CANZONE

canzone: translation

(plural:canzoni)

Thecanzonewas a late medieval lyric form popular in Italy among poets influenced by the Provençal TROUBADOURS. Derived largely from the OccitanCANSO, particularly as practiced by the troubadour GIRAUT DE BORNEIL, thecanzonewas usually a poem of five to seven stanzas with an identical rhyme scheme. Stanzas could range from seven to 20 lines, generally of 11 syllables, often ending with acommiato(similar to theenvoiof a FrenchBALLADE)—a short stanza half the length of the others, serving as a summary or closing. InDe VULGARI ELOQUENTIA, DANTE calls thecanzonethe noblest form of Italian verse, and says it is the ideal genre for dealing with the three highest subjects of poetry: valor, virtue, and love.But in practice, the chief subject of thecanzonithat survive from late medieval Italy is love. The form seems to have been used first by GUITTONE D’AREZZO, chief poet of the Sicilian School, and then by his followers, most notably Guido GUINIZELLI and poets of the new style of Tuscan poetry, theDOLCE STIL NOVO, including Guido CAVALCANTI and DANTE himself. Perhaps most influential of all were thecanzonicomposed by PETRARCH in hisCanzoniere. Petrarch’scanzoni, always five or six stanzas with acommiato, established a fixed form for the genre and influenced Italian poets well into the Renaissance. The standard Italiancanzonecame thus to be called thecanzone petrarchesca. The most influential structural aspect of thecanzoneis described by Dante inDe vulgari eloquentia. Dante describes thecanzoneas having a three-part structure within a two-part structure: The form, he says, is divided into two parts, thefronte(orfronsin Latin), or head, and thesirma(caudain Latin), or tail. However, thefronsis further subdivided into twopiedi, or feet, which are identical in structure. Thecaudamight contain a finalcommiato. Thus the structure of thecanzonemight be described as AA/B. This structure was to influence the development of the sonnet (with its subdividableoctavefollowed by asestet), and therefore the whole history of European poetry.

■ Barber, Joseph A. “Rhyme Scheme Patterns in Petrarch’sCanzoniere,”MLN92 (1977): 139–145.

■ Wilkins, Ernest Hatch. “The Canzone and the Minnesang,” inThe Invention of the Sonnet, and Other Studies in Italian Literature. Roma: Edizioni de Storia e letteratura, 1959.