The poems by Mino da Colle and the tenzone with Monaldo da Sofena

Abstract

This essay offers a new critical and commented edition of the poems by Mino da Colle (Oi sser Monaldo, for contrary advent; A good sè conducted, ser Chiavello) and also of the sonnet by Monaldo da Sofena sent to the poet of Colle di Val d’Elsa (Ser Mino meo, you give me too much). For the three sonnets, gathered in the Vatican songbook (Vat. lat. 3793), in addition to taking up and deepening some of the previous hypotheses, for reading these intricate verses new proposals are made. Furthermore, according to the metric artifice adopted, as well as to the insulting tone that characterizes the text, is not excluded the hypothesis that a piece of a previous exchange between Mino and Monaldo – or between Mino and another interlocutor – could be A buona sè condotto. If this were so, it would be plausible to place the three compositions on the same playful occasion, in which more people could have taken part.