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

Amor deh dimmi

Three-voice ballata by Paolo da Firenze

Sources

Chicago: Private Library of Edward E. Lowinsky, Fragment, number 5;
Florence: San Lorenzo, Archivio Capitolare 2211 [palimpsest], fol. 107 (2/2);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds italien 568, fol. 81v-82 (3/2).

Facsimiles

Paolo Tenorista in a New Fragment of the Italian Ars Nova, A Facsimile Edition with an Introduction by Nino Pirrotta, Palm Springs: Gottlieb, 1961, plate d verso (Clw).

Editions

1. Paolo Tenorista in a New Fragment of the Italian Ars Nova, A Facsimile Edition with an Introduction by Nino Pirrotta, Palm Springs: Gottlieb, 1961, p. 81 (Clw).
2. 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. 105.
3. The Music of Fourteenth-Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta and Ursula Günther, Rome: American Institute of Musicology. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 8/VI. [forthcoming]

Literature

1. PIRROTTA, Nino. 'Paolo da Firenze in un nuovo frammento dell' Ars nova', Musica Disciplina, X (1956), pp. 62, 64.
2. BAUMANN, Dorothea. Die dreistimmige italienische Lied-Satztechnik im Trecento, Baden-Baden: Valentin Koerner, 1979. Sammlung musikwissenschaftlicher Abhandlung no. 64, passim.
3. D'ACCONE, Frank. 'Una nuova fonte dell' "Ars nova" italiana: il codice di San Lorenzo, 2111', Studi Musicali, XIII (1984): 3-31.
4. 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

Amor, deh, dimmi se sperar merzede
si può già ma' per ben servir con fede.

Perché, dolce signor, s'el mie servire
non si de' meritare,
queste angosciose pene e lo martire
non le potrò durare.
Deh, signor caro, fa' che 'l ben amare
merto riceva di suo ferma fede

Translation

Love, please tell me if one can ever hope
to be rewarded for good and faithful service.

Because, dear lord, if my service
will not be rewarded,
I will not be able to endure
these excruciating pains and torments.
Please, dear lord, see to it that those who love well
receive due reward for their steadfast loyalty.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga