“Misterious Amphion: A Trecento Musician, his Admirers and his Critics”, Studi musicali 5, Nuova...

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studi musicaliAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia . www.santacecilia.it

ISSN 0391-7789

EURO 50 9 788895 341828

ISBN 978-88-95341-82-8

Studi musicali. Nuova serieRivista semestrale di studi musicologici

DirettoreAgostino Ziino

RedazioneTeresa M. Gialdroni

Studi musicaliNuova serie, v, 2014, n. 2

Questo volume è stato pubblicato grazie al contributo del Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturalie del turismo

Art DirectorSilvana Amato

ImpaginazioneRaffaella Barbetti

Composizione tipografica in Cycles di Summer Stone

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Soci Fondatori dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa CeciliaIstituzionali: Stato Italiano, Roma capitale, Provincia di Roma, Camera di Commercio diRoma, Regione LazioPrivati: enel, bnl Gruppo bnp-Paribas, Assicurazioni Generali, Astaldi, Cassa depositi e pre-stiti, Autostrade per l’Italia, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Gruppo Poste Italiane, FinmeccanicaSponsor istituzionali: Lottomatica, Telecom ItaliaMedia Sponsor: La Repubblica

241 Elena Abramov-van RijkMysterious Amphion: A Trecento musician, his admirers and his critics

273 Luca BrunoIl cantar novo di Ercole Bottrigari, ovvero dell’antica musica cromatica ridottaalla moderna pratica polifonica tra Cinque e Seicento

357 Ilaria GrippaudoNuove acquisizioni sull’attività dei polifonisti siciliani nelle chiese palermitane (XVI-XVII Secolo)

405 Antonio Dell’OlioGeografia e storia dell’oratorio musicale in Puglia nel XVII e XVIII secolo: tra celebrazione e «spiritual ricreatione»

441 Francesca Menchelli ButtiniMetastasio’s and Hasse’s Issipile compared

479 Friedrich LippmannWilhelm Müllers Buch Rom, Römer und Römerinnen (1820) als musikhistorisches Zeugnis

489 Andrea MalvanoIl problema della sensualità in Jeux di Claude Debussy

Sommario

*Parts of this article were presented at the International Symposium on Late Medieval and EarlyRenaissance Music at Kloster Neustift/Novacella (Italy), 24-29 June, 2013. I am grateful to BonnieBlackburn, Dorothea Baumann, Aldo Menichetti and Francesco Zimei for their help in differentstages of my research. I owe thanks to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana and BibliotecaNazionale Centrale in Florence, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library, and thePhiladelphia Museum of Art for permission to reproduce the illustrations. Abbreviations used:FP = Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Panciatichiano 26; Lo = London, British Library,Add. MS 29987; Pit = Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, f. it. 568; Reina = Paris, BibliothèqueNationale de France, n. acq. fr. 6771 (Reina Codex); SL = Firenze, San Lorenzo, Archivio Capito-lare 2211; Sq = Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex).1 «Much of the poetry was designed as mere words for music (poesia per musica), too paltry incontent or trifling in quality to warrant independent consideration as literature». Don Harrán,

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One can hardly study Italian music of the Trecento today without consideringthe larger cultural context, especially the literature of this period, which pro-vides ample material, either factual or circumstantial, for the musical life andtastes of the time. Of paramount interest to scholars is not only the poetryintended for music, some of which has remained without musical settings,but the properly literary works, in prose and verse, concerning musicalaspects of many kinds.

Recently, the scholars have been drawn to consider musical poetry, poesiaper musica, as normal poetry and not as a literary genre of lesser degree and

Mysterious Amphion: A Trecento musician, his admirers and his critics*Elena Abramov-van Rijk

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elena abramov-van rijk

Frottola: Poetry, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn., ed. Stanley Sadie,London, Macmillan, 2001, vol. 9, pp. 295-97:295.2 «Although the madrigal is often considered an instance of poesia per musica, documentaryevidence suggests that it also existed as an independent literary form. The numerous literaryanthologies of the Trecento and Quattrocento containing madrigals and ballate should suggest tocontemporary literary historians and musicologists that it was probably enjoyed as poetry, andnot only as poesia per musica». Dario del Puppo, Madrigal, in Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia,London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 667-668. In this regard, the recently published research by LaurenJennings about the collection and circulation of musical poetry in non-musical manuscripts,Senza Vestimenta: The Literary Tradition of Trecento Song, Farnham and Burlington, Vt., Ashgate,2014, is of great importance.3 Elena Abramov-van Rijk, The Madrigal Aquil’altera by Jacopo da Bologna and Intertextual Re-lationships in the Musical Repertory of the Italian Trecento, «Early Music History», xxviii, 2009, pp.1-37, and Corresponding through Music: Three Examples from the Trecento, «Acta musicologica»,lxxxiii, 2011, pp. 3-37.

quality.1 This vision is historically more justified, since it takes into consider-ation the circulation of musical poetry without musical settings in purely lit-erary manuscripts and its consumption by contemporary readers.2 This, inturn, implies that musical poetry must have been comparable in functionalityto non-musical poetry. Elsewhere I have proposed that at least a part of theextant repertory of Trecento music had a communicative function, the equiv-alent of literary correspondence, and that these musical compositions musthave been related to specific persons.3 In other words, this part of the Trecen-to repertory was confined to a narrow circle of musicians and designed firstand foremost for them. Bearing this consideration in mind, we can approachthe poetic texts, and in some instances even the music, of such compositionsfrom this viewpoint.

In this essay I will analyze three pieces, the two of which are typical examplesof musical poetry and have a musical setting, the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon andthe ballata Io son un pellegrin, whereas the third composition is a sonnet OAnfione, o Narcisso novello, which certainly was not meant to be set to music.These three pieces, when considered in their relationship to a restricted circle ofcolleagues, can be seen to have much in common.

Nel meço a sei paon ne vidi un biancocon cresta d’oro e con morbida penna,sì bel che dolzemente ’l cor mi spenna.

E quanto più mostrava sua bellezza,onor facea ciascun d’altro coloreper la legiadra vista c’ha d’amore.

El suo compagno pur lo va guardandosempre cantando e da lui non si parte: ed e’ da sè lo fa [fe’] partir per arte.

perché le spiace ’l suo noioso canto.Poi de biltate s’en fa rota e manto.4

Amidst six peacocks I saw a white one,with a golden crest and soft feathers.He was so beautiful that my heart was gradually

plucked [lost].

The more he displayed his beauty,the more all of the other color paid him honor,because of his lovely appearance.

His companion, however, keeps watching him, always singing, and never leaves him alone.But [the white] manages to chase the other

peacock away

because he is annoyed by his tedious singing.Then because of his beauty he spreads his tail

[he becomes highly conceited].

Part I. The handsome protagonist of two musical pieces

The madrigal Nel meço a sei paon by Giovanni da Firenze (da Cascia)

4 The reading follows FP, apparently the earliest extant version.5 See Michael Scott Cuthbert, Trecento Fragments and Polyphony beyond the Codex, Ph.D.diss., Harvard University, 2006, pp. 297-305.

The madrigal Nel meço a sei paon ne vidi un bianco by Giovanni da Firenze, or daCascia, belongs to the milieu of the north Italian courts, Veronese and/orMilanese, in the 1340s-50s. It has a number of peculiarities that make the inter-pretation of this composition truly challenging.

The first one concerns the transmission of its authorship. Three codices, FP(fol. 55r), Reina (fol. 32v) and Sq (fol. 3v-4r), provide a complete version, whilethe fragmentary source I-Rvat 1790 (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Otto-bonianus latinus 1790)5 gives only the ritornello part in both voices. In Reina themadrigal is anonymous, whereas the name of the composer, Giovanni da Firenze(da Cascia), is indicated in two other sources: «Jd[em] M. G.» in FP and «Magis-ter Iouannes de Florentia» in Sq. Yet, the palimpsest codex San Lorenzo 2211attributes it to Jacopo da Bologna, not only by name «Mr [Jaco]bus», as the half-

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mysterious amphion: a trecento musician, his admirers and his critics

faded inscription reads, but also through the placement of the madrigal in thesection devoted to Jacopo’s compositions, at fols. 42v-43r.6 Hence, the scribe wassure of Jacopo’s authorship, so that we may infer that the source from which thiscomposition was copied indicated Jacopo’s name in some form.

The reason for such a strange confusion is unclear: it could be a cumulativeerror transmitted by the SL scribe, or Jacopo’s name appeared there in a differ-ent connection, as, for example, the dedicatee and/or the supposed subject of thepoem.7 That Jacopo da Bologna and Giovanni da Cascia shared a certain relation-ship we know not only from the common imagery, expressions, names and otherdevices in their musical compositions, but also from the chronicle by Filippo Vil-lani8 and from the curious grouping of musicians in a legal codex of the Trecentodescribed by Kurt von Fischer.9

6 Oliver Huck noted that notwithstanding the ascription of the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon toJacopo da Bologna in SL, the authority of two other codices, FP and Sq, is strong enough to con-firm the authorship of Giovanni da Cascia. Oliver Huck-Sandra Dieckmann, Die mehrfachüberlieferten Kompositionen des frühen Trecento, Hildesheim, Zürich and New York, Olms, 2007(“Musica mensurabilis”, 2/1), p. 168.7 The headings that would indicate the name of the addressee or dedicatee do not appear in the extantmusical sources. However, they are quite frequent in nonmusical poetry designed for an addressee,mostly in the sonnets of correspondence. In fact, we do not know exactly how musical compositionswere circulating before they were gathered in manuscripts, but they certainly were written first on sep-arate sheets. They might have had some indications of the persons intended to receive them. The time-gap between the creation of the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon and its copying in SL is about 65-70 years,so that the scribe of SL could have had in his hands a nth copy of this composition with only the nameof addressee discernible. To recall, in Reina it is transmitted anonymously.8 Filippo Villani, De origine civitatis Florentie et de eiusdem famosis civibus, a c. di Giuliano Tan-turli, Padova, Antenore, 1997, p. 408.9 Kurt von Fischer, Portraits von Piero, Giovanni da Firenze und Jacopo da Bologna in einerBolognese Handschrift des 14 Jahrhunderts?, «Musica Disciplina», xxvii, 1973, pp. 61-64:63-64,noted that the portraits of musicians in the Codex Fulda (Badische Landesbibliothek D23) atfol. 302r were provided later with the names of the three leading composers of the Trecento:Magister Piero, Giovanni da Cascia and Jacopo da Bologna. Von Fischer claims that this spe-cific detail suggests that these musicians were known to each other: «Trotz diesen Ein-schränkungen, die vor einer Ueberinterpretation dieser Miniatur warnen sollen, ergibt sichaus diesem Dokument doch ein Hinweis darauf, dass der ältere Piero und die jüngeren Gio-vanni und Jacopo auch in Bologna als eine zusammengehörige Musikergruppe bekannt gewe-sen sind und dort vielleicht sogar vorübergehend gewirkt haben.»


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10 Huck-Dieckmann, Die mehrfach überlieferten Kompositionen cit., p. 169.11 Marco Gozzi-Agostino Ziino, The Mischiati Fragment: A New Source of Italian TrecentoMusic at Reggio Emilia, in Kontinuität und Transformation in der italienischen Vokalmusik zwischenDue- und Quattrocento, hrsg. Sandra Dieckmann, Oliver Huck, Signe Rotter-Broman und AlbaScotti, Hildesheim, Zürich und New York, Olms, 2007 (“Musica mensurabilis“ 3), pp. 281-305:300, noted with regard to the Mischiati fragment, believed to be contemporary with the codexRossi 215 (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), that in the anonymous caccia «the mensuration uti-lized in the first part is an exact replica of that used in the madrigal Nel mezzo a sei paon by Giovan-ni (FP, with an unusual and archaic notational system) the text of which deals with an identicalornithological subject using the same metaphors.»12 They are all indicated by Oliver Huck in his edition in Die mehrfach überlieferten Kompositionencit., pp. 34-37.13 Ivi, p. 170.14 This madrigal does not appear in any known literary source in which only the poetic texts ofTrecento musical compositions were transmitted, but it is mentioned in the poem Il Saporetto (orLiber Saporecti) by Simone Prodenzani (first quarter of the fifteenth century, most plausibly 1415-1420): «Quive cantari Non a suo amante,/ che ben che sia antico è molto buono/ A mezzo a sei

Another oddness of the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon is the diversity, both tex-tual and musical, of its versions. Oliver Huck has made a meticulous inventory ofthe discrepancies in the text, noting, alongside the numerous small slips anddefects, more substantial differences, such as the use of the past tense spiacqueand fe’ (fece) in the Squarcialupi codex as opposed to the present tense spiace andfa in FP and Reina.10 Furthermore, the second line of the third tercet has a differ-ent reading in the Reina codex, «E va ge’intorno e da lui non se parte» (and cir-cles around him and doesn’t leave him), whereas Sq and FP have «Sempre [E pur- Sq] cantando e da lui non si parte». Huck observed that all three texts have adifferent redaction, but Sq seems to be the more coherent version.

The notation of the madrigal in the extant sources is also different. The longervalues employed in FP are more archaic, and more typical of some earlier Tre-cento sources.11 All other manuscripts transmit the music in diminution. More-over, there are many other discrepancies in the music, not only rhythmic (whichis more common), but melodic as well.12 Huck asserts that despite the similarnotation in Sq and Reina, other details show that Reina cannot be considered asource for Sq.13 Hence, at least three separate veins of transmission can be iden-tified in the case of the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon.14 These peculiarities suggestan extensive circulation of this piece within the relevant circles, so that newerredactions and/or confusions, both textual and musical, occurred over time.

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The poetic text of the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon describes a resplendentwhite peacock of astonishing beauty, so that the longer everyone, including theauthor himself, stared at peacock, the more affected they became by his appear-ance. This intrigue develops in a rather eccentric manner. The white peacock hada companion – or better an admirer – another peacock of a normal color, quiteannoying and tiresome. The companion not only kept his eye on the white pea-cock, but also sang to him. At the end he had pestered the white peacock so muchwith his jealous guarding and tedious singing that the latter chased him away.The author’s ironic comment in the last line of the ritornello informs us that thepeacock became too haughty because of his beauty.

Although the literature about the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon is not abun-dant, some attempts to interpret its allegories and plot can be cited here. Gio-suè Carducci saw in it a lady who wished to escape her chaperone.15 JamesHaar understood it as an allegory of love, a ‘dream vision’.16 Oliver Huckreferred to interpretations by Ettore Li Gotti and Ulrich Schulz-Buschhaus,17

pointing out that the former discerned in it a «strong autobiographicmotive», and the latter an allegory of the position of women, subjected torigid social control in the ambience of a court.18

pagon’, diedaro un suono,/ parie che fosser angel’ tutti quanti» (sonnet 48). Simone de’ Pro-denzani, Sollazzo e Saporetto, a c. di Luigi M. Reale, Perugia, Fabbri, 1998, p. 160.15 «Nel madrigale seguente il paone è una vistosa e discreta signora la quale sa a tempo liberarsida una compagna che è anche guardia». Giosuè Carducci, Musica e poesia nel mondo elegante delsecolo xiv, Bologna, Edizione nazionale delle opere, 1943, vol. 9, p. 357.16 «A number of Giovanni’s poems are allegories of love, cast in language of the hunt […], adream vision (Nel mezzo a sei paon)». James Haar, Essays on Italian Poetry and Music in the Renais-sance, 1350-1600, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1986, p. 9.17 Ulrich Schulz-Buschhaus, Das Madrigal. Zur Stilgeschichte der italienischen Lyrik zwischenRenaissance und Barock, Ars poetica, Bad Homburg, Gehlen, 1969, p. 19.18 «Die Deutung des Madrigals ist verschieden ausgefallen. Li Gotti interpretiert es, wie schonden Perlaro Zyklus, mit stark biografistischer Tendenz und vermutet, wie auch im Falle vonVestissi la cornacchia, als Beweggrund für dessen Entstehung den Wettstreit, den Giovanni undJacopo bei Mastino della Scala ausgetragen haben. Schulz-Buschhaus konzentriert sich auf dashöfische Ambiente und sieht unter Berufung auf Carducci in dem Pfau eine Dame, die untersozialer Kontrolle steht, der sie sich zu entledigen sucht». Huck-Dieckmann, Die mehrfach über-lieferten Kompositionen cit., p. 169.


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19 The relation of these madrigals was already noted by musicologists, for example by Kurt vonFischer and Gianluca D’Agostino, Jacopo da Bologna, in The New Grove Dictionary of Musicand Musicians cit., vol. 12, pp. 737-740:738: «Another work which shares its subject matter in themanner of a competition piece is Vestìse la cornachia, closely related to Giovanni’s Fra mille corvi.»Elsewhere I also mentioned this group of madrigals as a tenzone on the topic of originality andplagiarism (Abramov-van Rijk, Corresponding through Music cit., p. 36). More detailed discus-sion is found in the article by Robert Nosow, The Perlaro Cycle Reconsidered, «Studi musicali»,nuova serie ii, 2011, pp. 253-280:264-266: «Another song pair, Vestisse la cornachia de l’altrui penneby Jacopo and Fra mille corvi una cornachia bianca by Giovanni, deals with the theme of the cor-nacchia, a type of crow» (p. 264). And later: «Fra mille corvi lacks its second stanza, which makesreading the text problematic. Nevertheless, a comparison to Vestissi la cornachia reveals the samedual registers. Giovanni’s madrigal portrays a bird who not only is not what he seems – a whitecrow – but he entices the other crows to behave like so many parrots. The image is largely politi-cal, telling of the charlatan and his many followers. On the other hand, the crows are like singers,parroting the latest fashion» (p. 265). 20 Gozzi-Ziino, The Mischiati Fragment cit., p. 289. The study by Elizabeth Eva Leach, SungBirds: Music, Poetry, and Nature in the Later Middle Ages, Ithaca, NY, 2006, widely discusses the birdmetaphor in the European musical tradition. She provides a textual and musical analysis ofJacopo da Bologna’s Oselletto selvaggio on pp. 84-90, and the analysis of Jacopo’s canonic madrigalon the same poetic text on pp. 178-180.21 Although the peacock’s voice is impossible to define as a singing voice, in the ironic context itperfectly suits the image of a handsome musician too proud of his beauty.

Though the story might sound like a moralizing parable, disguised in theimagery of birds, the incident suggests a more realistic meaning. Birdmetaphors, employed in this madrigal and in a number of other madrigals byGiovanni da Cascia and Jacopo da Bologna, most plausibly refer to the singersin court service. This is certainly the case with the madrigals Vestisse la cornac-chia and Io mi son un che per le frasche andando (both by Jacopo) and Fra millecorvi (by Giovanni).19 Marco Gozzi and Agostino Ziino noted that in all threethe authors claim originality in art. Further on, Gozzi and Ziino continue, inthe caccia Chiama il bel papagallo from the Mischiati fragment «the musicians(Crow, Parrot, Linnet and Starling) are celebrated as great singers of love-songs».20 Therefore, the madrigals above, like Nel meço a sei paon, must have a«strong autobiographic motive» as well, since they relate to the direct sphereof activities and interests of the composers. In Nel meço a sei paon, the mentionof the singing, though tedious, of the white peacock’s companion reinforcesthe idea that the bird metaphor is employed for singers and suggests that theplot of the madrigal concerns a group of singers and musicians.21

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22 In his article ‘Tanzmusik’ im Mittelalter, in Das mittelalterliche Tanzlied (1100-1300): Lieder zumTanz – Tanz im Lied, hrsg. Dorothea Klein, Brigitte Burrichter and Andreas Haug, Konigshausen,Neu-mann, 2012, pp. 11-29, Oliver Huck attempts to outline the typology of dance songs takinginto account different musical factors, above all those of the rhythm, since the absence of textdoes not necessarily indicate that the music was designed for instruments and to be danced.

In this light, we are not dealing here with love in the proper sense but ratherwith the adulation of and excitement about a certain singer and/or musician.The main personages of the madrigals Nel meço a sei paon and Fra mille corvistand out against the background of others similar to them, obviously their fel-low singers: the white peacock among six peacocks of the other color in the for-mer and the white crow (cornacchia bianca) among a thousand [black] crows inthe latter (here the white crow made all others imitate it, just ‘to parrot’). In bothmadrigals Giovanni da Cascia narrates the unrestrained enthusiasm surroundingthe hero with a substantial portion of irony, giving an outsider’s view of this adu-lation of a ‘most popular fellow’.

The music of the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon may seem at first glance a nor-mal two-voice musical setting of the Trecento with the typical deployment of themelismatic and syllabic parts (melismas on the first and penultimate syllables),cadences and type of polyphony. However, it has a peculiarity which singles itout from other pieces in the written music of the Trecento. Only one other musi-cal composition has the same characteristic, which will be discussed below.

Normally, in Trecento music only rarely is it possible to discern a melodythat has a symmetrical structure, with repeated motives and clear cadences,etc., such as the ballata Ecco la primavera by Francesco Landini. Most Trecen-to music has abstract, rather elusive melodies, both in the superius and in thetenor, which are quite difficult to catch at first hearing. Two-voice polyphonyin the Trecento typically is a heterophonic construction with a leading uppervoice. The method of composition where the tenor has the primary role iscompletely unfamiliar. Although the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon seems to beno different from other madrigals of this kind, its tenor part contains amelody that perfectly fits the definition of a song, or even dance, melody fromthe viewpoint of its musical structure (Example 1).22

Example 1. Giovanni da Cascia, Nel meço a sei paon, tenor (without melismas)


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Here I include only the syllabic parts, that is, only those notes that carry the poetic text.Of the first melisma only the first note is given, with the first syllable of the verse, andlikewise the first note of the penultimate melisma, which carries the tenth syllable.

The resultant melody is well structured and easy to memorize. It is restrictedto the gamut of a fifth. The movement in all lines, including the ritornello, isspinning, down and up and vice versa. Three of the four lines begin with the leapof a fifth, the first and third lines downward and the ritornello upward. The char-acteristic ending motive d- (c or e)-d-e-f-g-a of the second half of the verse-line,on syllables 7-10, appears in lines 1 and 2 and in the ritornello. Together withother details of the structure, such as the aperto/chiuso cadences (in line 1 a-a, in2 a-g and in 3 e-d), the melody appears to be perfectly shaped as a dance song,23

with its rigid musical structure. The main part is in binary meter, whereas the

23 Howard Mayer Brown in his article A Lost Trecento Dance Repertory Rediscovered, «Analectamusicologica», 30/i, 1998, (Studien zu italienischen Musikgeschichte, 15), pp. 1-13, talks about dancesongs in Simone Prudenzano, Il Sollazzo, suggesting for melodies those of laude. In fact, the dancerepertory of the Trecento is little known, except for, perhaps, a few dance melodies transmitted inthe codex London, British Library, Additional 29987.

Figure 1. Giovanni da Cascia, Nel meço a sei paon, tenor, Reina, fol. 32v. © Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, n. acq. fr. 6771.

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ritornello is in ternary, the most typical metrical arrangement in Trecento madri-gals. The melody in the ritornello is consequently adapted to ternary meter.

This melody does not seem to be the random outcome of fitting counter-point to a superius line, since the corresponding melodic line of the uppervoice does not follow that of the tenor in its pattern of repetitions. It unfoldsat its own pace, as in other Trecento madrigals, of course according to therules of polyphony in the voice arrangement.

The very fact that the composer used a song/dance melody in the tenor, there-by deviating from the usual style of the Trecento madrigal, suggests that it couldhave had a particular meaning. The melody sounds quite monotonous, owing toits symmetry and repetitions. By chance or not, the first line of the ritornelloinforms us that the peacock disliked the ‘noioso canto’ (tedious singing) of hisjealous companion: from this viewpoint the melody of the tenor perfectlyaccords with the poetic text and gives a good idea of the annoying singing.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to know whether the tenor was an originalmelody composed by Giovanni or a borrowed one. But if it was a known song (Ibelieve it is plausible), it could have added another layer of meaning to the com-position. It might be a song from the repertory of a certain singer, with whom itwas identified within a certain circle of colleagues, thus unveiling the personwho was intended under the disguise of the peacock’s companion.

Example 2. Anonymous, Io son un pellegrin, tenor (without melismas)


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Giovanni da Cascia ensured that the melody was quite concealed, so that itwould have been perceptible to those colleagues who were well acquainted withit by having heard it, or who had the music before their eyes. As for the latter, themelody in question, especially its syllabic parts, can easily be grasped at sight, asin the Reina codex (see Figure 1).

The Anonymous ballata Io son un pellegrin

As mentioned above, there is another Trecento musical piece that has a ‘song’tenor, that is, a melody with a regular structure: repeated motives on the samesyntactical positions and aperto/chiuso cadences. It is the anonymous ballata Ioson un pellegrin che vo cercando (see Example 2).

Although the rhythmic arrangement is less rigid than that of Nel meço a seipaon, with the first line of the ripresa given in diminution, its symmetricalmelodic structure is evident. The first cadence of the ripresa, d-e, is mirrored bythe second cadence, e-d. Both lines of the piede beginning with the fifth syllableare absolutely symmetrical: f-g-a-f-g-a-d (d1).

FP, Pit

Reina, Lo

Figure 2. Io son un pellegrin, tenor, 1st verse:

FP, fol. 48r. © Firenze, Biblioteca NazionaleCentrale, Panciatichiano 26

Pit, fol. 42v. © Paris, Bibliothèque nationalede France, f. it. 568

whereas the Reina and Lo versions, differing on the pitch of the syllable ‘son’,transmit it as shown in Figure 3:

FP, fol. 48r. © Firenze, Biblioteca NazionaleCentrale, Panciatichiano 26

Pit, fol. 42v. © Paris, Bibliothèque nationalede France, f. it. 568

The cause of this difference is unclear. Perhaps the variant of FP/Pit was pre-ferred over that of Reina/Lo, since in the latter case parallel fifths e/b-f/c are pro-duced on the syllables ‘vo cer-[cando]’, whereas in the former the less disdainedparallel octaves c/c-d/d on the syllables ‘cer-can[do]’ appear. This detail suggeststhat the ballata Io son un pellegrin had an extensive circulation, and as a result dif-ferent redactions are not surprising.

The tenor melody sounds quiet and somewhat sad, but rightly so, since it isattached to the following poem:

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The ballata Io son un pellegrin is transmitted in four extant sources: FP fols.47v-48, Lo fol. 24, Pit fol. 42v and Reina fols. 27v-28. The first musical line of theripresa in the tenor is not the same in all sources. The versions of FP and Pit areidentical and give the reading shown in Figure 2:

Io sono un pellegrin che vo cercandoLimosina, per Dio merzé chiamando.

E vo cantando con la voce bella, Con dolce aspetto e con la treccia bionda:non ho se no ’l bordone e la scarsella.E chiamo, chiamo e non è chi risponda;E, quando credo andare a la seconda,vento contrario mi vien tempestando.24

I am a pilgrim [wanderer] who roamsAnd searches for alms, calling ‘mercy’ for God’s sake.

I walk and sing with a beautiful voice,[I am] sweet of face and blond of hair. I have nothing but my staff and knapsack.I call and call, and there is no one who responds.And whenever I think I travel with a fair wind,a gale blows against me.

Io sono un pellegrin che vo cercandoLimosina, per Dio merzé chiamando.

Et ho fatto la voce tanto chioça, Che chiamo, chiamo, non è chi risponda.

I am a pilgrim [wanderer] who roamsAnd searches for alms, calling ‘mercy’ for God’s sake.

And my voice became so hoarse,that I call and call, [but] there is no one

who responds.


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The ballata is a first-person account of a poor lonely wanderer who calls forhelp, but receives no reply. The ‘song’ melody in the tenor accords well with theidea of the pilgrim’s singing, which the poem narrates. Its melancholic moodeven suggests that it could have originated in the songs of pilgrims or wanderingbeggars. Yet, something strange surfaces in the poetic text of Io son un pellegrin.Indeed, the image of a lonely wandering pilgrim is one of the classical imagesemployed in poetry, but in this ballata the wanderer sings not only about hispoverty and loneliness, but also about his lovely appearance (dolce aspetto),blond locks (treccia bionda), and charming voice (voce bella). That the lone wan-derer stresses his physical assets is fairly unusual for this topic.

Among the concordances, Reina is exceptional from the viewpoint of thetransmission of the words. In all other manuscripts it is a small ballata in hen-decasyllabic verses with two-line ripresa, two two-line piedi and two-line volta,with the scheme AA BCBC CA. In Reina (Figure 4) not only the second piede andvolta are absent, but the extant text is heavily confused:

24 Giuseppe Corsi, Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna, Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 352.

Figure 4. Io son un pellegrin, tenor. Reina, fol. 28r.© Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, n. acq. fr. 6771

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25 The damage to the text has been already noted by scholars, such as Giuseppe Corsi, Poesiemusicali del Trecento cit., p. 352, but its new meaning has been not noticed so far.

This change cannot be explained by a simple loss of the rest of the text, since the se-cond line of the second piede, which must be placed in the residuum, is underlaidhere as the second line of the first piede. Moreover, the original conjunction ‘e’(and) in the second verse of the piede is substituted with the conjunction ‘ché’,which may signify ‘so that’ or ‘because’. In no way can it either be put down to asupposed misreading by the scribe, since instead of the phrase «e vo cantando collavoce bella» (I walk and sing with a beautiful voice) we read «et ho fatto la voce tantochioça», in which a different vocabulary is used, except for the word ‘voce’. Thenew variant informs us that the pilgrim has damaged his voice, making it croakylike that of the cackling hen (chioccia), as a result of too much calling out for help.The text appears to have been changed intentionally, thus acquiring a different andrather opposite meaning.25 When placed next to the original text of Io son un pelle-grin, the Reina variant appears to be a mocking parody of it.

Who could have been the author of this ballata and to whom would it occurto spoil a work of art like that? Regarding the authorship of Io son un pellegrin,Kurt von Fischer assumed Francesco Landini was its author. The arguments infavor of this suggestion were Landini’s motet with the words «Franciscus pere-gre canens» and the use of the image of a pilgrim in his madrigal Mostrommi


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amor. Von Fischer believed it more plausible than the attribution to Giovanni daCascia, as proposed by Ettore Li Gotti.26 The latter based this attribution on FP,where the ballata in question is placed between Giovanni’s madrigals La bellastella and Agnel son bianco.27

Even though it is still impossible to prove Giovanni’s or anyone else’s author-ship, the circumstances point to northern circles rather than to Florentine ones. Inall likelihood, the source of Io son un pellegrin with which the Reina scribe workedalready contained the altered version of the ballata. When the change happened isdifficult to determine, but possibly shortly after the ballata’s creation.28 However,the very fact of placing the modified ballata in a northern source like Reina sug-gests its specific meaning in the north of Italy. In turn, it implies that the north Ital-ian court environment was more likely for its composition. Moreover, the circum-stance of changing the ballata also suggests that it did not deal with the abstractimage of a lone wanderer, but rather with a specific person and situation, even ifdepicted in metaphorical images. Or it could have been understood within a spe-cific situation because of some apparent associations it evoked.

Summarizing what has been said about the two musical compositions, someshared features must be pointed out. First and foremost, in the tenor part of bothpieces, there is a melody notable for its well-designed melodic line and clearlysymmetrical structure with repeated melodic patterns.29 Second, both composi-tions are remarkable from the view-point of textual and musical discrepanciesand confusions, which may suggest their wide circulation and rather a specificinterest in them by the readers/listeners. The third and most intriguing feature isthe protagonist: someone, certainly a singer, aware of his beautiful appearance.

26 «Damit ist auch ein weiterer Hinweis auf Landinis mögliche Autorschaft der von verschiede-nen Forschern sicher fälschlich Giovanni zugewiesenen berühmten Ballata Io son un pellegringegeben». Kurt von Fischer, Trecentomusik, Trecentoprobleme. Ein kritischer Forschungsbericht,«Acta Musicologica», xxx, 1958, pp. 179-199:183.27 Ettore Li Gotti, Poesie musicali italiane del secolo XIV, Palermo, Boccone del Povero, 1945, p. 42.28 The scribe inserted it in a free place: the tenor at fol. 27v underneath the two-voice anonymousballata Con lagreme sospiro per grave doglia, and the superius at fol. 28 under Francesco Landini’sballata Sia maledetta l’ora e’l dì ch’io venni.29 A search for other examples of tenor melodies in the written musical repertory of the Trecentowhich were comparable with the melodies in question from the viewpoint of their melodic clear-ness yielded no examples.

O Anfione, o Narcisso novello,o specchio di virtù ch’al ciel risplende,che chiunque più ti guarda più n’accendetanto ti creò Iddio famoso e bello,

e’ non è dipintor che col pennelloun pel levasse a cosa che t’offende,e l’immagine tua fede ne rendepiù che non fé inel lago Daniello.30

Aprimi el chiostro tuo dello ’ntelletto,dov’è tanta virtù sanza magagna,che comprender nol può el mio ricetto;

e voglia alquanto me che sto in montagnachiarir con tuo prudentissimo pettoa chi verranno e fatti di Romagna.31

O Amphion, o new Narcissus, o paragon of virtues shining in the heavens, the more everyone beholds you, the more he is inflamed, Such are the talent and beauty with which theLord created you.

He [God] is not a painter who with his brushCould erase something that damages you[r beauty]. Your appearance demonstrates more faith inHimThan the prophet Daniel had in the lions’ den.

Open to me the cloister of your intelligence, where so many impeccable virtues reside that my modest abode is unable to contain.

And please, since I am in the mountains,Explain to me with your most judicious heart In favor of whom the [current] events inRomagna will be.

Part II. The sonnet O Anfione, o Narcisso novello

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30 In the later codex Vat. Lat. 3213 the words «nel lago Daniello» meaning «Daniele nel lago dei leoni»(Daniel in the lions’ den) are garbled by the scribe, resulting in «Melago da Mello», which sounds like aname, interpreted by Enzo Esposito as a name of a painter, historically unknown. However, this seemsnot to be the case, since for the purpose of his sonnet the author needed to present an unquestionableexample of the most firm faith in God, which is certainly the episode in question of the Prophet Daniel.31 Cited from Pasquale Stoppelli, I sonetti di Giovanni di Firenze (Malizia Barattone), in F.M. Annalidell’Istituto di Filologia Moderna dell’Università di Roma, Roma, Editer, 1977, pp. 189-221:211-212.

In this connection, one more text must be introduced into our discourse: thesonnet O Anfione, o Narcisso novello. Unlike the two previous texts, the sonnet OAnfione is not merely a work of art. It belongs to the genre of correspondencepoetry and, thus, must be read as an ordinary letter concerning a concrete situa-tion and real persons.


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The poem is transmitted in two codices. In the codex Florence, BibliotecaNazionale Centrale, II .II .40 (15th cent.) it has no attribution, but it is ascribedto Matteo di Dino Frescobaldi in the later codex Città del Vaticano, BibliotecaApostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 3213 (first half of the 16th cent.). However, thisattribution is considered erroneous by practically all scholars.32 The mostplausible candidate for authorship is Ser Giovanni di Firenze (1320s – after1397), the author of the novel Il Pecorone and of 41 sonnets that have survivedup to our time.33 In his younger years he served at the Milanese and Neapolitancourts as a buffone under the name in art Malizia Barattone.34

Literary scholars have already noticed that the poetry of Ser Giovanni diFirenze/Malizia Barattone, either ballatas from Il Pecorone or the sonnets, dis-plays a notable affinity with the poesia per musica of the Trecento.35 A singer,reciter of verses and poet in court service, he belonged to that category of eruditebuffoni who provided divertissements of a higher level. His abilities were praisednot only by rulers and courtiers, but by Petrarch as well.36

The sonnet O Anfione, o Narcisso novello is a good example of correspondencein poetry, since it contains an appeal to an addressee, though masked, and arequest at the end. Although the person to whom it is addressed is disguised undermythological names, it is possible to discern some features of his personality.

32 In the critical edition of Frescobaldi’s poetry, Giuseppe Ambrogio considers the attribu-tion to Frescobaldi of eight sonnets, O Anfione among them, as improbable. Matteo di DinoFrescobaldi, Rime, a c. di Giuseppe Renzo Ambrogio, Firenze, Le Lettere, 1996, p. 42.33 Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Il Pecorone, a c. di Enzo Esposito, Ravenna, Longo, 1974, pp. 571-572; Stoppelli, I sonetti di Giovanni di Firenze (Malizia Barattone) cit., pp. 190-192 and Id., MaliziaBarattone (Giovanni di Firenze) autore del Pecorone, «Filologia e critica», ii, 1977, pp. 1-34: «devonoessere senz’altro riconosciuti a ser Giovanni […] anche le otto sonetti che il cod. Vaticano-Latino3213 iscrive al nome di Matteo Frescobaldi» (p. 12). 34 On the identification of Ser Giovanni di Firenze with Malizia Barattone see Stoppelli, I sonettidi Giovanni di Firenze (Malizia Barattone) cit. and Malizia Barattone (Giovanni di Firenze) autore delPecorone cit. This opinion is accepted by many scholars, as, for example, Guido Capovilla, Ascen-denze culte nella lingua poetica del Trecento. Un sondaggio, «Rivista di letteratura italiana», i, 1983, pp.233-270:242: «Il lavoro dello Stoppelli è fondamentale, e ad esso rimandiamo senz’altro per quantoconcerne […] la ricostruzione della figura biografica e letteraria di Ser Giovanni.»35 Stoppelli, Malizia Barattone (Giovanni di Firenze) autore del Pecorone cit., p. 10. See alsoEttore Li Gotti, Storia e poesia del ‘Pecorone’, «Belfagor», i, 1946, pp. 103-10.36 Giovanni/Malizia has been introduced only recently in musicological studies as a possibleauthor of the musical ballata De mia farina fo le mie lasagne. Abramov-van Rijk, Corresponding

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through Music cit., pp. 28-33. I would not go so far as to identify the composer Giovanni da Firenzewith Ser Giovanni di Firenze/Malizia Barattone, though it has indeed been proposed by Ettore LiGotti. Li Gotti has considered also another later composer, Johannes de Florentia, the author ofmusic for the canzone by Cino Rinuccini Quando amor gli occhi rilucenti e belli. Li Gotti, Storia epoesia del ‘Pecorone’ cit., p. 104. He based the identification on the similarity between certainimages and expressions in the Pecorone ballatas on the one hand, and images and even quotationsfrom the musical repertoire of the Trecento on the other. Thus, Giovanni/Malizia’s sonnet Labella istella recreates the images and vocabulary from Giovanni da Firenze’s madrigal by the samename, describing a «beautiful star whose fire forever burns in his memory». In this sonnet, thestar guides the author like the one that led the Magi to greet the infant Jesus. Line 3 of the sonnet,«m’ha col suo lume si chiara la mente» (with its light, it has illuminated my mind) resembles line2 of the madrigal «accessa sempre nella mente mia». F. Alberto Gallo, Antonio da Ferrara, Lan-ciolotto Anguissola e il madrigale del Trecento, in Studi e problemi di critica testuale, xii, 1976, pp. 40-45:42-43, attributes the text of the madrigal La bella stella to the poet Lancillotto Anguissola, onthe phrase from Antonio da Ferrara’s sonnet in which he alludes to «the wonderful combinationof soprano and tenor in Your madrigal La bella stella». Gallo believes that this madrigal was creat-ed in 1353, and in any case no later than 1354. However, there is not enough evidence that wouldenable us to accept this truly attractive suggestion. That is why, in order to distinguish betweenthem, I called the composer Giovanni da Firenze by his alternative name, Giovanni da Cascia,exactly as he appears on the title page of his section in the Squarcialupi codex (fol. 1r) and in thechronicle by Filippo Villani, De origine civitatis Florentie cit., p. 408.37 Perhaps the reading should be rather ‘formoso’, shapely, handsome.38 Daniel I: 3-4: «Then the king said to Ashpenaz, his chief officer, to bring from the Children ofIsra-el, from the royal seed, and from the nobles. 4. Youths in whom there is no blemish, of hand-some appearance, who understand all wisdom, [who are] erudite in knowledge, who understandhow to express their thoughts [pueros in quibus nulla esset macula, decoros forma, et eruditosomni sapientia, cautos scientia, et doctos disciplina], and who have strength to stand in the king’spalace, and to teach them the script and the language of the Chaldeans».

The name Amphion unquestionably points to a musician, or better to a musi-cian of exceptional musical talent. Narcissus signifies an outstanding male beau-ty, as the following line confirms: «tanto ti creò Iddio famoso37 e bello». Ofcourse, in Trecento poetry the comparison to Narcissus may have, and some-times indeed shows, a negative connotation of self-admiration, or narcissism.Although not calling it by name, such an idea clearly surfaces in the characteris-tics of the white peacock in the ritornello of the madrigal Nel meço a sei paon.However, in the sonnet O Anfione the author’s admiration of his hero seems verysincere and ingenuous. The comparison with the prophet Daniel adds one moretrait to his portrayal: in the Bible, Daniel is introduced as a handsome adoles-cent, intelligent and erudite in all knowledge.38

Ritrovandomi io a Dovadola, sfolgorato ecacciato da la fortuna, e avendo inventiva ecagione di poter dire, cominciai questo neglianni di Cristo mccclxxviii.41

Having found myself in Dovadola, pursuedand persecuted by fortune, and having theintention and reason to speak out, I began itin the year 1378 from the birth of Christ.

Therefore, the verses in Il Pecorone (begun in 1378 and completed after 1385),as well as many of the sonnets, were the literary meditation of an older manin his late 50s, in which his turbulent life found expression.42 In fact, most of


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Consequently, the addressee was a young musician blessed with exceptionalmusical talent and extraordinary external beauty. He was gifted with outstand-ing intellect, as the expression «il chiostro dell’intelletto» in the first tercet sug-gests. The last tercet, where the poet asks him to explain what consequences theevents in Romagna will have and in whose favor, suggests that the addressee musthave had some connection with the province of Romagna. Is it possible to unveilhim? For this we need first to know more about where and when our authorcould have written this sonnet-letter.

Pasquale Stoppelli noted that the series of 21 sonnets in which this poem istransmitted could have been created over the long period of Giovanni/Malizia’slife.39 On Stoppelli’s opinion, the style of a considerable number of these son-nets, like the style of the 25 ballatas from Il Pecorone, demonstrates the palpableinfluence both of the Petrarchan lexicon and of Trecento musical poetry, or bet-ter of Tuscan poetry as it had developed up to the 1380s.40 In the introduction tohis novel Il Pecorone, Ser Giovanni admits:

39 «È scontato che non costituendo quei sonetti un gruppo organico essi possono essere staticomposti anche in momenti molto distanti fra loro». Stoppelli, Malizia Barattone autore delPecorone cit., p. 10.40 «Intanto bel più rimarcata è qui la presenza petrarchesca […], sono piuttosto i riscontri con lepoesie per musica e i contatti strettissimi delle ballate del Pecorone che rinviano a uno stadio di svilup-po della poesia toscana coincidente, grosso modo, con gli anni ottanta del secolo». Ivi, pp. 10-11.41 Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Il Pecorone cit., p. 4. In this regard Stoppelli observed: «Il sog-giorno nei dintorni di Forlì nel 1378 e la disgrazia da cui appare colpito lo scrittore, coincidente, aquanto sembrerebbe, con la perdita di uno status vantaggioso». Stoppelli, Malizia Barattoneautore del Pecorone cit., p. 22.42 «Il Pecorone sarebbe l’opera della vecchiaia del nostro autore ed anche […] il succo della lungaesperienza maturata nel corso di una vita movimentata». Ivi, p. 33.

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43 This monastery was founded as early as the 11th century; it originally belonged to the Cluniac,and later to the Cistercian order. The overall plot of Il Pecorone evolves within a monastery.44 The most relevant event in this period could have been the devastation of Cesena in 1377 andthe granting of the city by the pope Urban vi to Galeotto i Malatesta one year later.

his poetry exhibits a retrospective view of the author’s feelings and his con-templation of past passions.

On the one hand, the indication in the sonnet O Anfione that the author is cur-rently in the mountains and is interested in events in Romagna fits well with Gio-vanni/Malizia’s sojourn in Dovadola since 1378, in all probability, in the Cister-cian abbey of Sant’Andrea, a proper asylum for a troubled man.43 Actually,Dovadola is situated in the mountainous region of Romagna, near Forlì. For along period, indeed, Romagna was subjected to constant wars between the localnobility, foreign mercenaries and papal troops.44

On the other hand, O Anfione appears to be an extremely spontaneous, pas-sionate and sensuous poetic exercise. The poet’s admiration and adoration ofthe addressee, running through the entire sonnet, sometimes even cross thelimits of the reasonable, when he claims that the beautiful physical appear-ance of this Amphion and new Narcissus shows more faith in God than thedeeds of the prophet Daniel in the lion’s den. This almost sacrilegious esteemof corporal beauty suggests a young and emotionally unstable poet. It isimprobable indeed that a man already advanced in age, «pursued and perse-cuted by fortune», and keen to express the thoughts accumulated during hislifetime, could have written such a poem. Furthermore, for somebody whohas sought a remote refuge, O Anfione sounds too current and appears to be amessage that presupposes an immediate reply.

That is why I believe that we must consider another frame, in terms of time andplace, for this sonnet: most probably it was composed by the younger Giovanni diFirenze, then under the nickname Malizia Barattone, during the period of his courtservice. In all likelihood, Giovanni/Malizia met his Amphion in just this environ-ment, so that this mysterious person should have been a court musician as well.

The earliest known place where Malizia could have been engaged for courtservice was Milan, following from the fact that in 1353 he was asked to performbefore Petrarch a sonnet sent by the Florentine poet Gano di Lapo da Colle. SinceGano’s sonnet protested Petrarch’s decision to settle in Milan (as did many oth-

Ut dixi, alio calamo phylosophicis episto-lis tuis, non tamen philosophyce, respon-surus sum. Preterea iam locutus sumIohanni de Florentia, qui etiam meusnotissimus est et super complendis literisgratie michi facte, te medio, medio dixi, ate solo ducebat, tam gratam quam cel-erem promittit expedicionem.48

As I said, I am about to respond to yourphilosophic letter by one of mine,though not too philosophical. Besides, Ihave already spoken to Giovanni diFirenze, whom I know very well too,and he promised me, when the letterwill be ready (making me a favor, sinceit is about you, as I said, only because ofyou), the welcome and rapid delivery.


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ers of Petrarch’s friends), it must have been written after July 1353, when Petrar-ch arrived in Milan.45 Malizia then must have been in his twenties.

The letters of Petrarch’s friend, Francesco Nelli (d. 1363), recently edited byUgo Dotti,46 shed more light on this episode of Malizia’s biography. Nelli, theprior of the Florentine church of Santi Apostoli and the addressee of the greatestnumber of Petrarch’s Familiares, also referred to Petrarch’s choice of Milan,though in a more tolerant way, showing thereby a certain empathy with Petrar-ch’s motives.47 He discussed this problematic decision in a number of furtherletters and in one of them, on October 2, 1353, he noted:

45 The letter in question has been published in Ernst H. Wilkins and Giuseppe Billanovich,The Miscellaneous Letters of Petrarch, «Speculum», xxxvii, 1962, pp. 226-243:229, and also in UgoDotti, Petrarca a Milano: Documenti milanesi, 1353-1354, Milan, Ceschina, 1972, p. 142. On Malizia’sdocuments and for the English translation see Elena Abramov-van Rijk, Parlar cantando: The Prac-tice of Reciting Verses in Italy from 1300 to 1600, Bern, Peter Lang, 2009, pp. 15-20.46 Lettere a Petrarca, a c. di Ugo Dotti, Torino, Aragno, 2012.47 Francesco Nelli, viii, on 27 August 1353: «Ego autem dissentio non consentio eorum in hacparte iudiciis, et iterum consentio non dissentio. Tu cui fideliter ab omnibus scribitur, quid hon-ori tuo conveniat visito. Si quid finaliter sentio petis, quod expressi in literis, cursum fortune for-titer agas: “Magnus enim labor est magne custodia fame” […] Age quod lubet et libere». (I do notknow whether to agree or disagree with their judgment. You, to whom they write honestly, willsee yourself what is convenient to your reputation. If you would like to know what I am thinkingabout, as I already have expressed in the [previous] letter (another one of the same date), it is thatyou should follow your destiny bravely: It is a hard task to guard great fame […]. Do frankly whatyou wish»). Lettere a Petrarca cit., p. 68.48 Nelli, xi, Lettere a Petrarca cit., p. 80.

Ugo Dotti believes that this Johannes de Florentia is no other than our Malizia Barat-tone.49 It appears therefore that in October of 1353 Giovanni/Malizia was in Flo-rence for a while, but was about to leave shortly for Milan, so that he certainly couldhave served as a courier for his own and Petrarch’s common friends, such asFrancesco Nelli and Gano da Colle. Significantly, Nelli calls him Johannes de Floren-tia, suggesting that Giovanni/Malizia could have gained this name beyond Florence,but he was already known under this name in Florence by the year 1353. It is not clearwhere Malizia’s place of service was before then: it could well have been Milan oranother Italian court, like Verona in 1347-48, where he could have met Petrarch sothat they became friends. With the words «qui etiam meus notissimus est», Nelliemphasizes that he is also, like Petrarch, on friendly terms with Giovanni/Malizia.

We do not know for how long Malizia stayed in Milan, but the fact thatPetrarch committed Malizia to perform the answer «by his live voice» beforeGano suggests that Malizia then left Milan either for some time or forever,departing for Florence.50 Thus, if not some other north Italian court, the court ofMilan at the beginning of the 1350s appears to be a quite plausible place and timeof the composition of the sonnet O Anfione, o Narcisso novello. Consequently, theexpression «sto in montagna» (verse 12), somewhat incongruous in the Milanesecontext, can well be a metaphor (used apparently for its rhyme with Romagna),with which the author emphasized his own ignorance and limited understand-ing – «I am ignorant and rough like an inhabitant of mountains, a montanaro», –thus continuing the figurative comparison between Amphion’s «cloister of intel-lect» and his own «small abode of mind» in the previous tercet.

Our information about the cast of musicians at the Milanese court of thistime is scant, so that we may certainly miss some possible candidates for the roleof Amphion. Still, the available information enables us at least to make a sugges-tion. The first, and only, name that comes to mind is that of Jacopo da Bologna,who, it is believed, returned in Milan in 1352 after his three-year service inVerona.51 I have proposed another chronology for his court service, according to

49 Ivi, p. 81.50 In December 1360 we met Malizia in Naples at the court of Giovanna i. The inscription in thediary of Neapolitan courtier Niccolò Alunno d’Alife makes it clear that he had already been there forsome time. See Stoppelli, Malizia Barattone (Giovanni di Firenze) autore del Pecorone cit., pp. 18-19.51 Von Fischer-D’Agostino, Jacopo da Bologna cit., p. 737: «A further date is established bythe madrigal O in Italia, whose text refers to the birth of twin sons to the Milanese ruler Luchino


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Visconti on 4 August 1346. […] Jacopo was at the Visconti court during the reign of Luchino (1339-49). It was presumably after the death of the prince that he moved to Verona, where he remaineduntil not later than 1352 (the death of Alberto della Scala). […] After 1352 Jacopo apparently re-entered the service of the Visconti». This chronology is accepted by practically all studies con-cerning Jacopo da Bologna, as, for example, in Pierluigi Petrobelli, ‘Un leggiadretto velo’ edaltre cose petrarchesche, «Rivista italiana di Musicologia», x, 1975, pp. 32-45.52 Elena Abramov-van Rijk, Luchino Visconti, Jacopo da Bologna and Petrarch: Courting a Pa-tron, «Studi musicali», nuova serie, iii, 2012, pp. 7-62.53 On this expression see Roberto Crespo, Il “casser de la mente” cavalcantiano e l’“arx mentis”della tradizione mediolatina, «Quaderni di semantica», i, 1980, pp. 135-41. 54 Melania Ceccanti, In margine alle miniature del Codice Squarcialupi, in Col dolce suon che date piove. Studi su Francesco Landini e la musica del suo tempo in memoria di Nino Pirrotta, a c. diAntonio Delfino, Maria Teresa Rosa Barezzani, Firenze, Sismel, 1999, pp. 507-516: 509, follow-

which Jacopo entered the Visconti court in the years 1348-49 at earliest, afterleaving Verona.52 Whatever the date, however, he was in Milan during the timewhen Giovanni/Malizia was there as well, namely in 1353-54, so that they musthave known each other. Could Jacopo have been this mysterious Amphion? Letus see to what degree the characteristics of the sonnet’s addressee fit him.

First, the mention of the outstanding intellect of Amphion («Aprimi el chiostrotuo dello ’ntelletto ») matches the commonly accepted opinion about Jacopo as oneof the most intellectual and ambitious composers of the Trecento. The expressionused by Giovanni/Malizia is an allegory that renders the idea of a big place versus asmall one, which symbolically juxtaposes the intellects of both. Malizia was not thefirst to employ this metaphor, which in various versions has a much longer history.The medieval Latin expression, arx mentis – fortress or citadel of mind – dates backto the Carolingian epoch and was used by Paul the Deacon and Alcuin.53 In the Ital-ian poetry, it was used earlier by Guido Cavalcanti in his sonnet addressed to Dante,Vedeste, al mio parere, onne valore: «e tien ragion nel cassar de la mente» (‘cassar’ or‘cassero’ is the highest point of a fortress or castle, the keep). A propos, it is clearlylinked to an analogous expression in Jacopo’s three-voice polytextual madrigalAquil’altera: «in su la vetta dell’alta mente» (on the loftiest point of the noble mind).

The second point concerning Jacopo’s appearance is more intriguing. The onlysource we can rely on is the Squarcialupi codex, containing portraits of the mostimportant Trecento composers. The codex was produced in the first quarter ofthe 15th century; therefore many of the composers’ portraits were created posthu-mously, and it is unclear exactly how they were produced.54 Even if we cannot

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Figure 5. Jacopo da Bologna.

© Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 7v

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ing Kurt von Fischer, notes that «i ritratti non possono essere considerati affidabili; e questo ècertamente vero per gli autori più antichi come Giovanni da Cascia, Jacopo da Bologna, Ghe-rardello da Firenze e così via». 55 Luciano Bellosi, Il maestro del codice Squarcialupi (The Squarcialupi Codex Master), in Il co-dice Squarcialupi. Studi raccolti a c. di F. Alberto Gallo, Firenze, Giunti Barbèra-Libreria musicaleitaliana, 1992, pp. 145-157.

claim them to be portraits in a proper sense, it is impossible to deny that they aremarked with distinct individuality. All composers have different faces, gesturesand attributes. The miniaturist, the Master of Squarcialupi Codex,55 was unques-tionably an excellent physiognomist and he consciously reproduced the mostsalient features of the musicians. Thus, we have the blind Francesco Landini, themaimed Antonio Zacara da Teramo, the quite portly Niccolò da Perugia and gauntLorenzo da Firenze, Donato da Firenze with a sour expression and downcastmouth, and the young Jacopo da Bologna with rich blond locks (Figure 5).


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Even if Jacopo’s actual appearance was not the same as reproduced here,the intention of the miniaturist to emphasize his young age unquestionablysurfaces in this portrait. It is difficult to argue that his appearance can be rec-ognized uncontestably as beautiful without entering in the uncertain field ofsubjective speculations. However, youth and blond locks (the characteristicsindeed emphasized in Jacopo’s portrait) have served for a long time as indis-pensable attributes of beauty.

Recently, William Gibbons proposed that the portraits in Sq reflect an idea ofsymbolic presentation of musicians following accepted artistic models and ideals.56

He suggests that some of the portraits «have much in common with depiction ofLady music», especially that of Francesco Landini.57 Further, many scholars, amongthem Luciano Bellosi, agree that the Master of Squarcialupi was inspired by theimportant Florentine miniaturist at that time, Lorenzo Monaco. Gibbons notices anumber of common features between the Squarcialupi portraits and the images ofthe patriarchs from the Old Testament by Lorenzo Monaco, comparing, for exam-ple, the depiction of the composer Lorenzo da Firenze to his King David, both play-ing psaltery.58 This suggestion, namely that the figures in the Squarcialupi wereraised «to the status of eternal paragons», assuming thereby the «status of mythologi-cal figures»,59 is titillating when compared to the parallel drawn by Malizia/Ser Gio-vanni between his marvelous Amphion and the prophet Daniel.

Evidently, the parallel Malizia used for his Amphion must have been conven-tional, reflecting thereby the most expected association it evoked. It becomeseven more convincing when we take into account that in the Italian iconographyof the Trecento the prophet Daniel was portrayed as a handsome young man, asin the detail of the polyptych by Ugolino di Nerio (Figure 6).60

56 William Gibbons, Illuminating Florence: Revisiting the Composer Portraits of the SquarcialupiCodex”, «Imago Musicae», 23, 2006-2010, pp. 25-45: «There are problems with taking the por-traits at face value, as accurate representations of the composers’ individual appearances, sinceany information the codex imparts is filtered through the lenses of artistic models and a specificsocio-political agenda» (p. 31). 57 Ivi, p. 25.58 Ivi, p.3459 Ivi, p. 29.60 This issue certainly deserves a separate investigation. It is important to note that the youngage and beauty of Daniel were constantly emphasized in the Christian iconography of earlierperiods as well, as in the Byzantine art. In his article The Aretine Polyptych by Pietro Lorenzetti:

Patronage, Iconography and Original Setting, «Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes»,63, 2000, pp. 59-110, Giovanni Freni lists several Daniels in Italian Trecento painting, all ofwhom are young and handsome: «The latter [Daniel] is represented as a very young man, aniconography which recurs in Simone Martini’s Maestà in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena and hisSanta Caterina polyptych in Pisa, as well as in earlier works by Duccio such as his polyptych no.47. This suggests that the young prophet on the far right in Lorenzetti’s polyptych might also beDaniel» (pp. 81-82).


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Figure 6. Ugolino di Nerio, The Prophet Daniel.

Firenze, Italia, c. 1325. Tempera and tooled gold on panel, 54 x 31 cm.

© Philadelphia Museum of Arts

Hence, the Master of the Squarcialupi Codex could well have used for theimage of Jacopo da Bologna the iconographic model of the prophet Daniel,exactly like the author of the sonnet on Amphion did when he compared the two.

Jacopo’s portrait is quite enigmatic from several viewpoints. In fact, somedetails raise questions for which we still have no reasonable explanation. It could

61 Gibbons, Illuminating Florence cit., p. 33, interprets it this way: «Jacopo da Bologna points tohimself and to a book he holds, seemingly indicating that he is its author, although it is not at allclear what the contents of this book are».62 Margherita Ferro Luraghi, Le miniature (The miniatures), in Il codice Squarcialupi cit., p. 177.63 The suggestion that Jacopo, by pointing to his mouth, hints that he is a singer, althoughappearing attractive, does not work when considered together with other portraits in Sq. Threemusicians, Vincenzo da Rimini, and Egidio and Guglielmo di Francia, are depicted while singing:all three keep their mouth open as in the act of singing. In the case of Vincenzo, even his teeth arevisible. Therefore, when wishing to show singing, the Master of Squarcialupi did it in this specificway. Hence, Jacopo’s gesticulating, which appears to be emphasized intentionally (with his whitelarge hands), must have meant something else.

seem that Jacopo points to the book and presents himself as its author.61 But hisright hand misses the book and instead points to his left hand. Margherita FerroLuraghi took this peculiarity into account and described the portrait as follows:«The musician is represented seated, with a thick manuscript bound in blue rest-ing on his left leg; he points to the beginning of the composition with his righthand and to his own face with his left, thus identifying himself as a composer».62

This explanation, however, sounds somewhat contrived. Was there any doubtregarding Jacopo’s authorship? Why then do other composers not claim author-ship of their compositions in this way?

Jacopo actually does not hold the book in his hand, unlike all other composerswho hold either a scroll or a book: he presses the book to his chest with his left elbowbecause his hands are occupied with gesticulating. Moreover, he is the sole person inthe Squarcialupi Codex whose book is closed, indeed locked with clasps. All othercomposers with books keep them open, either turned toward the reader (Giovannida Cascia, Paolo da Firenze, Niccolò da Perugia, Egidio and Guglielmo di Francia,and Antonio Zacara) or toward themselves (Donato da Firenze and Bartolino daPadova). I believe the position of the book is hardly a simple whim of the artist, butrather a well-meditated element that makes us concentrate on the most important(in the artist’s eyes) detail, namely Jacopo’s gestures. They draw our eyes, throughan elegant curve of both hands, exactly to his beautiful face.63

Apparently, the posthumous reputation of his beauty had reached the artist,so that he, as a painter, considered it a truly important characteristic of Jacopo’spersonality, depicting him as young and with blond locks. Therefore, Jacopo daBologna could have been not only the new Amphion, which is rather obvious,but the new Narcissus as well.

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And finally, why Romagna, and what could have been the «fatti di Romagna»referred to in Giovanni/Malizia’s sonnet?

Judging from his name, Jacopo was a native of Bologna. It is true that now thiscity is considered to be situated in Emilia. Yet, in medieval historiography, forexample, in Giovanni Villani’s Nuova cronica, the toponym Emilia is not used,but instead the entire district around Bologna is called Romagna.64 As it appearsin Villani’s chronicle, the expression «fatti di Romagna» is applied to thedescription of the continuous attempts of the Church to dominate the territoriesof Romagna and particularly the city of Bologna.65 The tension between theChurch and the cities in Romagna remained unresolved during a long periodexcept for the short time of peace at the beginning of the 1350s.

In 1349, Pope Clement vi appointed the husband of his niece («o che più verofosse sua figliola», according to Matteo Villani66), Astorgo di Duraforte (Hectorde Durfort) as count of Romagna on behalf of the papacy. However, the localtiranni did not accept his authority, so that he was forced to wage a military cam-paign against them. The most difficult obstacle was Bologna, where the twobrothers dei Pepoli ruled. In the late summer of 1350, no longer being able toresist, one of the brothers proposed to Giovanni Visconti that he buy Bologna for200,000 florins.67 The offer was accepted, and on the 23th of October 1350 Vis-conti’s army led by Giovanni’s nephew Galeazzo entered the city. Bologna andmany other places of the province thus were absorbed into the Visconti domain.

Opinions about the consequences of this event were different. Matteo Villaniwrote, albeit a posteriori:

64 As for example here: «e distrusse Bologna, e fece martorizzare santo Procolo vescovo diBologna, e così quasi tutte le terre di Romagna distrusse» (Libro iii: 1, Come la città di Firenze fudistrutta per Totile Flagellum Dei re de’ Gotti e de’ Vandali). Giovanni Villani, Nuova cronica, a c.di Giuseppe Porta, Parma, Fondazione Pietro Bembo/Ugo Guanda Editore, 2007, vol. 1, p. 96. 65 A similar event occurred in 1283: «Lasceremo de’ fatti di Romagna, e diremo d’altre novitadiche furono per l’universo mondo ne’ detti tempi, che nel detto anno ne furono assai» (Libro viii,82: Come Forlì s’arrendé alla Chiesa, e fu accordo in Romagna). Ivi, p. 538.66 Libro i, cap. 55, Come per lieve cagione suscitò novità in Romagna. Matteo Villani, Cronicacit., p. 101.67 Libro i, cap. 70, Secondo trattato di Bologna: «Costui [Giovanni dei Pepoli] […] cavalcò dipresente a Milano e fermò la maladetta vendita per 200 000 fiorini». Ivi, p. 133.


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68 Libro i, cap. 72, Come capitò il conte di Romagna e l’oste della Chiesa. Ivi, p. 139.69 Petri Azarrii Liber gestorum in Lombardia, a c. di Francesco Cognasso, Bologna, Muratori, 1926(“Rerum Italicarum Scriptores”, vol. 16, parte 4), p. 53.70 The question of using a lion on the blazon of Bologna is truly intriguing. GiorgioCencetti, Stemma di Bologna, in Il comune di Bologna, May 1937, pp.18-22: 22, noted that tillthe sixteenth century neither of depictions of Bologna’s coat of arms bears this heraldic ele-ment. He supposes that the source of the legend of inclusion of the lion is the story reportedby a seventeenth-century scholar that in 1293 the marquess Obizzo ii d’Este granted the com-mune of Bologna two lions. Cencetti supposes that the lion appeared on the blazon followingthe revolution in Bologna in 1376, when the democratic Commune was restored, though for ashort time. Here we see, however, that the link of the heraldic lion with Bologna existedalready before the year 1367, when Fazio died.71 Fazio degli Uberti, Il Dittamondo e le Rime, a c. di Giuseppe Corsi, Bari, Laterza, 1952, vol. 1,p. 197 (Libro iii, cap. 5).

This, however, was a typically Florentine view of Visconti politics regarding theintegration of Italy. The chronicler Petrus Azarius, too, considered the purchaseof Bologna to be the onset of the succeeding disasters in this region.69 Though,he wrote his chronicles in 1362-64, long after the death of Giovanni Visconti,when his large domain was in the process of disintegration and the wars hadrestarted with renewed enthusiasm. But in 1350 and up to Giovanni Visconti’sdeath on October 5th, 1354, the acquisition of Bologna could have been seen as anact that hopefully would put an end to the infinite wars. Fazio degli Uberti, in hisDittamondo, alluded to the Milanese control over Bologna, which, although hav-ing chased away the liberal spirit of Bologna («Che col suo stil scacciò l’animafranca»), secured peace in the region:

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Questa rivoltura di Bologna, fucagione d’apparecchiare a tutta Italia,per lunghi tempi, lunghe e gravinovità di guerre, come seguendo nos-tro trattato si potrà vedere.68

This political upheaval around Bolognawas the cause of the waging throughoutItaly, for a long time, of hard andlengthy wars, as we will see in thecourse of our treatise.

Vedemmo la città u’ prosper giace,Che fu al mondo un lume di scienza.E fummo dove il leon70 ora tace,Che soleva a Milan mostrar la branca,Come dicesse: Posa e statti in pace.71

We have seen the city where the Prosperity residesWhich for the world was a light of knowledge We were where the lion now is silent,though in the past he used to show Milan his claws,As one says: Be quiet and stay in peace.

Elsewhere in his poem Fazio praised Giovanni Visconti’s way of government as aguarantee of peace: «Questa città [Milan], che vive sì felice / Con fede, con gius-tizia e senza guerra». As it appears from Petrus Azarius, Giovanni Visconti hadmany supporters of his policies among Bolognese citizens as well: «Nam prefa-tus dominus Johannes iterum habebat sibi adherentes in Bononia, quorum quan-titas parva non erat».72 Notwithstanding the evaluation of this event, the acqui-sition of Bologna by Giovanni Visconti could well have seemed a new situationand a crucial point in Italian political life of this time. Thus, it is possible thatMalizia could have intended this specific change that interrupted for a while thecontinuous state of the «fatti di Romagna».

Conclusions

In the light of what has been said so far about the portrayal of Jacopo da Bolognain the Squarcialupi Codex and the probability that he is the addressee of the son-net O Anfione, it would be reasonable to propose that the madrigal Nel meço a seipaon and the ballata Io son un pellegrin might have Jacopo as their hero as well.

One more detail supports this surmise, namely that it was Jacopo whoinspired both authors, the poet Malizia/Ser Giovanni and the composer Giovan-ni da Cascia, to utter their feelings in the way they did. The sonnet O Anfionedescribes, in effect, a situation identical to that of the madrigal Nel meço a seipaon: just as the resplendent white peacock of such beauty stunned the author,the marvelous Amphion appears as the object of the poet’s admiration. Signifi-cantly, line 3 of the sonnet O Anfione, o Narcisso novello lets us understand thatthe author was not the only one to lose his mind when looking at this marvelousmusician: no one could remain indifferent when faced with his beauty. We readin both texts that «the longer everyone stared at the peacock/Amphion, the moreaffected they were by his beauty». But none other than Jacopo da Bologna repliedto Giovanni da Cascia’s critics with his two above-mentioned madrigals Vestissela cornacchia and Io mi son un, where he uses the image of the crow dressed in pea-cock’s feathers. Actually, he recognized himself in Giovanni’s compositions andtook on his critics.

72 Petri Azarrii Liber gestorum in Lombardia cit., p. 53.


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73 «His madrigal Tanto che sit’, aquistati nel iusto ends with the reflection that ‘the love of princesdoes not always last’. The difficulties of life as a court musician, with its constant rivalry, whichsome madrigals refer to, led him sometimes to be egoistical and boastful of the originality of hiswork, as in his madrigal Io me son un che per le frasche andando». F. Alberto Gallo, Music of theMiddle Ages II, Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 60 (original version: Il Medioevo II, Torino,EdT, 1983 [Storia della musica, a c. della Società Italiana di Musicologia, vol. 2], p. 64). I agree withhis opinion: «It is known that Jacopo served at a number of different courts, but we do not knowthe reasons for these moves. They could well have been related to intrigues of his colleagues orrivals, gossip, and other unpleasant features that permeated courtly life. Indeed, as Gallo noted,Tanto che siate, aquistati nel giusto supports this assumption: “Talora vien che perdet’el valore /che sempre non dura amor di signore” (it may happen that you lose your value, since the patron’sbenevolence does not last forever), especially where “umilità vi rega e cortesia” (humility andcourtesy hold sway)». Abramov-van Rijk, Corresponding through Music cit., p. 23.

In the ballata Io son un pellegrin, the person who surfaces here is a singer with abeautiful voice, blond hair and a sweet appearance, now seriously troubled andeven forced to leave his place of residence. However that might have been, all thesecharacteristics, as well as the circumstances deduced from Jacopo da Bologna’sother compositions (such as Prima virtute, Tanto che siate and others),73 may pointto Jacopo as its plausible protagonist. Whether it was Jacopo who wrote this com-position about his miserable state or someone else from his circle, for example Gio-vanni da Cascia, describing the situation from the outside, we may only hypothe-size. But the employment of the similar, and unique, technique of compositionbased on a structured ‘song’ melody in the tenor enables us to presume Giovanni asthe author of this ballata. Yet, it is almost unquestionable that in the altered Reinavariant we see a mischievous joke of some envious colleague of Jacopo, in which heexpressed his malicious pleasure, so that the Reina version can be seen as a classicalexample of ‘Schadenfreude’, so typical of courtly life.

Yet, the most important point is that in these compositions we detect the riseof a concept that would soon become one of the most salient traits of the culturaland artistic life of the Italian Renaissance: the demand for excellence and virtu-osity. Exceptional physical appearance and outstanding talent in art begin to bevenerated and esteemed almost with a pagan eagerness. This is one more indica-tion that the fourteenth century, although having been strictly linked with themedieval past, was already developing the first signs of the Renaissance mentali-ty. The most natural soil where these shoots appeared was that of the profession-al circles of artists and musicians in court service.

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Another thought evoked by the present analysis concerns the designationof the written Trecento musical repertory. I believe that a part of it was inti-mately bound up with the inner relationships within close groups of musi-cians, so that many compositions had a communicative function, permittingmusicians to compete with each other in professional distinction. This activi-ty seems perfectly in accordance with the increasing tendency of the time,namely, the search for excellence.


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“Misterious Amphion: A Trecento Musician, his Admirers and his Critics”, Studi musicali 5, Nuova...

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