Performative Constructions of Authorship in Italian Vernacular Verse 1470-1550

This thesis aims to work with the soundscapes of poetry published in the late fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century in a manner sensitive to their entanglement with contemporary poetic performances and practices. This time period saw poetry as a genre that was innately musical, and combined humanist beliefs surrounding poetry with older traditions of musical performance, with verse innately tied to its existence as song accompanied by a solo string instrument. This tradition rose to prominence in the latter half of the fifteenth century and continued to evolve and change into the sixteenth century, giving opportunity to a wide range of poets across the Italian peninsula to participate within this culture. Within this poetry is an internal soundscape that the poet-musician could utilise in creating an authorial identity, and as such is an essential element in linking the written form of the verse to its existence as song. Though the poetic performance traditions found in Italy during this time period have been an area of growing academic interest across disciplines, the realm of soundscape study, which has proven its fruitfulness in regard to early French lyric, has yet to be utilised. This thesis aims to shed new light on this tradition by taking a multidisciplinary approach, combining soundscape study with contemporary musicological thought and textual close reading.

This will be done in a series of six case studies, loosely split into three pairs that navigate issues such as geography, gender, and time. The first two of these case studies are concerned with the work of two members of the patriciate at the height of the cantare ad lyram tradition, Matteo Maria Boiardo and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. The subsequent set of case studies will focus on strambotto culture at the turn of the sixteenth century, featuring the renowned Serafino Aquilano and the lesser known Panfilo Sasso. Finally this thesis will turn to the salon environments and the growing participation of female poets in this tradition by turning to the work of the courtesan Tullia d’Aragona and virtuosa singer Gaspara Stampa. The case studies selected provide different examples of how sounds internal to the verse could be utilised for the author’s self-fashioning, and although all were participating within the same performative culture, vary greatly in setting and purpose. By applying the as yet neglected realm of soundscape studies to this verse, a greater understanding of the purpose and meaning of the text and its relationship to the careers and performances of these poets can be understood, presenting great scope for further musicological study.