story of Minuccio, as told by Boccaccio, is this. A young maiden of
Palermo, seized with violent love for the King, begged Minuccio to help
her. Not being a verse-maker himself, he hastened to the poet Mico of
Siena, who wrote a poem setting forth the maiden's woes. This Minuccio
set at once to exquisite and heart-moving music and sang it for the King
to the accompaniment of his own viol. The poem is in the main strophic
and the melody is of similar nature. Whether Boccaccio or Mico wrote the
poem matters not in the historical sense. The important facts are that
such a poem exists and that a hint as to its music has come down to us.

In the "Decameron" we are told often how some one or other of the
personages sings to the company. Sometimes it is a dance song, as for
example the "Io son si vaga della mia bellezza." To this all the others
spontaneously dance while singing the refrain in chorus. Another time
the queen of the day, Emilia, invites Dioneo to sing a canzona. There is
much pretty banter, while Dioneo teases the women by making false starts
at several then familiar songs. In another place Dioneo with lute and
Fiametta with viol play a dance. Again one sings while Dioneo
accompanies her on the lute.

Thus Boccaccio in his marvelous portraiture of the social life of his
time has casually handed down to us invaluable facts about vocal and
instrumental music. There is no question that Ambros is fully justified
in his conclusion that the _cantori a liuto_ were a well-marked class of
musicians. They were vocal soloists and often improvisatori, clearly
differentiated from the cantori a libro, who were "singers by book and
note" and who sang the polyphonic art music of the time.

It is pretty well established that the songs of Dante were everywhere
known and sung. We have reason to believe that many of those of
Boccaccio were also familiar to the people. We may also feel confident
that when most of the Italian lute singers of the time had acquired
sufficient skill to make their own poems as well as their own melodies,
they followed the models provided in the verses of the great masters.
What is still more important for us to note is that these lyrics were
strophical and that they were no further removed from the folk song of
the era than the frottola was. Indeed they bore a closer resemblance to
the frottola. They differed in that they were solos with instrumental
accompaniment instead of being part songs unaccompanie