The success of the amorous poetry (canzonette) of Leonardo Giustinian (1388–1466) during his lifetime and especially during the primo Cinquecento has never been disputed. Before 1550, there were at least fifty-three manuscripts and fourteen printed editions of the Venetian poet-humanist-politician’s canzonette, in addition to other evidence of its widespread popularity in the oral and musical traditions. The absence of an autograph songbook combined with the early popularity of Giustinian’s poetry has hindered the work of philologists attempting to create a modern critical edition of the canzonette. Indeed, scholars are not even able to agree on the precise number of poems that can be attributed to Giustinian in their studies of the manuscript and print traditions of the canzonette. In her commendable literary-philological study and transcription of the fifteenth-century manuscript Marciano It. IX 486, Anna Carocci follows Aldo Oberdorfer, Giuseppe Billanovich, Laura Pina, and Enzo Quaglio in attempting to present an authoritative edition of the canzonette. Unlike her predecessors, however, she argues that the thirty-nine poems within Marciano It. IX 486 should all be attributed to Giustinian, despite major discrepancies between it and what are considered the three other authoritative manuscripts (Palatino 213, Parigino 1032, Pallastrelli 267).

The book’s title is taken from a 1462 letter by Piero Parleone to Niccolò Sagundino about the popular reception of Giustinian’s “canti soavissimi” (“most pleasing songs”): “e non si odono altri canti nelle nozze, nei convivi, nelle strade, dappertutto sono usati dal popolo” (“and no other songs are heard at weddings, banquets, on the streets; they are used everywhere by the people”; 46). This initial reference to Giustinian’s reception in fifteenth-century popular culture serves as a preview for the structure of the book. In part 1 Carocci provides a well-researched portrait of Giustinian as popular vernacular poet, Latin and Greek humanist and translator, Venetian politician and patrician, father, orator, bibliophile, and merchant. She emphasizes how he almost seamlessly occupied multiple roles, from a politician of the Venetian Republic to a merchant, to a vernacular poet whose lyric would later influence the poetry of Domenico and Maffio Venier and the playwright Ruzzante, while also enjoying an afterlife in music and various public and private festivals. Giustinian’s poetry contains Dantean and Petrarchan echoes at odds with his use of the contemporary Venetian dialect, thus becoming emblematic of seemingly competing literary traditions and styles. Carocci expands what it means to call Giustinian a popular poet and presents a more holistic and complete biography of the poet than has generally been available. The remainder of part 1 is dedicated to close readings of select poems (including his strambotti and laudi religiose), a discussion of the musicality and performativity of his verses, and an overview of the written-versus-oral reception of his poetry. Most interesting is her analysis of the various female figures in his poetry who evoke both the static beloved of the Petrarchan lyric and a painting of a woman mid-action, exemplifying Horace’s dictum ut pictura poesis. Part 1 closes with a helpful list of manuscripts and early printed editions that include the canzonette.

Part 2 is dedicated solely to the philological presentation of the thirty-nine poems found in Marciano It. IX 486. Carocci is careful to elucidate the difficulty in compiling a critical edition of the canzonette given its complex transmission history. She contextualizes the manuscript within the other three manuscripts (with special attention paid to Pallastrelli 267), and explains that the choice of the Marciano manuscript for her study resides in its organization, apparent completeness, and provenance. She clearly presents her editorial approach to modernizing Giustinian’s orthography and punctuation, removing abbreviations, and standardizing instances of Venetian dialect, all of which contribute to the accessibility of her transcription. Each poem opens with a description of the formal structure and includes endnotes to explain, when necessary, Carocci’s editorial interventions and to clarify the poems’ contents.

Carocci’s writing style is refreshing and most welcome in a field that can be inaccessible to nonphilologists. Her explicit objective of bridging literary criticism with philology is successful throughout her study, and it significantly broadens her readership and the impact of her work. The historical and literary analysis of part 1 complements the philological rigor of part 2, providing a more comprehensive approach to the artist, his work, and this important manuscript. While this book will be of most interest to literary scholars and philologists of the Quattro- and Cinquecento, it could also serve as a formidable introduction of Giustinian to graduate students.