Italian hymnody

[This entry is in two parts: the first by Blake Wilson, the second by Marzio Pieri] Lauda (plural Laude) The origins of the Lauda* are bound up with the literary origins of the Italian language itself. The roots of the tradition can be traced to the ‘Cantico di frate sole’* (‘Canticle of the Sun’) by St Francis of Assisi (ca. 1181/2-1226), beginning Altissimu, onnipotente bon Signore/tue so le laude, la gloria, et l’onore. Francis urged his followers to ‘go through the world preaching and praising God…first one of them who knew how to preach should preach to the people and that after the sermon they were to sing the praises of God [laudes Domini] as minstrels of the lord [joculatories...