Abstract

Within the poetic corpus of Ubertino del Bianco, an aretine judge who lived during the first half of the 13th century, the fictive tenzone in eleven sonnets between Messere and Madonna stands out. The dialogue, which is characterized by the debaters’ heated arguments, shows similarities with the second of the two conversations between Guittone and his woman. For his dependence on Guittone’s poetical experiments, Ubertino can be considered as one of the most faithful guittonians. As for its editorial history, the entire tenzone, fragmentarily preserved by the mss. Vat. Lat 3793 (c. 159r-v) and Chig. L VIII 305 (cc. 96v e 113v-114r), can be read only in Massèra’s 1904 edition. However, the editor neither tries to justify his textual-critical choices nor provides the poems with an analytical commentary, which would have been necessary due to their obscurity. These reasons suggest that the débat should be republished in order for light to be brought to its clichés and unique features.