ABSTRACT
Serano Ciminelli, known as l’Aquilano, was one of the most highly appreciated improvvisatori of the Renaissance, possessing undoubted poetical and musical talent and capable of practising all styles of vernacular poetry. His repertoire was built around singing accompanied by the lira da braccio and included strambotti, barzellette, sonnets, capitoli, eclogues, and short acti scenici. His art won over ladies and knights, court and street singers, educated and uneducated people. In light of the numerous studies and valuable critical editions of Serano’s verses, this essay focuses on Serano’s efforts in composing bucolic poetry – coinciding with his Roman period in the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza and with the theatrical debut of the eclogue Tirinto e Menandro for the Carnival of 1490 – as well as on his use of pastoral ction to dene his stage character and, through this, to set to music his harsh attack on the corruption of the papal curia in the private spaces of ofcial Roman Carnival festivities.
