Milanese literature

This article is about literature written in Western Lombard (Insubric).

The Insubric poet Caecilius Statius came from Milan, capital city of Insubres, and wrote in Latin, being one of the best Latin comedians, with Plautus and Terence.

Throughout the 13th century, the activity of Cisalpine poets in Langue d'oc continued; in Mantua, Sordello da Goito compounds the Sirventese lombardesco in local language, of Lombard group, the only trobadoric text in a Northern-Italian local language; in Bologna, Gallo-Italic language land too, in 1254 Rayna possentissima is compounded, lauda of the Servi della Vergine, the older lauda we know. In the same city, the notary registers are founded (known as Memoriali bolognesi) for the transcription of public acts, during two centuries: in the white spaces, in order to avoid illegal addings, some folk or cultured poems are written. In this period, there was a common literary and jesterish language for all Langobardia Maior.

Bonvesin da la Riva is the most important Northern-Italian writer of the 13th century. Born in Milan between 1240 and 1250, he was a secular friar belonging to the 3rd order of Umiliati and is acknowledged as doctor in gramatica, a title that few people had. His most important work is the Book of the three texts (Libro delle tre scritture), an epic poem in quatrains in Old Insubric language, in which he describes the underworld realms. The book is divided into three parts, different for style and atmosphere, in which Hell, Christ's Passion and Paradise are represented. The anticipation of Dante's Divina Commedia is evident, with an attentive use of language, with lexical and rhetoric ability. This work of art is a sort of screenplay of the afterlife, of considerable historic value and of hard poetical suggestion. The Essay on the months in form of apologue and the Vulgare de elymosinis, raw description of terrible maladies, similar to the realism of Jacopone da Todi, are also very important. A sort of Medieval etiquette is the treaty De quinquaginta curialitatibus ad mensam, lively and realistic representation inserted in the manualistic tradition of the time. The Contrasti are other poems, series of disputies, enriched by skillful alternance of descriptive tones -grotesque and soft, meditated and exemplar- like the Disputatio rosae cum viola, in which the humble bourgeois virtues of the violet prevail on the aristocratic ones of the rose. In religious works the most precious are The passion of Job, The life of Saint Alexey and overall, between Laudes de Virgine Maria, the legend of Frate Ave Maria, of touching religious intensity because of its inspiration by a strong Christian devotion.

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