«O dolze terra aretina»: una canzone politica di Guittone d’Arezzo

This essay proposes a political reading of the song O dolze terra aretina by Guittone d’Arezzo. We show that Guittone condemns the current situation of the city of Arezzo and urges the citizens to reject the alliance with Manfredi and to rejoin the Florentine Guelphs. According to Guittone, the pro-imperial political group has degraded the civil coexistence of the city, putting it in danger. The song is explicitly critical toward the risky choices of the powerful Guglielmino degli Ubertini, bishop from 1248 to 1289, who in 1258, with the conquest of Cortona, broke the pacts with the Florentines. The song is a fine example of “municipal” political poetry, based on a strong idea of city autonomy: in Guittone’s vision, Arezzo could overcome the processes of internal disintegration and develop itself only through a framework of regional alliances in particular with Florence, so realizing the deep ambition of the Tuscan Guelphs.