Lecturae Tropatorum (Jan 2017)
Paolo Lanfranchi di Pistoia, "Valenz senher, rei dels Aragones" (BdT 317.1)
Abstract
This article presents a new edition, complete with commentary, of the Provençal cobla by Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia. The poem is only attested in the esparsas section contained in songbook P (ff. 55-66); it is a «Sirv.[entes] in Form eines Sonetts» (BdT, sub 317.1) and it occupies an extremely important position in the framework of the reception and reworking of Sicilian and Provençal lyric poetry in central Italy. The cobla has been the object of numerous studies (see f.i. the recent publication by Mascitelli 2015), however as of today it is only available in an edition (Kleinhenz 1971) that, while significant in terms of exegesis and historical contextualization, appears questionable in several places with regard to specific textual choices, and still deficient as regards linguistic analysis. The article in particular proposes the hypothesis that Paolo Lanfranchi may have had an active role in setting up the communication channel between Tuscany and Catalonia which is clearly traceable in the P songbook.
