[318] The edition cited above includes Sonetti alla Burchiellesca by a variety of writers. The strange book called Pataffio, which used to be ascribed to Brunetto Latini, seems born of similar conditions.
[319] Florentines themselves take this view, as is proved by the following sentence from Capponi: "È pure qui obbligo di registrare anche il Burchiello, barbiere di nome rimasto famoso, perchè fece d'un certo suo gergo poesia forse arguta ma triviale; oscura oggi, ma popolare nei tempi suoi e che ebbe inclusive imitatori" (Storia della Rep. di Firenze, ii. 176).
[320] See the Sonnet quoted in Note 59 to Mazzuchelli's Life of Berni, Scrittori d'Italia, vol. iv.
[321] The Ballata or Canzone a Ballo, as its name implies, was a poem intended to be sung during the dance. A musician played the lute while young women executed the movements of the Carola (so beautifully depicted by Benozzo Gozzoli in his Pisan frescoes), alone or in the company of young men, singing the words of the song. The Ballata consisted of lyric stanzas with a recurrent couplet. It is difficult to distinguish the Ballate from the Canzonette d'Amore.
[322] See Carducci, Cantilene e Ballate (Pisa, 1871), pp. 82, 83.
[323] Ibid. pp. 171-173.
[324] Ibid. pp. 214-217.
[325] A volume of ancient Canzoni a Ballo was published at Florence in 1562, by Sermatelli, and again in 1568.
[326] Le Rime di Messer A. Poliziano, pp. 295, 346.
[327] See Laude Spirituali di Feo Belcari e di Altri, Firenze, 1863. The hymn Crocifisso a capo chino, for example, has this heading: "Cantasi come—Una donna d'amor fino," which was by no means a moral song (ib. p. 16). D'Ancona in his Poesia Pop. It. pp. 431-436, has extracted the titles of these profane songs, some of which are to be found in the Canzoni a Ballo (Firenze, 1568), and Canti Carnascialeschi (Cosmopoli, 1750), while the majority are lost.