Class of 1955 Conference Room, 241 Van Pelt Library

At the courts of Frederick II Hohenstaufen and his son Manfred, science and poetry flourished as sources of leisure even amid the most dramatic throes of war. It is no surprise that during their tumultuous reigns, the Hohenstaufen rulers patronized translations, fostered intercultural dialogues, and cultivated the first poetic season in the Sicilian language. Erudite officials gathered at court to build a literary and intellectual community that could rival those of Europe and the Mediterranean.

In this talk, I explore how thirteenth-century Italian literature serves as a gateway into the interdisciplinary unity of knowledge in the Middle Ages. The connecting thread is the influence of an Aristotelian account of human physiology and cognitive faculties on the poetry of the Scuola siciliana. Beginning with Giacomo da Lentini’s trope of the image painted in the heart of the lover, I examine its connection to Aristotle’s theory of sense perception and trace this influence through Guido delle Colonne’s account of pneumatic movement. Finally, I turn to the poetry of King Enzo, the last heir of the House of Hohenstaufen, arguing that his verse reflects an Aristotelian physiology of dreams and its relation to the balanced temperament of blood.