Cino da Pistoia

Cino da Pistoia (c. 1270-c. 1337), Italian poet and statesman. Cino da Pistoia was born Guittoncino dei Sighibuldi to an old and noble family in Pistoia. He studied law in Bologna and travelled in France. Da Pistoia supported the Neri (Black) faction of the Guelph party, which represented the interests of the merchant classes. While the Bianchi (White Guelphs) were supreme from 1303 to 1306 da Pistoia went into exile, where he wrote verses to his beloved Selvaggia bemoaning their separation. In 1309 he was sent as ambassador to Florence, and the following year he went to Rome with Lodovico of Savoy, vicar of Henry VII of Luxembourg, in advance of Henry's coronation as Holy Roman Emperor (1312). He hailed the arrival of the emperor as the cure for the political ills of Italy, which distressed him profoundly. When Henry died suddenly in 1313, da Pistoia wrote two canzoni, or short lyric poems, lamenting the loss. From 1321 to 1331 he taught jurisprudence in the universities of Siena, Florence, Perugia, and Naples. He then returned to Pistoia, where he held public office until his death.

During his lifetime, da Pistoia wrote approximately 100 sonnets and other lyrics. They express his belief that love must be mutual in order to endure. Dante Alighieri, da Pistoia’s friend and contemporary, praised him, as did the Italian poet Petrarch, who was clearly inspired by da Pistoia's elegance of verse, his freshness of imagery, and the sweetness of his melodic line. Cino da Pistoia adopted various attitudes from Dante, and some of these Petrarch in turn borrowed and perpetuated. Whereas Dante portrays the effects of the sentiment of love, da Pistoia, with his background of legal analysis, probes its psychological roots.