The poetry of the Provencal troubadours had already passed its prime
when, in the other European countries, lyric art was still in its
infancy. The crusade against the Albigenses (1209), undertaken by
Gregory VII. with the object of killing the new spirit and the new
secular civilisation, drove many troubadours to Italy, among others the
famous Sordello, who is mentioned in Dante's _Divine Comedy_. Others
went to Sicily, to the court of the art-loving Emperor, Frederick II.,
where a distinct, but not very original, poetic art arose. In Italy the
perfection of mediaeval poetry was reached in the "sweet, new style"
immortalised by Dante. But not only the great Italians, the trouveres
from the North of France also, and--to some extent--the German
minnesingers, were influenced by the art, and above all, the ideals
which had originated in Provence. The poetry of the earliest Rhenish and
Austrian minnesingers closely follows German folklore, and the songs of
Dietmar of Aist and others are still quite innocent of any trace of
neo-Latin characteristics.
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