Cavalcanti: The Rebel Renaissance Poet

Anger, angst, and unrequited love

Cavalcanti’s portrait, in Rime di Guido Cavalcanti (1813)

There is a trinity of poets that dominate discussions of Renaissance literature — Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. These men have written some of the greatest masterpieces in history between them.

While they rightly deserve the glory and scholarly interest they get, there is one man still standing on the sidelines waiting for tastes to…