little more than a rhetorical exercise. It was the revival of learning and the Universities, in particular that of Bologna, which inspired the _dolce stil nuovo_, of which the first exponent was Guido Giunicelli. Love was now treated from a philosophical point of view: hitherto, the Provençal school had maintained the thesis that "sight is delight," that love originated from seeing and pleasing, penetrated to the heart and [107] occupied the thoughts, after passing through the eyes. So Aimeric de Pegulhan. Perque tuit li fin aman Sapchan qu'amors es fina bevolenza Que nais del cor e dels huelh, ses duptar. "Wherefore let all pure lovers know that love is pure unselfishness which is born undoubtedly from the heart and from the eyes," a sentiment thus repeated by Guido delle Colonne of the Sicilian school. Dal cor si move un spirito in vedere D'in ochi'n ochi, di femina e d'omo Per lo quel si concria uno piacere. The philosophical school entirely transformed this conception. Love seeks the noble heart by affinity, as the bird seeks the tree: the noble heart cannot but love, and love inflames and purifies its nobility, as the power of the Deity is transmitted to the heavenly beings. When this idea had been once evolved, Provençal poetry could no longer be a moving force; it was studied but was not imitated. Its influence had lasted some 150 years, and as far as Italy is concerned it was Arabic learning, Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas who slew the troubadours more certainly than Simon de Montfort and his crusaders. The day of superficial [108] prettiness and of the cult of form had passed; love conjoined with learning, a desire to pierce to the roots of things, a greater depth of thought and earnestness were the characteristics of the new school. Dante's debt to the troubadours, with whose literature he was well acquainted, is therefore the debt of Italian literature as a whole. Had not the troubadours developed their theory of courtly love, with its influence upon human nature, we cannot say what course early Italian literature might have run. Moreover, the troubadours provided Italy and other countries also with perfect models of poetical form. The sonnet, the terza rima and any other form used by Dante are of Provençal origin. And what is true of Dante and his Beatrice is no less true of Petrarch and his Laura and of many another who may be sought in histories specially devoted to this subject. CHAPTER VIII [109] THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN