SORDELLO

born c. 1200, Goito, near Mantua died before 1269 most renowned Provenal troubadour of Italian birth, whose planh, or lament, on the death of his patron Blacatz (Blacas), in which he invites all Christian princes to feed on the heart of the hero so that they might absorb his virtues, is one of the masterpieces of Provenal poetry. Sordello became famous when, in 1224, at the court of Richard of Bonifacio at Verona, he abducted his master's wife at the instigation of her brother. After this act (which was primarily political), he went to Treviso, married, and crossed the Alps, pursued by the hatred of several families. He traveled as a troubadour through Spain and southern France and settled at the court of Raymond Berengar IV of Provence about 1237. He later became a companion of Charles of Anjou, with whom he returned to Italy in 1265 when the latter became Charles I of Naples and Sicily. Sordello left 1,325 lines of a didactic poem, L'Ensenhamen d'onor, and 42 lyrical pieces, mostly love songs and satires. He was made the type of patriotic pride in Dante's Purgatorio, and he is the subject of a poem by Robert Browning.