Trecento

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The Trecento (Italian for 300, or from "mille trecento," 1300) refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history.

Commonly the trecento is considering to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history. Painters of the trecento included Giotto di Bondone, the first to use perspective in art, as well as Andrea da Firenze, Simone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Duccio di Buoninsegna.

The trecento was also famous as a time of heightened literary activity, with writers working in the vernacular instead of Latin. Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio were the leading writers of the age. Dante produced his famous La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy), a summation of the medieval worldview, and Petrarch wrote verse in a lyrical style influenced by the Provençal poetry of the troubadours.

In music, the trecento was a time of vigorous activity in Italy, as it was in France, with which there was a frequent interchange of musicians and influences. Distinguishing the period from the preceding century was an emphasis on secular song, especially love lyrics; much of the surviving music is polyphonic, but the influence of the troubadours who came to Italy, fleeing the Albigensian Crusade in the early 13th century, is evident. Musicians and composers of the trecento included the renowned Francesco Landini, as well as Gherardello da Firenze, Andrea da Firenze, Giovanni da Firenze, Paolo da Firenze (Paolo Tenorista), Donato da Cascia, Niccolò da Perugia, Maestro Piero, Bartolino da Padova, Giovanni da Cascia, and Vincenzo da Rimini.