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Medieval Music Database

L'antico dio Biber fra sette stelle
anonymous madrigal

Sources

Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rossi 215, fol. 22v-23 (2/2).

Facsimiles

1. Il canzoniere musicale del codice vaticano Rossi 215 con uno studio sulla melica italiana del Trecento, facsimile edition by Giuseppe Vecchi, Bologna: Università degli studi di Bologna, 1966. Monumenta lyrica medii aevi italica, III/2.
2. Il Codice Rossi, edited by Nino PIRROTTA, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1992.

Editions

1. The Music of Fourteenth Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta, [n.p.]: American Institute of Musicology, 1960. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 8/II, p. 44.
2. Italian Secular Music: Anonymous Madrigals and Cacce and the Works of Niccolò da Perugia, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1972. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century VIII, p. 53.

Text Editions<

1. LIUZZI, Fernando. 'Musica e poesia del Trecento nel codice Vaticano Rossiano 215', Rendiconti della pontificia Accademia Romana di archaeologia, XIII/1-2 (1937), p. 67.
2. LI GOTTI, Ettore. 'Poesie musicali italiane del sec. XIV', Estratto dagli Atti della Reale Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Palermo, Ser. IV, IV/2, 1944 (1945), p. 40.
3. SESINI, Ugo. 'Il canzoniero musicale trecentesco del cod. Vat. Rossiano 215', Studi medievali (N.S.), XVI (1943-1950), p. 232.
4. CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 363.

Literature

1. MARTINEZ, Marie L. Die Musik des frühen Trecento, Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1963. Münchener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte 9.
2. GALLO, F.A. 'Bilinguismo poetico e bilinguismo musicale nel madrigale trecentesco', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento IV: Certaldo 1975, 1978, p. 238., pp. 238-239.
3. HALLMARK, Anne. 'Some evidence for French influence in northern Italy, c.1400', Studies in the Performance of Late Mediaeval Music, edited by Stanley Boorman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 193-226.
4. TOLIVER, Brooks. 'Improvisation in the madrigals of the Rossi codex', Acta Musicologica, LXIV (1992), p. 168.

Text

L'antico dio Biber fra sette stelle.
che tut ior vont intor tramontaine.
sont spirt amis et s'amistT sovraine:

i lor aspetti son trini e sestile.

Doe done poi, zentile e molto belle.
seoir ce vi sor les poles fermes
cantant: - Chi ame bien doit estre ames. -

Cos8 fin8 suo canto in piana voce.

Translation

The old god Biber and the seven stars
with which he goes all day round the north pole
are friendly spirits, and friendship matters above all.

Their aspects are trine and sextile.

And then I saw two noble and most lovely
ladies steadily sitting on the poles
and singing: "Those who love well must prize friendship."

That was the end of their soft-voiced song.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga

Content Approved by: MMDB Director
Last updated: Wednesday, 19 March 2003