XXVI 97-98).

The main themes of the Dolce Stil Novo can be found in Guinizzelli's Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore: the angelic beauty of the beloved women, the comparison of nobility to the sun and the rampant use of topoi such as cuor gentil and Amore.

Guinizzelli's poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 can be briefly described as a conciliation between divine

Divinity

Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...

 and earthly love

Love

Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

 with deep psychological introspection

Introspection

Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of conscious inner thoughts, desires and sensations. It is a conscious and purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining one's own thoughts, feelings, and, in more spiritual cases, one's soul...

. His major works are Al cor gentil rempaira sempre Amore, which Peter Dronke

Peter Dronke

Ernest Peter Michael Dronke FBA is a scholar specialising in Medieval Latin literature. He is one of the 20th century's leading scholars of medieval Latin lyric, and his book The Medieval Lyric is considered the standard introduction to the subject.-Life and career:Dronke was born in Cologne in...

considers "perhaps the most influential love-song of the thirteenth century" (Dronke 1965, 57), as well as Voglio del ver la mia donna laudare and Vedut'ho la lucente stella Diana.