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Medieval Music Database

Amor mi fa cantar a la Francescha
monophonic anonymous ballata

Sources

Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rossi 215, fol. 18v (1/1).

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. WOLF, Johannes. 'Die Rossi-Handschrift 215 der Vaticana und das Trecento madrigal', Jahrbuch des Musikbibliothek Peters, XLV (1938), p. 65.
2. The Music of Fourteenth Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta, [n.p.]: American Institute of Musicology, 1960. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 8/II, p. 36.
3. The New Oxford History of Music. III. Ars Nova and the Renaissance, edited by Dom Anselm Hughes and Gerald Abraham, London: Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 37.
4. Medieval Music, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco and Nicholas Sandon, London: Oxford University Press, 1977, no. 74.
5. Italian Secular Music, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1978. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century XI, p. 8.

Text Editions<

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 342.

Literature

1. PIRROTTA, Nino. 'Lirica monodica trecentesca', Rassegna musicale, IX (1936), pp. 322-323.
2. SESINI, Ugo. 'Il canzoniero musicale trecentesco del cod. Vat. Rossiano 215', Studi medievali (N.S.), XVI (1943-1950), p. 228.
3. LI GOTTI, Ettore. La poesia musicale italiana del secolo XIV, Palermo: Palumbo, 1944, p. 47.
4. ELLINWOOD, Leonard. 'The Fourteenth Century in Italy', [chapter 2 of] The New Oxford History of Music. III. Ars Nova and the Renaissance, edited by Dom Anselm Hughes and Gerald Abraham, London: Oxford University Press, 1960, pp. 37, 38., pp. 37-38.
5. FISCHER, Kurt von. 'Musica e società nel Trecento italiano', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento III: Certaldo 1969, 1970, p. 19.
6. SUCHLA, Beata Regina. Studien zur Provenienz der Trecento-Ballata, Göttingen: Bärenreiter-Antiquariat, 1976, pp. 21-22.

Recordings

1. Decameron: Ballate Monodiques de L'Ars Nova Florentine, Esther Lamandier (voice, portative organ, harp, vielle, lut (1980): Astrée AS 56 (FRA).
2. A Song for Francesca. Music in Italy, 1330-1430, Gothic Voices, Andrew Lawrence-King (medieval harp), directed by Christopher Page (1987): Hyperion CDA 66286.

Text

Amor mi fa cantar a la francesca.

PerchT questo m'aven non olso dire.
chT quella donna che me fa languire
temo che non verebe a la mia tresca.

A lei sum fermo celar el mio core
e consumarmi inanzi per so amore.
ch'almen mor= per cosa gentilesca.

Donne, di vero dir ve posso tanto.
che questa donna, per cui piango e canto.
F, come rosa in spin, morbida e fresca.

Translation

Love makes me sing in France's style.

Why that occurs to me I dare not say.
for I fear that the one who makes me languish
would not understand my courtship.

I am resolved to hide my heart from her
and rather to consume myself for her love.
so that at least I die for a noble thing.

In truth, o women, I can tell you as much.
that this woman for whom I weep and sing
is soft and fresh like a prickly rose.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga

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