Forced into exiles: the problematic transformation of the Goddess Fortuna into a ‘Gentil madonna’ (and something of a gloss on the disfigured countenance of ‘Rosa bella’)

Missa Gentil madona mia, transmitted anonymously in Codex Trent 91, incorporates the Tenor of a secular song, of which the incipit in the earliest sources suggests that its text opened with 'Fortune' or 'Fortuna'. However, the setting soon started circulating with a complete Italian text, 'opening with' Gentil madona', to which some of the sources added some fragments of a second stanza. However, the structure of the transmitted complete stanza does not fit the setting well. Because the music and its notation suggest the form of a ballade, and one of the sources ascribes the music to 'Jo Bodigham' (Bedyn ham), speculations have been made that the original text of the composition could have been English. Analyses of the transmitted fragments for a second stanza and a new approach to some particularities in the notation of the music—their misunderstanding having caused a slight deficiency in the mensural layout of the setting's traditionally accepted reading—allow Bedyngham's composition to be presented as an original Italian song, starting with the line 'Fortuna helas, non mi habandonare', in which setting text and music fit each other perfectly. At first sight Fortuna helas and Bedyngham's famous O rosa bella seem to have little in common, but a more detailed comparison brings about remarkable stylistic relations between both settings. Yet, in contrast with the unproblematic combination of text and music in Fortuna helas, the quality of that combination as transmitted for O rosa bella is rather problematic, particularly in the second half of the song. A possible influence that may have caused this problem is explored and an alternative text underlay, following the structure of the composition, proposed.