Sordello is the best-known of the Italian TROUBADOURS.
He is famous now largely because of his significant
position in DANTE’s DIVINE COMEDY, where
in cantos 6 and 7 of the Purgatorio, he shows Dante
and Virgil into the Valley of Princes. Dante saw
Sordello as a figure representing an elevated and
admirable political morality.
What we know of Sordello’s life hardly seems
to warrant Dante’s lofty opinion of him. Born a
minor nobleman from Goito near Mantua, Sordello
became embroiled in two serious scandals involving
his relationships with women: He secretly
married Otta, daughter of the Strasso family with
whom he was staying in Ceneda. He fled with her
to Treviso in 1227, and sought refuge from the
tyrant Ezzelino II da Romano. But it seems he then
began an affair with Ezzelino’s sister, Cunizza, wife
of the Count Ricciardo di San Bonifazio. Fleeing
the wrath of the lady’s brother and husband, Sordello
left Italy in 1229, and spent some years wandering
in Spain and Portugal.
Eventually Sordello came to Provence, where he
found a patron, Blacatz, lord of Aups. Blacatz was
head of an ancient noble family, and between 1194
and 1236 was patron of numerous poets, as well as
the composer of 12 extant songs. Perhaps because of
Blacatz’s death, Sordello became attached in the
mid-1230s to the court of Raimon Bérenger IV,
count of Provence, whom he served until about
1245.
After 1245, Sordello was a knight in the service
of Charles of Anjou.He followed Charles into Italy
in 1265 as part of Charles’s expedition to wrest the
kingdom of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen king
Manfred. Apparently Sordello was taken prisoner
in Naples in 1266. Following Charles’s successful
campaign, Sordello took part in the distribution of
fiefs in the new Angevin kingdom in 1269. He received
lands and six castles in Abruzzi for his loyal
service. But he seems to have died shortly thereafter.
Some say he died back in Provence; some say
he died a violent death. But nothing about his
death is known for certain.
Some 40 of Sordello’s poems are extant, all written
in Provençal. Only 12 of these are cansos, or
love poems. But when Sordello does speak of love,
it is with an extreme and almost platonic delicacy
and deference to his lady: In one poem he says that
he would rather serve his lady hopelessly for years
than to serve another lady who would be so loose
as to invite him to her bed. In another he says that
he will write in the simple, clear TROBAR LEU style,
because that is what pleases his lady.
But Sordello is better known for his SIRVENTES,
or political songs. His best-known poem, and the
one that aroused Dante’s praise, is his planh or
lament on the death of Blacatz, written about
1237. In this poem Sordello takes to task eight
major political leaders of Europe, and charges
them to eat the heart of the dead man, in order to
inspire them to courageous action. To his own
lord, Raimon Bérenger, he says:
And the Count of Provence, it is well that
he eats if he remembers
A man’s worth nothing living robbed of his
inheritance,
And for all his effort to hold his ground and
defend himself,
He must eat of this heart for the heavy
burden he bears.
(Goldin 1973, 315, ll. 37–40)
This planh (or COMPLAINT) must have given
Sordello the reputation for political principles that
inspired Dante to use him in the Purgatorio. In
Dante’s story Sordello embraces Virgil as a native
from his own home in Mantua, then delivers a
prophetic diatribe on the political corruption in
Dante’s Italy. Ultimately he leads Dante and Virgil
into the Valley of Princes in canto 7.
In addition to Dante, Sordello also provided
poetic inspiration for Robert Browning in the 19th
century, whose long poem Sordello appeared in
1840. Browning focuses not on Sordello’s political
philosophy, but rather on his amorous affairs, particularly
with the sister of Ezzelino.
Bibliography
Goldin, Frederick, ed. and trans. Lyrics of the Troubadours
and Trouvères: An Anthology and a History.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973.
Wilhelm, James J. The Poetry of Sordello. New York:
Garland, 1986.