«O dolze terra aretina»: una canzone politica di Guittone d’Arezzo

Abstract

This essay proposes a political reading of the

song O dolze terra aretina by Guittone d’Arezzo. We

show that Guittone condemns the current situation of the

city of Arezzo and urges the citizens to reject the alliance

with Manfredi and to rejoin the Florentine Guelphs. According

to Guittone, the pro-imperial political group has

degraded the civil coexistence of the city, putting it in

danger. The song is explicitly critical toward the risky

choices of the powerful Guglielmino degli Ubertini,

bishop from 1248 to 1289, who in 1258, with the conquest

of Cortona, broke the pacts with the Florentines.

The song is a fine example of “municipal” political poetry,

based on a strong idea of city autonomy: in Guittone’s

vision, Arezzo could overcome the processes of

internal disintegration and develop itself only through a

framework of regional alliances in particular with Florence,

so realizing the deep ambition of the Tuscan

Guelphs.