ABSTRACT
Although the vast majority of Cecco Angiolieri's poetic corpus consists of mock love lyrics, the poet deals with other subject-matters as well. Out of a total of some 111 sonnets, in approximately twenty-five sonnets, Cecco speaks about his impoverished circumstances. Interestingly, Angiolieri's treatment of poverty may have no direct precursors in Italian vernacular poetry. Cecco does not originate this vocabulary ex nihilo, excogitating it from his creative genius and employing it to describe his own historical circumstances. The thematics of destitution warrants closer examination, for it encompasses a series of cultural poles within itself. In the comic tradition, the poor symbolically represent the counterpoint to the nobility, forming two extremes on the social continuum. Due to the sinfulness of the poor, the tavern forms the ideological locus par excellence of comic literature. Some evidence exists that, in addition to whatever else Angiolieri may signify, he deliberately recalls the comic stereotype.
