El no me giova né val donna fuzire

ballata by Bartolino da Padova

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 114v (3/2);
Modena: Biblioteca Estense e Universitaria a.M.5.24 (Latino 568; olim IV.D.5), fol. 4v-5 (1/0) (Contratenor by Matteo da Perugia);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 6771 (Reina Codex), fol. 17v (3/2).

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. 183.
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. 18 (Pn6771).

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 250.

Literature

1. BESSELER, Heinrich. 'Studien zur Musik des Mittelalters. I. Neue Quellen des 14. und beginnenden 15. Jahrhunderts', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, VII (1925): 167-252.
2. BAUMANN, Dorothea. Die dreistimmige italienische Lied-Satztechnik im Trecento, Baden-Baden: Valentin Koerner, 1979. Sammlung musikwissenschaftlicher Abhandlung no. 64, passim.

Text

El no me zova né val donna fuzire
ché quando fuzo allor me par morire.

Credea, madonna, per starve lontano
donar riposo alquant'al mio tormento
e tal rissor mi trovo falso e vano
ché com più fuzo maior pena sento.
Però non posso mai esser contento
s'io non ritorno a voi, mio disire

Translation

It is no use or help fleeing, my lady,
because it feels like dying when I do it.

I thought I could relieve my torment somewhat
by staying away from you, my lady,
but I find it a false and vain resort,
since the farther I flee, the greater pain I feel.
Therefore if I do not return to you
I can never be happy, my desire.

Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga