Cosa crudel m'ancide

Two-voice ballata by Andrea da Firenze

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 185v (2/2).

Facsimiles

Il Codice Squarcialupi edited by F. Alberto GALLO, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1992.

Editions

1. WOLF, Johannes. 'Musica fiorentina nel secolo XIV', La nuova musica, Appendice musicale I-III (1899,1900,1901), Vol. II, p. 72.
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. 340.
3. The Music of Fourteenth Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta, [n.p.]: American Institute of Musicology, 1964. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 8/V, p. 4.
4. Italian Secular Music, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1977. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century X, p. 6.

Text Editions

1. CORSI, Giuseppe. Rimatori del Trecento, Turin: Unione tipografica editrice torinese, 1969, p. 1077.
2. CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 291.

Literature

1. KÖNIGSLÖW, Annamarie von. Die italienischen Madrigalisten des Trecento, Würzburg-Aumühle: Triltsch, 1940, p. 34, ex. 45.
2. HOPPIN, Richard H. Medieval Music, New York: W. W. Norton, 1978, pp. 464-465.
3. WILKINS, Nigel. Music in the Age of Chaucer, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1979. Chaucer Studies I, p. 43.
4. NEWES, Virginia E. 'The relationship of text to imitative technique in 14th century polyphony', Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, edited by U. Günther and L. Finscher, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1984, pp. 121-154.
5. WILLIAMS, Carol. 'Setting the scene for a study of Andrea da Firenze', Miscellanea Musicologica: Adelaide Studies in Musicology, 15 (1988), p. 83.

Recordings

Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. An Illustrated Guide to their Ranges, Timbres and Special Capabilities, Musica Reservata of London, Martin Bookspan (narrator) (1977): Vanguard VSD 71219/20 (2).

Text

Cosa crudel m'ancide.

Quant'io a le' fedele,
ella m'è più crudele;
s'i' piango, ed ella ride.

Strider m'ode nel foco:
ella sta in festa e gioco
e non cura mie stride.

Se a lei chieggo grazia,
ella mi scherne e strazia:
questa 'l mie cor conquide.

Ogni saetta orata
del su' arco mandata
el mie petto divide.

Se mai la vaga cosa
di me fosse pietosa,
morte da me decide

Translation

A cruel thing is killing me.

The more I am faithful to her
the more she is cruel to me;
If I weep, she laughs.

She hears me sizzling in the fire:
she spends her time in feasts and games
and does not care about my screams.

And if I ask her to take pity on me,
she mocks me and tears me apart:
that is the one who has conquered my heart!

Every golden dart
which flies out of her bow
cuts deep into my breast.

If ever the lovely thing
were to take pity on me
she would take death away from me.

Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga