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The Laudario di Cortona (Cortona, Biblioteca del Comune e dell'Accademia Etrusca, Ms. 91) is a musical codex from the second half of the 13th century containing a collection of laude. [1] It is the oldest known source of music in the Italian language, and the only such source from the thirteenth century. It is one of only two sources of Italian laude to contain musical notation. [2]
The manuscript contains 66 laude of which only the first 44 have notated music. In a section inserted subsequently there are a further two laude with their music, making 46 in total. The first sixteen are in praise of Mary, while the remainder roughly follow the feast days of the liturgical year.
The precise date of the manuscript is uncertain, but it appears to have been copied between 1270 and 1297. The manuscript belonged to the fraternity of Santa Maria delle Laude at the church of San Francesco in Cortona, Italy. It was found in 1876, discarded and in poor condition, by Girolamo Mancini, who was the librarian of the Biblioteca del Comune e dell'Accademia Etrusca di Cortona, who donated it to the Cortona library in which it is now kept. [3]
It is notated in square black plainchant notation, entirely without accidentals which would presumably been inserted automatically in performance. However, this lack of accidentals poses significant problems for modern reconstruction of the melodies. [4]
The most significant problem, however, is the manuscript itself. It is "chock full of errors" in the words of one scholar. [5]
The first modern edition was published by Fernando Liuzzi in 1935. This edition has been criticised for many editorial interventions. Liuzzi added key signatures and a great number of accidentals to a repertoire in which none were notated. He even added performance directions such as Mosso con fierezza, which, as one commentator has pointed out, seem more appropriate to the nineteenth century than the thirteenth. [4] Since then there have been several further editions : Pellegrino M. Ernetti and Laura Rossi Leidi (1980), Luigi Lucchi (1987), Clemente Terni (1988), Martin Dürrer (1996), and Hans Tischler (2002).
Nº | Folio | Lauda | Also found in |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 1–3v | Venite a laudare | ARE, MIL |
2 | 3v–5v | Lauda novella sia cantata | ARE |
3 | 5v–8v | Ave, donna santissima | ARE, M18, M19, MIL |
4 | 8v–10 | Madonna santa Maria | ARE, MIL |
5 | 12v–14v | Ave, regina gloriosa | |
6 | 14v–17 | Da ciel venne messo novello | ARE, M18, M19 |
7 | 17–19v | Altissima luce col grande splendore | ARE, M18, M19, MIL |
8 | 19v–22 | Fami cantar l'amor di la beata | ARE, M19 |
9 | 22–24 | O Maria, d'omelia | ARE |
10 | 24–25v | Regina sovrana de gram pietade | ARE, M18, M19 |
11 | 25v–27 | Ave, Dei genitrix | |
12 | 27–29 | O Maria, Dei cella | |
13 | 29–32v | Ave, vergene gaudente | MIL |
14 | 32v–34v | O divina virgo, flore | |
15 | 34v–36v | Salve, salve, virgo pia | MIL |
16 | 36v–38 | Vergene donçella da Dio amata | ARE, M18, M19, MIL |
17 | 38v–39v | Peccatrice, nominata | ARE, M19 |
18 | 39v–43v | Cristo è nato et humanato | M18 (Incomplete), W15 |
19 | 43v–44v | Gloria 'n cielo e pace 'n terra | ARE, MIL |
20 | 45–46 | Stella nuova 'n fra la gente | ARE, M19, MIL |
21 | 46v–47v | Plangiamo quel crudel basciar[e] | |
22 | 47v–51 | Ben è crudele e spietoso | M18 (Text only) |
23 | 51–53 | De la crudel morte de Cristo | ARE, MIL |
24 | 53–55 | Dami conforto, Dio, et alegrança | ARE, MIL |
25 | 55–57v | Onne homo ad alta voce | ARE, M18, CBC, MIL |
26 | 57v–60 | Jesù Cristo glorioso | M18 |
27 | 60–63 | Laudamo la resurrectione | ARE, MIL, NY |
28 | 63–64v | Spiritu sancto, dolçe amore | M19, MIL |
29 | 64v–68 | Spirito Sancto glorioso | ANT, M19, MIL |
30 | 68–69v | Spirito sancto, dà servire | ARE, MIL |
31 | 70–72 | Alta Trinità beata | M19, MIL |
32 | 72–82v | Troppo perde 'l tempo ki ben non t'ama | ARE, MIL |
33 | 82v–85 | Stomme allegro et latioso | MIL |
34 | 85v–88v | Oimè lasso e freddo lo mio core | |
35 | 88v–90 | Chi vol(e) lo mondo desprecçare | ARE, M19, MIL |
36 | 90v–93 | Laudar vollio per amore | MIL |
37 | 93–96 | Sia laudato san Francesco | ARE, M18, M19, MIL |
38 | 96–100v | Ciascun ke fede sente | ARE, M18, M19, MIL |
39 | 100v–110v | Magdalena degna da laudare | ARE, MIL |
40 | 110v–112v | L'alto prençe archangelo lucente | MIL |
41 | 112v–114v | Faciamo laude a tutt'i sancti | ARE, M18, M19, MIL, W22 |
42 | 114v–116 | San Jovanni al mond'è nato | |
43 | 116–117v | Ogn'om canti novel canto | M19 |
44 | 117v–120 | Amor dolçe sença pare | ARE, MIL |
45 | 123–131v | Benedicti et llaudati | MIL |
46 | 131v–132v | Salutiam divotamente | ARE, MIL |
47 | 136 | Alleluya. Alleluya, alto re di gloria (Senza musica. Solo testo) | ARE, M18, M19 |
48 | 137 | Salutiam divotamente (Senza musica. Solo testo) | ARE, MIL |
49 | 143 | A voi gente facciam prego (Senza musica. Solo testo) | ARE, M18, M19 |
Works found in other manuscripts