Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses 'Trecento song' and the 'Italian lyric tradition'. It highlights Florentine political and intellectual history in the individual manuscripts and their reception. Both musicological and literary scholarship focused more on separating musical and poetic production than on investigating how musical settings might serve to interpret the texts they adorn. Material-based methodologies have had a major impact on the study of Romance literature over the last three decades. John Nadas has pointed to cultural conservatism and elitism in the Squarcialupi Codex, so Michael Long has linked Francesco degli Organi to this milieu by drawing attention to the composer's interest in Ockhamist philosophy. Secular song is all the more associated with aristocratic society in northern Italy, especially in the Visconti court in Milan and the Carrara court in Padua.