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Some Tendencies of Italian Lyric Poetry in the Trecento
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
It is not easy to form an adequate conception of the course of Italian lyric poetry in the fourteenth century; partly because not all the relevant material has been published, partly because the admitted faults of the period have been held to justify a neglect of most of its representatives in favor of a concentrating of attention on the great names of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Such an attitude, however, involves the disregard of much that is needed for an accurate view of the time, and the neglect of many poets who, while not uniformly inspired, give us much of genuine beauty and significance. It is accordingly my design to set forth, in broad but not unfaithful fashion, the main causes which gave this large body of verse not only its easily noted defects, but also its real, tho not always recognized, merits.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1916
References
page 24 note 1 The most accessible collections are Carducci's Antica Lirica Italiana and Volpi's Rime di Trecentisti Minori (both Florence, 1907), reference to which is made by the abbreviations ALI and TM respectively. Numerous poems, however, must be sought in scattered and often recondite publications, and a considerable body of material has never been printed at all. The best general history of the period is Volpi, Il Trecento (Milan, 1898).
page 24 note 1 Published by G. Lega, Il Canzoniere Vaticano Barberiniano Latino 3953, Bologna, 1915. For the date, see introduction, p. xxxiii.
page 24 note 2 The poems of the former are practically complete in TM, pp. 27-39; those of the latter were edited by Carducci, Pistoia, 1866.
page 24 note 3 See Fazio degli Uberti as a Lyric Poet, in Romanic Review, v, pp. 350 ff.
page 28 note 1 Cf. the poem O povertà, come tu, sei un manto, in Renier's Fazio, p. 177, and the similar, tho inferior, O povertà, che ti distrugga Iddio, printed by S. Debenedetti in Boll. della Società Filologica Romana, N. S., iii (1912), p. 17, who adds references to other poems on the theme.
page 29 note 1 The most complete account of his life and writings is Ezio Levi's Antonio e Niccolò da Ferrara, in Atti e Memorie della Deputazione Ferrarese di Storia Patria, vol. xix (1909), on chapter v of which the ensuing paragraph is based.
page 29 note 2 Printed by Bini, Rime e Prose del Buon Secolo, Lucca, 1852, pp. 26-35.
page 29 note 3 See F. Novati, Bartolommeo da Castel della Pieve, in Giornale Storico xii, pp. 181 ff., for an account of his life and works.
page 29 note 4 For our knowledge of these events we are indebted to a letter by Bartolommeo himself, printed by Novati, p. 204.
page 29 note 5 See the canzone Accorr' uomo, accorr' uomo, ogni uom soccorra, printed by Novati, p. 214.
page 34 note 1 See the canzone Queste sette arti liberali in versi (TM, p. 43), in which each art is allotted a stanza for her plea.
page 34 note 2 Cf. I. Sanesi, Bindo Bonichi da Siena e le sue Rime, in Giornale Storico, xviii, p. 1. The poems were edited by Ferrari (Bologna, 1857).
page 34 note 3 See his poems, edited by A. Ugolini, Livorno, 1901.
page 34 note 4 I allude to the mention of Dido in v. 36 of Così nel mio parlar voglio esser aspro.
page 34 note 5 See, e. g., the opening of Fazio's eleventh canzone in Renier's edition, and the thirteenth stanza of Bruzio Visconti's Mal d'amor parla chi d'amor non sente (ALI, no. 110). Bonichi's seventeenth canzone expounds the theory of astrology.
page 34 note 6 The influence of the Commedia should not be overlooked in this connection.
page 34 note 7 Once ascribed to Boccaccio, but rejected, with others, by his latest editor, Massèra (Rime di G. Boccaccio, Bologna, 1914, p. xcviii), doubtless with justice. Not so much, however, can be said for his further suggestion that it may be Fazio's, which ignores all internal evidence, and is supported by but one ms.
page 34 note 8 See Amico, che domandi e vuoi sapere, in Carducci's ed., p. 27.
page 34 note 9 Petrarch is in this regard a true child of his time. Out of 29 canzoni 13 exceed a length of 100 lines.
page 34 note 10 Printed in Petrarca e la Lombardia (Milan, 1904), p. 73.
page 34 note 11 A complete demonstration of these statements would require a much more detailed treatment, which I hope eventually to supply elsewhere.
page 39 note 1 Cf. Carducci's remarks in his preface to Rime di Cino e d'Altri, p. xxiii.
page 39 note 2 See, e. g., the sonnet Quando fra l'altre donne ad ora ad ora, or the ballata Volgendo gli occhi al mio novo colore.