Commentary Purg XXVI 92

The speaker finally reveals himself as Guido Guinizzelli.  'The most illustrious of the Italian poets prior to Dante, he belonged to the family of the Principi of Bologna, in which city he was born ca. 1230.  In 1270 he was Podestà of Castelfranco; in 1274, when the Ghibelline Lambertazzi were expelled from Bologna, Guido with the rest of the Principi, who belonged to the same party, was forced to leave his native city; he is said to have died in exile at Verona in 1276' (Guido Guinizelli).  His most famous poem is the canzone 'Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore' (Love always finds shelter in the noble heart).  It sets out the doctrine, embraced by Dante in the fourth treatise of Convivio, that true nobility is not determined by birth but by inner virtue.