Dictionary.net

• An Italian poet; born in Santa Firmina, near Arezzo, about 1230; died at Florence, 1294. He received a scholarly training and knew several languages. When young he was a military adventurer. In middle life he founded an order of monks. His poetry is remarkable for elegance of form and matter; to him the present fixed form of the sonnet is largely due. He left much verse, of which thirty-five sonnets and four canzone have been preserved.

1910 - Warner's dictionary of authors ancient and modern
By Charles Dudley Warner