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On closer inspection, the terms that distinguish this title appear less pertinent to a literary category than to doctrinal concepts or religious history. However, as semantic and conceptual fields of inquiry, their presence has important repercussions for Michelangelo's poetic development (and his development as an artist). It is possible to investigate this matter through observations and analyses of the poetic language of the rime. I propose that it becomes evident from reading Michelangelo's verses that the lexical-semantic group united under the term trascendenza cannot and must not be understood as pertaining to doctrinal or religious contemplation, but rather to a broader spiritual sense that depends on neo-Platonic philosophy. The term and its related semantic field appear mainly in a series of rime on matters of love, the examination of which reveals its particular character as a spiritual component of ennobling sentiment, where the experience of love has the specific function of rapprochement with and elevation to the divine. This has already been recognised and highlighted by the first commentators on Michelangelo's Rime, starting with Francesco Berni and continuing with Condivi, Vasari and above all Benedetto Varchi. However, other lexical, semantic and conceptual cases can be extracted from the rime of a properly religious nature. In these, the terminology changes, focusing mainly on the concepts of guilt, error and faith, variously articulated in relation to the subjects of repentance or prayer. Michelangelo's poetic dialogue with Vittoria Colonna stands out in these rime, well studied but still lacking elucidation with respect to some of its specific implications.