Guido delle Colonne

A Venetian copy of the Historia destructionis Troiae, ca. 1325

Guido delle Colonne (in Latin Guido de Columnis or de Columna) was a 13th-century Italian judge and writer,^[1] living at Messina, who wrote in Latin. He is the author of a prose narrative of the Trojan War entitled Historia destructionis Troiae ("History of the destruction of Troy," 1287), that was based on De excidio Trojae historia written by Dares Phrygius and Ephemeridos belli Trojani written by Dictys Cretensis.^[2]

Dante (De vulgari eloquentia 2.5) named Guido as a poet in the vernacular, and in fact five poems by him in Italian survive.

Further reading

• Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, edited by Nathaniel Edward Griffin, Mediaeval Academy of America Publication 26, Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1936.
• Benson, C. David, The History of Troy in Middle English Literature: Guido delle Colonne's Historia Destructionis Troiae in Medieval England, Rowman & Littlefield (1980), ISBN 0-8476-6289-6
• Carlesso, Giuliana, “La fortuna della Historia destructionis Troiae di Guido delle Colonne e un volgarizzamento finora ignoto,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 157 (1980): 230-51.
• Chiàntera, Raffaele, Guido delle Colonne: Poeta e storico latino del sec. XIII e il problema della lingua della nostra primitiva lirica d'arte, Napoli: Casa Editrice ‘Federico & Adria' di P. Federico, 1956.
• Keller, Wolfram R., Selves and Nations: The Troy Story from Sicily to England in the Middle Ages, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2008.
• Lumiansky, R. M., “The Story of Troilus and Briseida according to Benoit and Guido,” Speculum 29.4 (1954): 727-33.

Notes

1. Kleinhenz 2004, p. 474.
2. Tolkien, J. R. R.; E. V. Gordon; Norman Davis, eds. (1967). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford UP. p. 70. ISBN 9780198114864.

References

• Kleinhenz, Christopher (2004). Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. Routledge.