ABSTRACT
Sacchetti's status as both the most prolific poet of Trecento song texts and a dabbling composer garners him authority on the subject, and considering the paucity of other contemporary writings directly addressing this issue, his words are of particular importance. The material transmission of Trecento song, therefore, suggests that we read Ben che io senta in a new light. The manuscript sources of Trecento song is dedicated join Sacchetti's sonnet in demonstrating the interrelatedness of poetry and song. Even more than the notated manuscripts already familiar to musicologists, the literary sources in which Trecento song texts circulated embody the fluid world Ben che io senta describes. The literary tradition of Trecento song, however, is not as limited as the secondary literarature suggests. Unlike the Trecento musical sources or the troubadour and trouvere chansonniers that form the foundation of vernacular poetry's written tradition, Italian literary manuscripts rarely privilege authorship.
