Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional
- This article refers to a medieval songbook. For the Renaissance songbook of same name, see Cancioneiro de Lisboa
The Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional (in English: National Library Songbook), commonly called Colocci-Brancuti, is a compilation of Galician-Portuguese troubadour lyrics. These cantigas (songs) are classified, following indications in the poems themselves and in the manuscript tradition, into three main genres: cantigas de amigo (female-voiced love songs, about a boyfriend), cantigas de amor (male-voiced love songs) and cantigas de escárnio e mal-dizer (songs of mockery and insult).
The poems were copied in Italy (presumably from a manuscript from Portugal or Spain) around 1525-1526 by the order of humanist Angelo Colocci (1467-1549), who numbered all the songs, made an index (commonly called the Tavola Colocciana), and annotated the codex. In the 19th century the cancioneiro was in the property of Count Paolo Brancuti di Cagli, from Ancona, who sold it to Italian philologist Ernesto Monaci. The songbook was acquired by the Portuguese State in 1924 and is kept in the Portuguese National Library in Lisbon. A closely related songbook (sister or cousin), kept in the Vatican Library, is called the Cancioneiro da Vaticana.
It was copied by six different hands, in both gothic and cursive scripts. Of the original 1664 songs only 1560 remain. Some of the composers found in it are King Dinis of Portugal, D. Sancho I, D. Pedro, count of Barcelos, Pay Soares de Taveirós, Johan Garcia de Guilhade, Airas Nunes, Martin Codax.
External links
- Entry at the National Library, in Portugal