The latter poem, known as la montanina is no longer considered part of the Petrose, but post-exilic of the period when Dante had already left the court of Moroello Malaspina to whom he had written an epistle describing the circumstances mentioned in this canzone. This mountainsong, as the poet calls it, was written around 1307-1308. We know that Dante was a guest of the Malaspinas in the Casentino in the fall of 1306. On October 6 of that year, in fact, he appeared at Sarzana as a procurator of the Malaspinas in the signing of an agreement with the bishop of Luni, Antonio di Camilla. Dante s Epistle IV to Moroello Malaspina found in the Vatican Library, ms.
Most critics disagree, but long live dissent.
The project was abandoned and left unfinished maybe because of Dante s own studies interrupted by political events such as the advent of the newly crowned Emperor Henry VII, and the poet s own return to political activities between 1308 and 1313. When Henry s mission to restore imperial authority in Italy failed, Dante, totally disillusioned, could not resume writing on this subject. He wrote the Convivio commentary between 1304, his break with the impious crew of his fellow White exiles, and the advent of Henry in 1308. Two of the canzoni had been composed before the year 1300. It is mentioned in Paradiso 11 by Charles Martel, whose sojourn in Florence occurred in 1294, date of his alleged friendship with Dante Alighieri.