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

Vagha fanciulla, leggiadr'e veççosa

ballata by Francesco Landini

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 165 (2/1); Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Panciatichiano 26, fol. 10v-11 (2/1).

Facsimiles

1. Il codice musicale Panciatichi 26 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, facsimile edition by F. Alberto Gallo, Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1981, no. 26 (FP).
2. Il Codice Squarcialupi edited by F. Alberto GALLO, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1992.

Editions

1. The Works of Francesco Landini, edited by Leonard Ellinwood, Cambridge/Massachusetts: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1939, p. 163.
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. 300.
3. The Works of Francesco Landini, edited by Leo Schrade, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1958. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century IV, p. 29.

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 223.

Literature

NADAS, John. 'The structure of MS Panciatichi 26 and the transmission of Trecento polyphony', Journal of the American Musicological Society, XXXIV (1981), p. 423.

Text

Vaga fanciulla, leggiadr'e vezzosa,
ognor ringrazio Amore,
c'ha la mia ment'e 'l core
fatto fedel di tua vista piatosa.

Con tuo belleza e con gli ochi tuo vaghi
la mie pen'amorosa, ch'ognor sento,
e'l mio infiamato petto sempre apaghi,
convertendo in riposo tal tormento.
D'ogni doglia e sospiro son contento
e d'esser tuo fedele,
poi che non se' crudele
a darmi di tuo vista dolce posa

Translation

Lovely girl, fair and comely,
I always thank Love
who has made my mind and heart
devoted to your merciful presence.

You always appease my amorous pangs
and my passionate breast
with your beauty and your lovely eyes;
and turn such torment into peacefulness.
Since you are not cruel,
and grant me sweet peace with your sight,
every pain and sigh gives me happiness,
and I am happy to be your faithful servant.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga