O sommo specchio di ciascun pieneta

madrigal by Niccolò da Perugia

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 94v-95 (3/3).

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. 150.
2. Italian Secular Music: Anonymous Madrigals and Cacce and the Works of Niccolò da Perugia, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1972. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century VIII, p. 159.
3. KELLY, Stephen K. The Works of Niccolò da Perugia, 2 vols., Ph.D. dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1974.

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 98.

Literature

BAUMANN, Dorothea. Die dreistimmige italienische Lied-Satztechnik im Trecento, Baden-Baden: Valentin Koerner, 1979. Sammlung musikwissenschaftlicher Abhandlung no. 64, passim.

Recordings

Italian Secular Music of the Trecento, Hortus Musicus, directed by Andres Moustonen: Chant du Monde LDX 78.665 (FRA).

Text

O sommo specchio di ciascun pianeta,
degno d'imperio se' nel ciel, possente
perché tuo forza regna in ogni parte.

I' son colui cui tu forzevolmente
facesti servo di colei, che queta
non fa mie doglia né segue tu' arte.

Adunque, Amor, deh fa con l'arco tuo
che questa donna degni 'l servo suo

Translation

O most high mirror of all celestial bodies,
you are worthy of sovereignty in heaven, powerful
because your might pervades in its every part.

I am the one whom you forced to become
a liege to one who does not care to calm
my ills and pains, nor to follow your art.

Therefore, Love, with your bow, I pray
make her take pity on her servant.

Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga