La Trobe University - Library: Medieval Music Database - Annual cycle of feasts of liturgical chant, liturgical polyphony and secular music of the late middle ages.

Library Home

MMDB Home

Browse

	By Text
	By composer
	By Genre
	By Manuscript
	Complete Manuscripts
	By Liturgical Feast

	By Text
	By Melody
	By Descriptor

Scribe Software

What's New

Contact

Medieval Music Database

Fenice fu' e vissi pura e morbida
madrigal by Jacopo da Bologna

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 16v-17 (2/2);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 6771 (Reina Codex), fol. 11v (2/2).

Facsimiles

Il Codice Squarcialupi edited by F. Alberto GALLO, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1992.

Editions

1. BESSELER, Heinrich. Die Musik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, Potsdam: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1931, p. 156 (Fl87).
2. Examples of Music Before 1400, edited by Harold Gleason, Rochester, New York: Eastman School of Music Series, 1942, p. 99 (Fl87).
3. A zenetörténet antologiaja, edited by Denes Bartha, Budapest: Magyar Korus, 1948, p. 23 (Fl87).
4. The Music of Jacopo da Bologna, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Berkeley: University of California, 1954. University of California Publications in Music 5, p. 40 (Fl87).
5. Der Squarcialupi-Codex Pal. 87 der Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana zu Florenz, edited by Johannes Wolf and H. Albrecht, Lippstadt: Kistner and Siegel, 1955, p. 35.
6. HARMAN, Alec. Man and His Music: The Story of Musical Experience in the West. Vol I: Mediaeval and Early Renaissance Music, London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1962, p. 159.
7. The Music of Fourteenth-Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta, Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1963. Corpus Mensurablis Musicae 8/IV, p. 6.
8. Italian Secular Music by Magister Piero, Giovanni da Firenze and Jacopo da Bologna, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1967. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century VI, p. 90.
9. Norton Anthology of Western Music. Vol. I. Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque, edited by Claude V. Palisca, Yale University: W. W. Norton, 1980, p. 74 [R Pirrotta].

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 33.

Literature

1. FELLIN, Eugene C. A Study of Superius Variants in the Sources of Italian Trecento Music: Madrigals and Cacce, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin: 1970, passim.
2. MARROCCO, W. Thomas. 'Integrative devices in the music of the Italian Trecento', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento III: Certaldo 1969, 1970, p. 416.
3. THIBAULT, Geneviève. 'Emblèmes et devises des Visconti dans les oeuvres musicales du Trecento', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento III: Certaldo 1969, 1970, p. 146.
4. FISCHER, Kurt von. 'Zum Wort-Ton Problem in der Musik des italienischen Trecento', Festschrift Arnold Geering zum 70. Geburtstag, Bern-Stuttgart: P. Haupt, 1972, p. 57.
5. WESSELY, O. 'Über den Hoquetus in der Musik zu Madrigalen des Trecento', De Ratione in Musica. Festschrift Erich Schenk zum 5. Mai 1972, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1975, pp. 20-21.
6. FELLIN, Eugene C. 'The notation-types of Trecento music', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento IV: Certaldo 1975, 1978, pp. 211-224.
7. HOPPIN, Richard H. Medieval Music, New York: W. W. Norton, 1978, pp. 450-451.
8. WILKINS, Nigel. Music in the Age of Chaucer, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1979. Chaucer Studies I, p. 50.
9. FISCHER, Kurt von. 'Sprache und Musik im italienischen Trecento: Zur Frage einer Frührenaissance', Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, edited by U. Günther and L. Finscher, Kassel: Bärenreiter: 1984, p. 44.
10. YUDKIN, Jeremy. Music in Medieval Europe, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989, pp. 526-529.

Recordings

1. Music in Italy 1300 - 1650, Syntagma Musicum Ensemble, directed by Kees Otten: Electrola.
2. Musik aus Italien 1300 - 1650, Syntagma Musicum, Amsterdam, directed by Kees Otten: Voce del Padrone SME 191761/2.
3. Antologia Sonora della Musica Italiana. Vol 3: Musiche Profane nel Basso Medio Evo, Lucca (S), Nobile (T), soloists: Carisch MCA 28017.
4. The "Canon" in the Fourteenth Century: Chace and Caccia, H. Guermant (S), F. Mertens (A), F. Anspach (T), E. Jacquier, directed by Safford Cape (1937): Anthologie Sonore AS 59.
5. Squarcialupi-Codex: Madrigals and Cacce from the Codex of Antonio Squarcialupi, Brussels Pro Musica Antiqua, directed by Safford Cape (1953): Archiv ARC 3003.
6. Ecco la Primavera. Florentine Music of the 14th Century, Early Music Consort, directed by David Munrow (1969): Argo ZRG 642 (GB).
7. Recordings to accompany A History of Western Music and Norton Anthology of Western Music (compiled from other recordings, directed by Thomas Binkley, David Munrow, Denis Stevens
8. Two Gentlemen of Verona, Ensemble of the Fourteenth Century, directed by John Griffiths and John Stinson (1987): Move MC 3091.

Text

Fenice fu' e vissi pura e morbida.
e or sun trasmutata in una tortora
che volo con amor per le bele ortora.

Arbore secho [mai nT] aqua torbida
no me deleta; mai per questo dubito:
vane la state, 'l verno ven de subito.

Tal vissi et tal me vivo e posso scrivere
ch'a dona non F pi· che onesta vivere.

Translation

Once, when a phoenix, my life was pure and tender.
this hour transmuted to a turtledove
who flies forlorn through the beautiful orchards.

I can never be pleased by a withered tree
or muddied water. On account of these qualms:
summer goes, and winter comes at once.

Thus I lived and thus I live, and I can write
that nothing is better for a woman than an honest life.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga

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

Cantus

CAO-ECE

Cantus Planus

Vulgate

DIAMM

TML

Latin Dictionary