Rosa fresc' aulentissima—c'appar' in ver' l'estate:
and the Ballata of the Comari:
Pur bi' del vin, comadr'—e no lo temperare:
together with numerous compositions of the Northern Lombard school (Milan and Verona), are written in Alexandrines. In the Lombardo-Sicilian age of Italian literature, before Bologna acted as an intermediate to Florence, this meter bid fair to become acclimatized. But the Tuscan genius determined decisively for the hendecasyllabic.
[22] See the [Appendix] to this chapter on Italian hendecasyllables.
[23] See Carducci, Cantilene, etc. (Pisa, 1871), pp. 58-60, for thirteenth-century rispetti illustrating the Sicilian form of the Octave Stanza and its transformation to the Tuscan type.
[24] The poetry of this period will be found in Trucchi, Poesie Inedite, Prato, 1846; Poeti del Primo Secolo, Firenze, 1816; Raccolta di Rime Antiche Toscane, Palermo, Assenzio, 1817; and in a critical edition of the Codex Vaticanus 3793, Le Antiche Rime Volgari, per cura di A. d'Ancona e D. Comparetti, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1875.
[25] The most important modern works upon this subject are three Essays by Napoleone Caix, Saggio sulla Storia della Lingua e dei Dialetti d'Italia, Parma, 1872; Studi di Etimologia Italiana e Romanza, Firenze, 1878; Le Origini della Lingua Poetica Italiana, Firenze, 1880. D'Ovidio's Essay on the De Eloquio in his Saggi Critici, Napoli, 1878, may also be consulted with advantage.
[26] "Lingua Tusca magis apta est ad literam sive literaturam quam aliæ linguæ, et ideo magis est communis et intelligibilis." Antonio da Tempo, born about 1275, says this in his Treatise on Italian Poetry, recently printed by Giusto Grion, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1869. See p. 17 of that work.
[27] This fact was recognized by Dante. He speaks of the languages of Si, Oil, and Oc, meaning Italian, French, and Spanish. De Eloquio, lib. i. cap. 8. Dante points out their differences, but does not neglect their community of origin.