Lapo Gianni

(ca. 1250–ca. 1328)

   Lapo Gianni was a lyric poet and, with his betterknown friends DANTE and Guido CAVALCANTI, one of the stilnovisti, the Florentine poets of the DOLCE STIL NOVO, or “sweet new style,” that revolutionized Italian vernacular poetry in the late 13th century. Though it is not absolutely certain, it is assumed that Lapo the poet was the notary of the same name, who was a member of the Ricevuti family of Florence, and whose name appears on official acts between 1298 and 1328. Dante mentions him as a friend in his sonnet “Guido, I’ vorrei che tu e Lapo ed io,” and Cavalcanti refers to him as well. Dante also praises Lapo in De VULGARI ELOQUENTIA as one of the few contemporary poets who have achieved eloquence in the Italian vernacular (the others being, not surprisingly, Cavalcanti and himself). Lapo’s poetry abounds in imagery familiar to the stilnovisti. The lady is like an angel from heaven. The lover possesses a “gentle heart.” Lapo’s imagery is often derived from new and unconventional sources: In one poem he is drawn toward his lady by love, just as the Magi were drawn to Christ by the star. In another the “spirits” of late medieval psychology explain how Love suddenly takes him:

   In your face, like an angel’s full of love,

   I saw your beautiful eyes and the dark light

   that bore like an arrow

   through my eyes a tender spirit,

   (Goldin 1973, 339, ll. 1–4)

   At the same time, however, Lapo seems to take a great deal from the Provençal TROUBADOURS and their successors in the earlier Italian Sicilian school of GIACOMO DA LENTINO: Lapo’s poems have a lighter and more joyous tone than much stilnovist poetry. The ending of his poem “Dolc’è ’l pensier che mi notrica il core,” for example, uses feudal terms and images more at home in the courts of southern France than the cities of Tuscan Italy:

   How I am inscribed in the book of Love

   you shall recount, my song, in courtesy,

   when you see my lady:

   for I have become her man, and serve.

   (Goldin 1973, 341, ll. 25–29)

   The direct address to the song, the virtue of “courtesy,” the vassalage to the lady, all are pure troubadour. Lapo is a skilled poet who is able to combine both traditions in his poetry. Though he lacks the lofty reputation of his greater contemporaries, Lapo’s contribution to Italian poetry of the 13th century is significant.

   Bibliography

   ■ Goldin, Frederick, trans. German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle Ages: An Anthology and a History. New York: Doubleday, 1973.