Toynbee "Colonne, Guido delle"
a judge of Messina in Sicily, who belonged to the Sicilian school of poetry which flourished under the Emperor Frederick II and his son Manfred. Besides poems Guido also wrote a romance of Troy in Latin prose
[see
Guido de Columnis,
Historia destructionis Troiae,
ed. by N. E. Griffin (Cambridge, Mass., 1936)] which was widely popular in the Middle Ages; it was avowedly compiled from the apocryphal histories
De excidio Troiae
and
De bello Troiano
of Dares and Dictys, but is in reality a more or less close translation of the O.F.
Roman de Troie
(written c. 1 160) of Benoit de Sainte-Maure [Achille]. This history (which is said to have been undertaken at the instance of Matteo della Porta, archbishop of Palermo, 1263-72) is in thirty-four books, of which the first was written about 1272, and all the others in 1287; the interruption in the work was caused by Guido's having accompanied Edward I to England, when the latter was on his way home from the Crusade after the death of Henry III. In 1242 Guido began his service as judge of Messina, whence he is commonly known as Guido delle Colonne, Giudice di Messina. According to an English chronicler he was still alive during the pontificate of Nicholas IV (1288-92); in any event, he died after 1287. Guido was well known in England; Caxton and Shakespeare were familiar with his work; he is mentioned by Chaucer in the
House of Fame
as 'Guydo de Columpnis' (iii. 1469), while his
Historia destructionis Troiae
was translated into Middle English by John Lydgate and by the author of
The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy
(Early English Text Society 1869-74). A small number of Guido's poems has been preserved, including two which are quoted by D.
[See
G. Contini, ed.,
Poeti del Duecento
(Milano - Napoli, 1960), i, pp. 95-110; for the biography,
see F.
Scandone, 'Notizie biografiche di rimatori della scuola siciliana',
Studi di lett. ital. vi.
(1904-6), 39-101;
see also
H. Morf, 'Notes pour servir a l'histoire de la legende de Troie en Italie et en Espagne',
Romania, xxi
(1892), 18-21.] D. (who makes no reference to the
Historia)
quotes, but without mentioning the author's name, the first lines of two of Guido's
cansoni
('Anchor che l'aigua per lo focho lassi', and 'Amor, che lungiamente m'ai menato') as examples of the lofty style of Sicilian poetry,
V.E. I. xii.2; the latter line is quoted again as an instance of the use of the eleven-syllabled line, the author's name being given as
Index de Columpnis de Messana,
b V.E. II. v. 4; the former line is also quoted again, the author's name being given as
Iudex de Messana, *b V.E.
II. vi. 6.
©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press
