The town of Alcamo has given birth to some famous personalities of which the most famous is certainly the poet Cielo d'Alcamo, one of the most famous exponents of Italian jester narrative who finds its most illustrious expression in the Sicilian school as well as the one who was listed as the first author to write in the Italian vernacular.
Here is everything you need to know about the poet Cielo d'Alcamo and his works, to better understand the relationship that binds him to the town in the province of Trapani.
The biography of Cielo d'Alcamo
Very little is known about Cielo except that he was born in Alcamo and lived in the XIII century. In many writings he is called by the name of Ciullo which is a vulgar diminutive, widely used in the context of jester poetry. From Ciullo it passes then to Heaven, which is an incorrect wording reported in nineteenth-century documents.
Probably also the word d'Alcamo is not a real surname but rather refers to its geographical origin. Little is known about his childhood and life, likely that he was very close to Magna Curia of Frederick II, i.e. the administrative body of his kingdom, while for others Cielo was instead exclusively a court jester.
One of Cielo's most famous works is certainly that poem known as Very fresh rose, that in reality it is a composition without indication of the author. The work was attributed to Cielo d'Alcamo through the work of Angelo Colocci, a scholar of the sixteenth century, which derives its attribution based on unknown sources and on the study of the typology of writing.
Even today, many scholars do not agree on this attribution but they agree in judging the author of the poem as a man of culture, certainly not without a certain historical preparation, a figure who would come into conflict with the clownish figure of Cielo d' Alcamo.
The poet Cielo d'Alcamo and his works
Just as little is known about the poet's life, just as little is known with certainty about his works given that the only one that is attributed with certainty is that Rosa fresh very aulentissima which is written in the Sicilian vernacular although it certainly influenced from continental writing.
The work is also mentioned by Dante in his De Vulgari Eloquentia as an example of a non-illustrious Sicilian, used in theatrical representations and typical of the jester's world. The poem, probably written between 1231 and 1250, is part of a collection known as name of Canzoniere Vatican Latin 3793 which contains all works in the vernacular which however have influences from the Oc language, Latin and even some elements of Campanian origin.
In reality, then, of the poet Cielo d'Alcamo and his works we have no other traces as he is mentioned in other writings of the time but unfortunately we have not received other texts, probably also due to the fact than the joker texts they included a very important part of improvisation and were often not written but handed down by heart or in a written form far from what was then recited, almost as if it were a sort of memo.
The Contrast of Cielo d'Alcamo and the birth of courtly poetry
Going back to Cielo d'Alcamo's most famous work, Rosa fresco aulentissima is also considered a breakthrough work, also nicknamed Il Contrasto precisely because it marks a watershed in Italian literary and narrative culture, in terms of language and beyond.
The story that is told is very simple because in reality the poem deals with a speech, based on bickering and jokes, which elapses between a knight and a woman of the people: probably between the two there is a relationship of love and quarrels, therefore the two spare no jokes and backbiting.
What makes poetry gain the nickname of Contrasto, however, is the fact of being registered in the category of cultured poetry because it has a series of references that can only belong to an author who has great literary and narrative knowledge behind him, even linked to foreign influences.
The style of the poem, in fact, seems to be directly connected to transalpine troubadour tradition also for the metric-stylistic typology used in the work which demonstrate a certain familiarity with the dynamics of nascent courtly poetry. To Cielo d'Alcamo goes the credit for having then acted as an inspiration for those who will be the realistic-playful compositions of the Tuscan area of which the main exponent will be a certain Cecco Angiolieri, in turn a source of inspiration for the same Dante Alighieri.
The monument dedicated to Cielo d'Alcamo
The relationship between Alcamo and one of his most famous sons, like Cielo, has always been very close, so much so that the municipality of the town in the province of Trapani wanted to celebrate it with the creation of a monument made in 1990 by Mariano Cassarà, the sculptor in whose house the work is still kept today, especially in his garden.
How come a monument dedicated to a milestone not only for the history of Alcamo but also for the entire Italian and world literature is kept inside a private house? In reality the work was made to be installed at Ciullo Square, in the center of the country, but various bureaucratic vicissitudes prevented its installation. However, it is a very beautiful work that represents the scene immortalized in the verses of the author's famous poem which marked the birth of vernacular Italian.
What to see in Alcamo
Those who wish to visit Alcamo to discover the traces of the poet Cielo can take advantage of the opportunity to discover other suggestive corners of this locality in the province of Trapani. Especially certainly worth a visit the Castle of the Counts of Modica which is a military structure built in the fourteenth century, which throughout its history has also been used as a prison and today houses the Museum of Traditions, with a beautiful display of Sicilian puppets.
Also very particular Church of San Francesco di Paola, also known because eight marble statues dedicated to as many saints and made by the sculptor James Serpotta. Finally Piazza Ciullo where the Town Basilica.
© Angela Cassarà, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
