Vigne, Pier delle (Pier della Vigna, Pietro della Vigna, Petrus de Vineis) (Writer)

(ca. 1190-1249) poet

Pier delle Vigne was born in the Italian city of Capua. He studied law at Bologna and became a notary at the court of Emperor Frederick II of Swabia (in southwest Germany), who was also king of Sicily. Vigne helped to draw up Swabia’s law codes, and in 1220 he became secretary of the imperial chancellery. His rank, wealth, and power only grew exponentially.

It is believed that in 1244, Frederick II sent Vigne to help Thomas aquinas’s family forcibly retrieve young Thomas, who had recently become a monk against their wishes. By 1247, Vigne was a key member of the emperor’s inner circle. In 1249, however, he fell from power, possibly because he had been falsely accused of treason. Frederick ordered that Vigne be blinded and led before the public in chains. Disgraced, Vigne died shortly thereafter. Some sources say that he died accidentally, others that he deliberately hit his head against a wall. In his Inferno, dante depicts Vigne as innocent of treason but guilty of committing suicide.

Vigne was a member of the Sicilian school of poetry, which translator Frede Jensen describes as “the first truly national literary movement in Italy.” The school, which flourished at Frederick II’s court between 1230 and 1250, included at least 25 poets who wrote poems of chivalry and courtly love in the Sicilian dialect. Its members drew inspiration from earlier Provencal troubadours like bernard de ventadour and jaufre rudel. Unlike the hired troubadours, however, the “Sicilians” were civil servants and nobles.

Vigne’s surviving works include several letters written in Latin and a few poems, including two love poems. In “‘ Twas Love, whom I desire as well as trust,” the poet assures his love that he “would speak well, and not be shy, / in telling you I have long loved you, more / than Pyramus his Thisbe could adore.”

Unlike troubadours’ works, Pier delle Vigne’s poems are meant to be read rather than sung. They are not lively, but they are elegantly crafted.

An English Version of a Work by Pier delle Vigne

“‘Twas Love, whom I desire as well as trust.” In The Age of Dante: An Anthology of Early Italian Poetry. Translated by Joseph Tusiani. New York: Baroque Press, 1974.

A Work about Pier delle Vigne

Jensen, Frede, ed. and trans. The Poetry ofthe Sicilian School. New York and London: Garland, 1986.

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