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

O donna crudele

anonymous ballata

Sources

Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 4917, fol. 22v-23 (2/2).

Facsimiles

GENNRICH, Friedrich. Abriss der Mensuralnotation des XIV und der ersten Hälfte des XV Jahrhunderts, Nieder-Modau: 1948. Musikwissenschaftliche Studienbibliothek 3-4, p. 62.

Editions

Italian Secular Music, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1978. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century XI, p. 109.

Recordings

Johannes Ciconia, Las Huelgas Ensemble, directed by Paul van Nevel (1980): Musique en Wallonie 80040-44 (set).

Text

O donna crudele e de pietà nuda,
falsa d'amore e de merze cruda.

Inverso de mi to' servo or non fosse,
tanti son i martiri che non mi dan possa.
E se humilità en ti ancor trovasse,
la fiamma del mio cor seria rimossa.

Se al quanto ne zova ne val mia mossa,
donna privada da mi serà guida