Following her arranged marriage, the first known female poet from this region lamented, “I live each hour in great torment; / neither flower nor leaf rejoices me.” An essay from this region jests that, if inhabitants of a neighboring region forgot about the letter “z,” they would have to invent a new language. A comic poet from this region, who compared himself to a cattle-prod and his contemporary to an ox, wrote an anaphora-heavy poem that begins, “If I were fire, I would consume the world.” An author from this region criticized scripture for giving (*) speech to woman before man in an essay written in exile that examines the eloquence of vernacular language. A poet used this region’s dialect rather than Latin for a prosimetrum on his love for a woman whom he first met at age nine. For 10 points, what region’s dialect was used by the author of La Vita Nuova? ■END■
ANSWER: Tuscany [or Toscana; accept Tuscan or dioletto toscano; prompt on Italy; prompt on the Italian Peninsula] (The unnamed poets are Compiuta Donzella and Cecco Angiolieri.)
<Itamar Naveh-Benjamin, European Literature>
= Average correct buzz position