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Medieval Music Database

Era Venus al termin del suo giorno

madrigal by Paolo da Firenze

Sources

Florence: San Lorenzo, Archivio Capitolare 2211 [palimpsest], fol. 50v;
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds italien 568, fol. 54v-55 (2/2).

Editions

1. 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. 124.
2. The Music of Fourteenth-Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta and Ursula Günther, Rome: American Institute of Musicology. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 8/VI. [forthcoming]

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 267.

Literature

1. TAUCCI, Raffaello. 'Fra Andrea dei Servi, organista e compositore del Trecento', Rivista di studi storia sull'Ordine dei Servi di Maria, II (1935), pp. 86-87.
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

Era Venus al termin del suo giorno
quando m'innamora' pel dolze canto
di cui, con ch'i' cantai sotto su' ammanto

tal ch'Amor isperanz'al cor mi mise:
- Con te s'innamorra quest'alta dea -
tanta bilta in sT aver parea.

Poi giunse al cor pensier che s8 dicea:
- Guarda che pensi o ci= che tu disiri.
ch'altro amor le daria che i tuo sospiri. -

Per= 'l primo sperar non misi innanti
ma dissi in me: - Basta che per lei canti. -

Translation

Venus had come to the end of her day
when, as I was sweetly singing, I fell in love
with the lady in whose livery I was singing.

So that Love put a hope into my heart:
- This lofty goddess shall fall in love with you, -
so beautiful my song appeared to be.

But then a thought reached my heart, which said:
- Be careful what you think or desire.
for it might make her love other things than your sighs. -

Therefore I did not boast of my first hopes.
but said to myself: - It will be enough if I sing for her. -

Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga



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


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