The Florence Laudario

Of the two surviving collections of late medieval lauda melodies, the Florence Laudario is the largest and most diverse. These ninety-seven Italian laude and ten Latin works were compiled during the early fourteenth century for use by the laudesi company of Santo Spirito. This edition preserves the integrity of the codex as a confraternity service book by transcribing the entire contents in original order. It presents the first English translation of a significant corpus of Italian laude, and most of the melodies have been emended in light of the discovery that many corrupt readings were introduced during the sixteenth or seventeenth century, when the damaged manuscript was trimmed and arbitrarily recopied. The Florence Laudario makes available one of the most beautiful and relatively unexplored late medieval vernacular song repertories.