the very learned dissertation[188] of
Signor Alessandro d'Ancona on the _Contrasto_ of Ciullo d'Alcamo,
which has been commonly regarded as the first specimen of Italian
poetry, and has been claimed for the beginning of the thirteenth
century, if not the end of the twelfth. He will, if the gods have made
him in the least critical, rise from the perusal with the pretty clear
notion that whether Ciullo d'Alcamo was "such a person," or whether he
was Cielo dal Camo; whether the _Contrasto_ was written on the bridge
of the twelfth and thirteenth century, or fifty years later; whether
the poet was a warrior of high degree or an obscure folk-singer;
whether his dialect has been Tuscanised or is still Sicilian with
French admixture,--these are things not to be found out, things of
mere opinion and hypothesis, things good to write programmes and
theses on, but only to be touched in the most gingerly manner by sober
history.

[Footnote 188: See _Studj sulla Letteratura Italiana dei Primi
Secoli_. 2d ed. Milan: Fratelli Treves, 1891. Pp. 241-458.]

To the critic, then, who deals with Dante--and especially to him,
inasmuch as he has the privilege of dealing with that priceless
document, the _De Vulgari Eloquio_,[189]--may be left Ciullo, or
Cielo, and his successors the Frederician set, from the Emperor
himself and Piero delle Vigne downwards. More especially to him
belong the poets of the late thirteenth century, Dante's own immediate
predecessors, contemporaries, and in a way masters--Guinicelli,
Cavalcanti, Sinibaldi, and Guittone d'Arezzo (to whom the canonical
form of the sonnet used at one time to be attributed, and may be
again); Brunetto Latini, of fiery memory; Fra Jacopone,[190] great in
Latin, eccentric in Italian, and others. It will be not merely
sufficient, but in every way desirable, here to content ourselves with
an account of the general characteristics of this poetry (contemporary
prose, though existent, is of little importance), and to preface this
by some remarks on the general influences and contributions of
material with which Italian literature started.

[Footnote 189: Obtainable in many forms, separately and with Dante's
works. The Latin is easy enough, but there is a good English
translation by A.G. Ferrers Howell (London, 1890). Those who like
facsimiles may find one of the Grenoble MS., with a learned
introduction, edited by MM. Maignien and Prompt (Venice, 1892).]

[Footnote 190: Authorities diffe