Cielo d’Alcamo (c. 1200 – 1250), poet

Cielo d’Alcamo (also spelled Ciullo) was an Italian Sicilian poet, born in the early 13th century. He is one of the main exponents of the Italian medieval jester poetry. His traditional surname (which would mean “from Alcamo”, a town in western Sicily) has been differently identified by other scholars as “Dal Camo” or “Dalcamo”.

He is known exclusively from the poem “Rosa fresca aulentissima” (“Fresh and very perfumed rose”), contained in a single codex now in the Vatican Library. This work is written in a southern Italian dialect, with several continental influences: it represents a parody of the themes of the contemporary Troubador poetry of Provence, as well as of the language used in the “Magna Curia” of literates and scholars at the court of Emperor Frederick II at the time. The date of execution has been assigned between 1231and 1250.

Identified by some scholars (such as Francesco De Sanctis) as a popular work, “Rosa fresca aulentissima” was most likely written by an acculturated author, as testified by his knowledge of works such as the Roman de la Rose and by his likely vicinity to Frederick II’s court.

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