The Fourteenth-Century Madrigal: Its Form and Contents

The word madrigal appeared for the first time in 1313 when Francesco da Barberino, in his Glosse Latine ai Documenti d'Amore, enumerated the following poetic forms in use inter nostros: canzoni distesi, ballate, sonetti, sirventesi, cobbole, discordi, concordi, contese, libratici, prosaici, and voluntarii. He writes of the last-mentioned that it is ‘rudium, inordinatum concinium, ut matricale et similia.’ The second source on the madrigal dates from 1332 and comes from the pen of the Paduan judge-poet, Antonio da Tempo, who gives not only the etymology of the term but also the various forms of the madrigal with original examples.