Paolo Lanfranchi de Pistoja

Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia (Occitan: Paulo Ianfranchi de Pistoia; fl. 1282–1295) was a noted Italian poet who wrote in both the Italian and Occitan languages. He is thus sometimes described as a troubadour. A native of Pistoia—he was a major cultural figure of the Duecento there—his sonnets have been praised for their originality.

Paolo is first encountered in the records in Bologna in 1282. He was present for an act granted in favour of Pistoia on 1 February that year. He also testified alongside Forisio di Jacopo in a document of 13 October, and was still at Bologna on 21 January 1283, when he witnessed a mutuum contracted between two men of Pistoia, Gerardino Bruno and Pucino Pepi. In 1291 he was back in Pistoia, where he was sentenced as guilty for the crime of striking cum una spada malvagia vetita pro forma statutorum ("with a sword in malice") a certain Orellio Megliori on the head, ex dicta percussione multus sanguis extivit ("from which wound exited much blood"). He was sent into exile and was in Bologna again in 1295. It is therefore certain that if, as some historians have believed, Paolo spent some time at the court of Aragon in Spain, it must have been spent between 1283 and 1291, most probably 1283–1285 if at all.

Paolo wrote seven surviving sonnets in Italian. The first four are seen as an interrupted dream, while the last three are a contemplative response. The basic theme of Paolo's work is the question "How can man reconcile love of woman with love of God?" or, more generally, love of earthly with love of heavenly things. Paolo's solution tends towards complete division of Earth and Heaven, no reconciliation. As a lover, he ignores Reason and pursues his subconscious desires, but his "daydreaming" is interrupted the bells of Matins and thus he finds he cannot escape religious demands even in his mind. This tempts him to become a Patarine, that is, a heretic. Paolo finally ascribes his wretched condition to a war between God and Nature which occurred at his birth. His final two works employ the analogy of the wheel of fortune (rota fortunae) and may have been accompanied by visual aids in performance, much as has been suspected of jongleur performances elsewhere.

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