It is not sure when Boncompagno was born but it is believed between 1165 and 1175, or 1180. There is no acknowledgement to his family; he was born in Signa, as he declares in the end of the "Rhetorica novissima”." This Rhetoric was composed in Bologna in the Year of the Lord 1235, eighth indication, by Boncompagno orator, born in the Castle, that is called Signa FranceArno, the Bisenzio, the Ombrone and perhaps the Osmannoro; the cited bridges are those upon the Arno and the Bisenzio or the one leading to S.Mauro. Boncompagno attended his first studies in Florence, but quite soon he moved to Bologna, where, when he was very young, he started to teach as "magister" of grammar and rhetoric. At the end of the 12th century and the first decades of the 13th century the school "DELLE ARTES" (Latin arts), in Bologna, reached the highest level of its reputation Bologna, the town of the dettatori, is ‘caput exercitii litteralis’, as Boncompango says; and ‘the ars dictandi’, is estimed, as a ‘summa’ a supreme science, capable of knowing the whole conception of disciplines: this is, substantially the idea of Boncompagno da Signa, ’Princeps dictatorum’.

and that is seven miles from the flourishing town of Florence. In fact that castle is situated between four rivers and two stone bridges; it is a pleasant area for the presence of waters and the olive trees ”. The mentioned rivers are the

C. Calcaterra highlights three names (Boncompagno, Enrico from Settimello and Rambertino Buvalelli) to represent, the three aspects of art, they excelled in Bologna between the end of the 12th century and the start of the 13th; those, respectively, are: Il dettare (dictation) by attractive prose, writing poetry in Latin and composing in Provençal.

G. Vecchi puts Boncompagno of Signa within the triad of teachers of rhetoric in Bologna, with Guido Faba and Bene from Florence; he defined Boncompagno ”the most capricious one, the most bizarre and richest of ‘vena’”. Above all his rhetorical works, it is proper to rememberRethorica antiqua or Boncompagnus and Rhetoricanovissima, that gave him honours and immense reputation.

Boncompagno was an unbiased spirit, sceptical, attentive observer of reality, some people defined him a humanist ante litteram, with a marked attitude to sarcasm. For his sceptic temperament, he was always ready to ridicule the promising of miracles: he put himself against the famous friar Giovanni from Vicenza. Salimbene from Adam, in cronica (Chronic) of 1283, reports a mock organized by Boncompagno to ridicule the promising of miracles and to question the credulity of the Bolognese people: in fact, spread the word that he would be lifted un in flight from the top of a mountain. He put a pair of wide wings to his feet and told the crowd, that he was waiting for the Miracle, "that he was going with God and he was satisfied to have seen the face of Boncompagno". The date of his death is uncertain and approximated: he had lived in Bologna for a long period and in Vicenza, Venice and Reggio, as well; he had travelled around France, Germany, Dalmazia, Greece, Costantinopoli and Jerusalem; he surely died in the hospital of S.Giovanni Evangelista in Florence, after the year 1240, which his last work Libellus de malo senectutis et senii goes back to. It seems that he died in extreme poverty–after the failure of his first attempt to obtain an office in Rome, at the Curia Pontificia (Curial offices).

• RHETORIC:
  - V tabulae salutationum,
  - Tractatus virtutum,
  - Notule auree, (1196-1197)
  Appendix of the previous and containing observations about the formulas to use at the beginning of an epistle.
  - Palma, (1198)
  dealing with epistles in general, about its parts and the punctuation marks.
  - Oculus pastoralis,
  containing models of speech that he pronounced in the most important moments of his public life.
  - Rethorica antiqua,
  composed of six books, dealing with the form of the relevant letters written by some students and some teachers in Bologna, letters of the Curia, missives destined to the Pope, to the emperor, to the ecclesiastical and to the nobility. This work was composed in Bologna, where, on 26th March1215, it was read and he was crowned with laurel near S.Giovanni a Monte, claimed by the college of the professors of canonical and civilian law, teachers and a crowd of students.
  - Rethorica novissima,
  it is composed of thirteen books, written in Venice, but published in Bologna in 1235. It discusses the origin of law, law cases, invectives, concìonì etc., it could be considered to be dedicated to the students in utroque iure, a tool to teach lawyers.
• LAW:
  - Olivia (privilegia et confirmationes)
  - Cedrus (generalia statuta)
  - Myrrha (testamenta)
  - X Tabulae (privilegia et testamanta)
• MISCELLANY:
  - Amicitia,
  sketches about friendship, conversation between Body and Soul, that appeal themselves to the Reason.
  - Liber de obsidione Ancone, (1198-1200)
  historical writings about the siege of the town ofAncona in 1173, by the army of the Christian Archbishop of Magonza, Chancellor of Federico Barbarossa.
  - Rota Veneris, (ant. 1215)
  Operetta leading with lascivia et amantium gestus, it contains some precepts about loving letters.