Cino da Pistoia (1270 – 1336/37) was an Italian jurist and poet. He was born in Pistoia, Tuscany. His full name was ''Guittoncino dei Sinibaldi'' or, Latinised, ''Cinus de Sighibuldis''. His father was a noble man from the House of Sinibaldi. He received his doctorate from the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continu ...

, where he studied under Dinus de Rossonis, and taught law at the universities of

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

, and

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. In 1334, he was elected

Gonfaloniere The Gonfalonier (in Italian: ''Gonfaloniere'') was the holder of a highly prestigious communal office in medieval and Renaissance Italy, notably in Florence and the Papal States. The name derives from ''gonfalone'' (in English, gonfalon), the ter ...

of Pistoia, but did not take up the office. Cino's most important legal work was ''Lectura in codicem'' (1312–1314), a commentary on the

Justinian Code The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor. It is also sometimes referred ...

which blended pure Roman law with contemporary statutes and customary and canon law, thereby initiating Italian common law. He wrote some 200 lyric poems notable for purity of language and harmony of rhythms, most of them dedicated to a woman named .

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

, a friend of his, in ''De vulgari eloquentia,'' praised his poetry. Cino was also close to his fellow student

Giovanni d'Andrea Giovanni d'Andrea or Johannes Andreæ (1270 1275 – 1348) was an Italian expert in canon law, the most renowned and successful canonist of the later Middle Ages. His contemporaries referred to him as ''iuris canonici fons et ...

and was a literary friend of

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

. Two of his students were

Bartolus Bartolus de Saxoferrato (Italian: ''Bartolo da Sassoferrato''; 131313 July 1357) was an Italian law professor and one of the most prominent continental jurists of Medieval Roman Law. He belonged to the school known as the commentators or postglo ...

(in Perugia) and

Francesco Petrarca Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

(in Bologna). He is the narrator of Ezra Pound's dramatic monologue "Cino."Humphrey Carpenter, ''A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound'' (Houghton Mifflin, 1988: ), p. 74.

Works

* * Cino da Pistoia – Lectura in Codicem, 1547 – BEIC 11058220.tiff, ''Lectura in Codicem'', 1547 Cino - Le Rime, 191-?.djvu, ''Le rime'', 1916?

References

Sources

External links

* http://www.unisi.it/docentes/siena/docenti/sinibuldi.html
Complete works and editions by Cino da Pistoia at ParalipomenaIuris
1270 births 1336 deaths People from Pistoia Italian poets Italian male poets 14th-century Italian jurists Italian Renaissance humanists University of Bologna alumni University of Perugia faculty University of Florence faculty University of Siena faculty 14th-century Italian poets 14th-century Latin writers {{italy-law-bio-stub