Ballata

The paper’s argument is based on an analysis of the formal features and possible intertextual connections of the two ballads attributed to ser Pace notaro by ms. Banco Rari 217 (P110 and P111). Its aim is to locate the texts and the poet within the prestilnovist milieu and, more generally, in the history of the development of the ballad’s form for which the ninth fascicule of the Banco Rari is a fundamental step. In the first part of the paper some data are shown that allow to speculate on the possible proximity between Cavalcanti, ser Pace and the circle of poets (preserved in the same manuscript) whose leader can be identified in Pace. In the second part, some considerations are formulated regarding the ballads’ section of the Banco Rari as a model for Cavalcanti since his own ballad Fresca rosa novella. By highlighting the web of intertextual links uncovered in the texts of the ninth fascicule, we can point out the role of poets like Saladino and Pace – following the Bonagiunta-Guinizzelli line – in the history of the ballad in its precavalcantian phase. The conclusion outlines a profile of ser Pace as a collateral poet of Stilnovo. At the end of the essay the two ballads are published with an ample commentary.

The startling image of a nude young girl in Dante’s Se Lippo amico sè tu che mi leggi has traditionally been explained as a metaphor for the verse’s lack of accompaniment; Dante gives the unclothed pulcella to his friend Lippo so that he may dress her with his music, or commentary. As Barolini notes, Dante casts his verse as an erotic object in this youthful poem, heralding what will be his continued tendency to code lyrical genres as sexual beings.  A similar trope of clothing the feminized lyric appears in Per una ghirlandetta, this time in reference to Dante’s use of another’s melody, “una vesta ch’atlrui fu data,” to dress his own ballata. While such readings are no doubt sound, I propose we explore how the naked female bodies of the Rime function as objects of gift-exchange. As gifts, the traffic of these gendered lyrics obligates their recipient to reciprocate with verse, approval, and/or interpretation. The mechanism of dressing and undressing thus forges intimate bonds between Dante and the men he identifies as friends (“amico”).  And indeed, in the Vita Nuova we learn that it was Dante’s dream of Beatrice’s unclothed body that gave rise to A ciascun'alma presa e gentil core, and through its circulation, his admission into the ranks of the “famosi trovatori.” Drawing from anthropological models of gift-debt, I will therefore explore how the exposed female form becomes an enticing locus for male sociability in Dante’s lyrics.

Questo libro ripercorre la storia e le trasformazioni del poema epico, della novella in versi e della ballata romantica nella letteratura italiana tra la fine del Settecento e la seconda metà dell’Ottocento. Lo scopo è duplice: da un lato approfondire forme e generi testuali che ebbero una funzione e/o una diffusione rilevante nel corso di tutto il XIX secolo; dall’altro, attraverso l’analisi di questi generi, del loro contesto e delle loro reciproche intersezioni, proporre una riflessione sull’istanza narrativa in poesia in un periodo in cui iniziò ad affermarsi anche il paradigma della “lirica moderna”.

Prefazione di Elisabetta Selmi

The principal genre of non-liturgical religious song in Italy during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. In its monophonic form, the lauda also constitutes the primary Italian repertory of late medieval vernacular song, and is distinguished from most neighbouring repertories in its strictly urban, non-courtly context. The religious lauda endured into the 19th century, and extant repertory remains an important source of popular Italian texts and music.

El estudio comparado de todas las formas zejelescas en las literaturas árabe, hebre y todas las románicas induce a pensar que se trata de una forma de origen protoromance cuyo desarrollo, evolución formal e inserción en las respectivas poéticas escritas se trata de establecer

This essay offers a new edition of the ballata «Donna, posso io sperare?», unicum in the Lucca Codex, where it is accompanied by the rubric «S(e)r Niccholay prepositi», written over an erasure. It also contains a new interpretation of the work’s musical form and a preliminary catalogue of all musical settings of 14th-century dialogical ballate, serving as a reference framework for the case study. Based on the (uncertain) reading of the erased rubric, as well as other stylistic considerations, several scholars in the last decades have attributed this ballata – previously published within Nicolò del Preposto’s corpus – to Antonio Zacara da Teramo. The data collected in this essay further supports the attribution to Zacara and demonstrates the need for a new critical edition of both text and music, with full commentary and paraphrased translation. It also highlights the exceptional nature of the song’s structure, which extends the traditional form of the ballata in favour of musical dramatisation of the dialogue.

Il contributo offre una nuova edizione della ballata «Donna, posso io sperare?», trasmessa unicamente nel Codice di Lucca, dov’e corredata dalla rubrica «S(e)r Niccholay prepositi». Contiene, inoltre, una prima catalogazione di tutti gli esemplari musicali afferibili al sottogenere della ballata dialogata del Trecento, che funga da quadro di riferimento per il caso di studio, e una nuova interpretazione della forma del brano. La ballata, precedentemente pubblicata all’interno del corpus di Nicolo del Preposto, e giudicata da vari studiosi attribuibile ad Antonio Zacara da Teramo, sulla base della lettura (incerta) della rubrica erasa e su considerazioni di tipo stilistico. I dati raccolti permettono di riaffermare con maggiore certezza l’attribuzione a Zacara, proporre una nuova edizione critica di testo e musica, con commento e parafrasi integrale, e porre in rilievo l’eccezionalita della soluzione formale adottata, che scardina la tradizionale forma di ballata per andare incontro ...