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

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Medieval Music Database

La fiera testa che d'uman si ciba
madrigal by Bartolino da Padova with text by Francesco Petrarca?

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 104v-105 (2/2); San Lorenzo, Archivio Capitolare 2211 [palimpsest], fol. 8v-9 (Cantus only);
Milan: Biblioteca Trivulziana 193, fol. 266v (text);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds italien 568, fol. 40v-41 (2/2);
Parma: Biblioteca Palatina, Parmense 1081, fol. 91v (text).

Facsimiles

1. WOLF, Johannes. Geschichte der Mensural-Notation von 1250-1460 nach den theoretischen und praktischen Quellen, 3 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1904. [reprinted Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1965], p. 73 (Fl87, diplomatic).
2. Il Codice Squarcialupi edited by F. Alberto GALLO, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1992.

Editions

1. WOLF, Johannes. Geschichte der Mensural-Notation von 1250-1460 nach den theoretischen und praktischen Quellen, 3 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1904. [reprinted Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1965], Vol. III, p. 106 (Fl87).
2. Der Squarcialupi-Codex Pal. 87 der Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana zu Florenz, edited by Johannes Wolf and H. Albrecht, Lippstadt: Kistner and Siegel, 1955, p. 164.
3. Italian Secular Music: Bartolino da Padova, Egidius de Francia, Giulielmus de Francia, Don Paolo da Firenze, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1975. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century IX, p. 31 (Pn568).

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 96.

Literature

1. PIRROTTA, Nino and Ettore LI GOTTI. 'Il Codice di Lucca. III. Il repertorio musicale', Musica Disciplina, V (1951), p. 121.
2. GOLDINE, Nicole. 'Fra Bartolino da Padova, musicien de cour', Acta Musicologica, XXXIV (1962), p. 154.
3. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Die "anonymen" Kompositionen des Ms. Paris BN, fonds ital, 568 (Pit)', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, XXIII (1966), p. 79.
4. 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.
5. THIBAULT, Geneviève. 'Emblèmes et devises des Visconti dans les oeuvres musicales du Trecento', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento III: Certaldo 1969, 1970, p. 152.
6. GALLO, F.A. 'Bilinguismo poetico e bilinguismo musicale nel madrigale trecentesco', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento IV: Certaldo 1975, 1978, p. 238., p. 238.
7. FELLIN, Eugene C. 'The notation-types of Trecento music', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento IV: Certaldo 1975, 1978, pp. 211-224.
8. BAUMANN, Dorothea. 'Some extraordinary forms in the Italian secular Trecento repertoire', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento IV: Certaldo 1975, 1978, pp. 45-63.
9. HALLMARK, Anne. 'Some evidence for French influence in northern Italy, c.1400', Studies in the Performance of Late Mediaeval Music, edited by Stanley Boorman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 193-226.
10. D'ACCONE, Frank. 'Una nuova fonte dell' "Ars nova" italiana: il codice di San Lorenzo, 2111', Studi Musicali, XIII (1984): 3-31.
11. GALLO, F. Alberto. 'The musical and literary tradition of 14th century poetry set to music', Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, edited by U. Günther and L. Finscher, Kassel: Bärenreiter: 1984, pp. 55-76.
12. NADAS, John. 'Editorial practices in early Quattrocento Florentine anthologies of secular polyphony', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento VI: Certaldo 1984, Certaldo: Centro di Studio L'ars nova italiana, 1992.

Text

La fiera testa che d'uman si ciba
pennis auratis volitum perquirit:
sovra ogn'Italian questa preliba.

Alba sub ventre palla decoratur
perchT del mondo signoria richiede.
velut eius aspectu demonstratur.

Cist fier cimiers et la flamma che m'art
soffrir m'estoit que son fier leopart.

Translation

The fierce head which feeds on human beings
seeks insistently to fly about
on golden wings.

It is ornamented by a white globe under its belly.
given that it seeks to dominate the world.
as is shown by its aspect.

It is my lot to bear this fierce crest.
and the flame which burns in me.
because I am a fierce leopard.
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