Giannandrea Mazzucato

“ The 'Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca,' the stronghold of the purity of the Italian language, does not contain the word: this fact, added to the other, not less significant, that neither Crescimbeni, nor Quadrio, nor Tiraboschi, mention the word in their elaborate works, inclines us to believe that the word Stornello has not the definite meaning that, for instance, Sonnetto has; but is merely a name given in some parts of Italy to very short poems, more with regard to their purport than their form. ”

“ And those that Tonio called Ramanzetti Beatrice called Strambotti, as Matteo Spinello and King Manfredi did; and in the territory of Pistoja and in Florence they are distinguished by the name of Stornelli.' Although in the true popular songs of Italy there is a great freedom in the number of lines and rules of rhyming, the two Stornelli we subjoin may bo taken as fair examples of this kind of poem. ”