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

Sempre se trova in alta donna amore
ballata by Bartolino da Padova

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 103 (2/2); San Lorenzo, Archivio Capitolare 2211 [palimpsest], fol. 37v;
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 6771 (Reina Codex), fol. 15 (2/2).

Facsimiles

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

Editions

1. Der Squarcialupi-Codex Pal. 87 der Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana zu Florenz, edited by Johannes Wolf and H. Albrecht, Lippstadt: Kistner and Siegel, 1955, p. 162.
2. 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. 78 (Pn6771).

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 257.

Literature

1. WILKINS, Nigel. Music in the Age of Chaucer, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1979. Chaucer Studies I, p. 63.
2. D'ACCONE, Frank. 'Una nuova fonte dell' "Ars nova" italiana: il codice di San Lorenzo, 2111', Studi Musicali, XIII (1984): 3-31.
3. 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

Sempre se trova in alta donna amore.

nT fo senza virtute nT mai fia;
tanto F so gran poter e cortesia
che merta ogn'om che li serve de core.

Perch'el se vede en ti quel ch'ora canto.
madona, io do sperar e spero el manto
che vest'e copre ogni bon servitore.

Translation

Love is always found in a high-born woman.

and it never is, nor can it be, devoid of virtue.
Such is its great power and kindness
that it rewards every man who serves him willingly.

Since the virtues I am singing about can be seen in you.
Lady, I must hope, indeed I do hope for
the mantle which clothes and covers every good servant.
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