Bonagiunta Orbicciani, also called Bonaggiunta and Urbicciani (ca. 1220 in

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as ...

– 1290), was an Italian poet of the

Tuscan School Tuscan may refer to: Places * A person from, or something of, from, or related to Tuscany, a region of Italy * Tuscan Archipelago, islands off Tuscany, Italy. * Tuscan, South Australia was a railway siding and locality in the Murray Mallee regi ...

, which drew on the work of the

Sicilian School The Sicilian School was a small community of Sicilian and mainland Italian poets gathered around Frederick II, most of them belonging to his imperial court. Headed by Giacomo da Lentini, they produced more than 300 poems of courtly love betwe ...

.Peter Brand and Lino Pertile,
The Cambridge History of Italian Literature
', 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 1999, , pp. 17–18. His main occupation was as a judge and notary.Richard Kenneth Emmerson and Sandra Clayton-Emmerson,
Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia
', CRC Press, 2006, , pp. 87–88 Fewer than forty of his poems survive. He appears as a character in Canto 24 of

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

's ''

Purgatorio ''Purgatorio'' (; Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', following the '' Inferno'' and preceding the '' Paradiso''. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of ...

'', where he comments on the ''

dolce stil novo ''Dolce Stil Novo'' (), Italian for "sweet new style," is the name given to a literary movement in 13th and 14th century Italy. Influenced by the Sicilian School and Tuscan poetry, its main theme is Divine Love. The name ''Dolce Stil Novo'' was ...

'' ("sweet new style") of his successors.

Role in Dante's ''Purgatorio''

Bonagiunta appears among the gluttons in Canto 24 of ''

,'' the second canticle of

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

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature a ...

''. Bonagiunta is first pointed out by

Forese Donati Forese Donati was an Italian nobleman born in Florence, associated with the Guelphs. He was the son of Simone di Forese and Tessa, and the brother of Corso and Piccarda Donati.Cellerino, L. (1992). Donati, Forese In "Dizionario Biografico". Retrie ...

, who names numerous poets for Dante because their faces are unrecognizable due to their

contrapasso In Dante's ''Inferno'', contrapasso (or, in modern Italian,''Encyclopedia Dantesca'', Biblioteca Treccani, 2005, vol. 7, article ''Contrapasso''. ''contrappasso'', from Latin and , meaning "suffer the opposite") is the punishment of souls "by ...

: fasting. Bonagiunta appears to recognize Dante, and Dante hears him mumbling what sounds like the word "Gentucca" repeatedly. After Dante encourages Bonagiunta to speak with him, Bonagiunta asks if he is the poet who wrote "Ladies that have intelligence of love," a poem from Dante's ''

Vita Nuova ''La Vita Nuova'' (; Italian for "The New Life") or ''Vita Nova'' (Latin title) is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and v ...

''. After Dante confirms his identity, Bonagiunta remarks that he finally understands what separated his poetry and the poetries of

Giacomo da Lentini Giacomo da Lentini, also known as Jacopo da Lentini or with the appellative Il Notaro, was an Italian poet of the 13th century. He was a senior poet of the Sicilian School and was a notary at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Gia ...

and

Guittone d'Arezzo Guittone d'Arezzo (Arezzo, 1235 – 1294) was a Tuscan poet and the founder of the Tuscan School. He was an acclaimed secular love poet before his conversion in the 1260s, when he became a religious poet joining the Order of the Blessed Virgin ...

from Dante's ''dolce stil novo'' ("sweet new style"). Once he has finished praising Dante, he is silent. Bonagiunta's presence within ''Purgatorio'' addresses the differences between Dante's poetic style and the style of his

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

predecessors. Both early and modern commentators have suggested that Bonagiunta was included in the ''Divine Comedy'' as the result of his ''tenzoni'' with Dante and

Guido Guinizzelli Guido Guinizelli (ca. 1225–1276) was an esteemed Italian love poet and is considered the "father" of the Dolce Stil Novo. He was the first to write in this new style of poetry writing, and thus is held to be the ''ipso facto'' founder. He was bor ...

, another practitioner of the ''dolce stil novo''. Dante, who had previously argued in his ''

De vulgari eloquentia ''De vulgari eloquentia'' (; "On eloquence in the vernacular") is the title of a Latin essay by Dante Alighieri. Although meant to consist of four books, it abruptly terminates in the middle of the second book. It was probably composed shortly aft ...

'' that Bonagiunta's poetry overutilizes abstract terminology and does not live up to poetry's fullest potential, has Bonagiunta praise Dante (the character) and remark that he has a newfound understanding and appreciation of his ''dolce stil novo'' in Canto 24. Robert Hollander, a Dante scholar, lists five possible hypotheses regarding Dante's use of the specific phrase ''dolce stil novo'' through the mouth of Bonagiunta: Dante is using the now-defined phrase for the first time in Italian; he intends to suggest a group of poets that includes himself and Cino da Pistoia that is separate from Bonagiunta and other poets; he is presenting himself as a uniquely theological poet, one whose abilities supersede those of traditional love poets; he believes that the word "style" denotes not just a way of writing, but also the content within a poem; and that the phrase may be used by Dante to specifically refer to his own poetry. In "Dante and Bonagiunta," James Eustace Shaw determines that Bonagiunta's praise for Dante and the ''dolce stil novo'' stems from a heightened understanding of love that he attained while atoning for his sins on the sixth terrace of

Mount Purgatory The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature a ...

References

Italian male poets 13th-century Italian poets {{Italy-poet-stub