A type of pre-Renaissance Italian lyric verse developed in the second half of the 13th century, spiritualizing the earlier tradition of courtly love poetry, which had been more explicitly sexual in tone. The Vita nuova of Dante was the most famous ex-pression of the new style, which was a powerful influence on the lyric poetry of Petrarch, and on all later Renaissance love poetry.
See also Petrarchism.
Historical Dictionary of Renaissance. Charles G. Nauert. 2004.