ABSTRACT
Cecco Angiolieri belongs to the subsequent generation of poets, and while he too followed Rustico di Filippo's example, he was not beholden to it. It is true that his entire poetic corpus consists only of sonnets, and that he utilized extensively the thematics of vituperium and improperium. In attempting to move away from the positivistic interpretation of comic poets, both Mario Marti and Maurizio Vitale demonstrated that the writers worked within a set literary tradition. It is perhaps best to begin with the explanations of comic literature found in medieval rhetorical treatises, including such related texts as commentaries and encyclopedias. Upon establishing the subject-matter most appropriate for tragic literature, Dante Alighieri then discusses the kind of lexicon which would be acceptable for the illustrious vernacular. A closer examination of polarities sheds further light on the practices of medieval comic literature. Tragedy confines itself strictly to both the semantic field and the ideology associated with the upper end of the binomials.
