Jacopo da Leona, also spelt Iacopo was an

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

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

who died in 1277. A

notary A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems. A notary, while a legal professional, is distin ...

by profession, he became a nobleman's secretary and later a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

. Sixty of his

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

s survive.

Life and work

Beginning life as Jacopo del Tancredo in the village of Levane,

Arezzo Arezzo ( , ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the Province of Arezzo, province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...

, Leona took his later surname from the Castle of Leona (''Castello di Leona''), on which his village depended. Here he learnt the work of a notary, under the patronage of the family of Ubertini of Arezzo, and one of the Ubertini, Ranieri, employed him as a secretary. Leona went with his master to

Volterra Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods. History ...

, and in 1273, when Ranieri was elected as a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

, Leona was appointed as a judge. Of Leona's poetry, a songbook of sixty sonnets survives, of which the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

's manuscript Codex 3793 ('' Canzoniere Vaticano latino 3793'') contains seven. All of the sonnets belong to the years before 1277. They divide broadly into

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

and love poetry, which is original but mannered, adopting the style and themes of

courtly love Courtly love ( ; ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies b ...

. Leona's best known work, which takes the form of a dialogue sonnet, has the title "Lady, I lament me of you" (''Madonna, di voi piango e mi lamento'').Aurelio Roncaglia, ''Per due sonetti di Cecco Angiolieri ed uno di Jacopo da Leona'' (1941) in ''Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana'', vol. CXVIII (353-354), pp. 81-92 On Leona's death,

Guittone d'Arezzo Guittone d'Arezzo (Arezzo, 123521 August 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 Vi ...

addressed an ode to him which calls him Giacomo da Leona and refers to him as a

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leona, Jacopo da 1277 deaths 13th-century Italian poets Italian male poets Sonneteers Year of birth unknown 13th-century Italian jurists People from the Province of Arezzo