%Menota_entities;] > Traveling through Tuscany Carvajal Transcription By Paulina Ochoa Figueroa Translation by Paulina Ochoa Figueroa Introduction by Albert Lloret Encoded in TEI P5 XML by Danny Smith The Global Medieval Sourcebook

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This poem is a serranilla, an evolution of the Provençal pastorela. Written in short verse (arte menor), serranillas narrate a courtly poet’s encounter with a mountain woman. This is one of six compositions in the genre by fifteenth-century author Carvajal (or Carvajales). Very little is known about Carvajal’s life. His poetry is linked to the court of Alfonso the Magnanimous in Naples (r. 1442-1458) and to that of Alfonso’s son Ferrante (r. 1459-1494). In addition to his famous serranillas, Carvajal is also known for his literary epistles and ballads.

In this poem, the poet subverts some of the genre’s conventions by meeting not a rustic woman but a beautiful and courteous noble lady in a context in which he would have normally met a serrana. The two of them strike up a conversation as they walk together. The end of the composition reveals that the encounter was a dream vision.

The poem is copied in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, VITR/17/7, fol. 136v-137r. This manuscript is a copy of the poetry collection known as the Cancionero de Estúñiga, ca. 1465. It has been digitized: http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000051837. It contains a compilation of mostly Castilian poems, including ballads, as well as a few Italian compositions. Their authors accompanied the King of Aragon, Alfonso the Magnanimous, in Naples in the mid-fifteenth century.

Carvajal. Poesie. Edited by Emma Scoles. Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1967. Critical edition of Carvajal’s poetry.

Gerli, E. Michael. “Chapter 6. The Libro in the Cancioneros.” Reading, Performing, and Imagining the ‘Libro del Arcipreste’. University of North Carolina Press, 2016. esp. pp. 194-203. Reassessment of Caravajal’s serranilla in view of their intertextual relationship with the Libro de buen amor.

Marino, Nancy F. La serranilla española: notes para su historia e interpretación. Scripta Humanistica, 1987. Study of the serranilla genre, with attention to Carvajal’s poems in chapter 5.

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, VITR/17/7, fol. 153r-154r.

Passando por la Toscana Traveling through Tuscany

"Traveling through Tuscany" is published by The Global Medieval Sourcebook (GMS), a free, open access, and open source compendium of medieval texts in their original languages and in English translation. GMS comprises computer-readable transcriptions or editions alongside new translations of texts dating from the ninth to the sixteenth century and originating in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The GMS platform includes critical introductions as well as sources for further reading.

Transcriptions and translations are encoded in XML conforming to TEI (P5) guidelines. The original-language text is contained within <lem> tags and translations within <rdg> tags.

Texts are translated into modern American English with maximum fidelity to the original text, except where it would impair comprehension or good style. Archaisms are preserved where they do not conflict with the aesthetic of the original text. Scribal errors and creative translation choices are marked and discussed in the critical notes.

The text has been punctuated. Word separation and capitalization follow modern usage. Elisions have been marked with an apostrophe.ß

 <app> <lem wit="#Transcription"><!--Title as should be displayed above text. Put nothing here if the title in the text matches the title used elsewhwere--></lem> <rdg wit="#Translation"><!--Title as should be displayed above text. Put nothing here if the title in the text matches the title used elsewhwere--></rdg> </app> <app> <lem wit="#Transcription"><!--Subtitle in original language--></lem> <rdg wit="#Translation"><!--Subtitle in English--></rdg> </app> Passando por la Toscana, Traveling through Tuscany, entre Sena et Florencia, between Siena and Florence, vi dama gentil galana I saw an elegant gentle lady digna de grand reuerencia. Worthy of great reverence. Cara tenia de romana, She had the face of a Roman, tocadura purtoguesa, A Portuguese headdress, el ayre de castellana, And air of a Castilian, vestida como senesa Was dressed like a Sienese, discretamente, non uana; Discreetly, not vain; yo le fise reuerencia I bowed to her y ella, con mucha prudencia, And she, very cautiously, bien mostro ser cortesana. Did prove to be courteous. Assy entramos por Sena, That is how we entered Siena fablando de compannia, Conversing in company con plaser auiendo pena With pleasure and sorrow del pesar que me plasia. For a grief that pleased me. Sy se dilatara el dia If the day had been extended o la noche nos tomara, Or the night had arrived, tan grand fuego se encendia Such great fire would have been ignited que toda la tierra quemara. That it would have burned the earth out. Vestia de blancho domasquino, Dressed in white damask, camurra al touillo cortada, Gamurra cut at the ankle ençima de un uelud fino Over a fine velvet, un luto la falda rastrada; A mourning skirt down to the floor; ponposa et agraciada, Pompous and graceful, una inuencion traya A verse she carried with her por letras que non entendia, With letters she did not understand, de perlas la manga bordada. On the sleeves embroidered with pearls. Item mas, traya un ioyel In addition, she wore a little jewel de richas piedras pesantes, Of rich heavy stones, un balax y entorno d’el A purple spinel and, around it, çafis, rubis et dyamantes Sapphires, rubies, and diamonds firmando sobre la fruente Fixed on her forehead con muy grande resplandor, With such a great glow; pero dauale el fauor But what favored her the most Su gesto lyndo, plasiente. Was her pleasant, beautiful countenance. En su fabla, uestir et ser In her speech, dress, and demeanor non mostraua ser de mandra. She did not appear to be rustic, Queriendo su nonbre saber, Wanting to know her name respondiome que Casandra. She told me it was Casandra. Yo con tal nonbre oyr At just hearing such a name, muy alegre desperte I woke up much delighted. e tan solo me falle And I found myself so lonely que por Dios pense morir. That by god I thought I would die.