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Ital. Madrigale and Renaissance Etymologists
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
Extract
Ital. madrigale ‘madrigal’ has, at an earlier date, been derived from mandra ‘herd’ and other etyma; the etymology which has received acceptance in most quarters has been that from matricale (carmen) '(song) in the mother tongue or vernacular'. As a recent attempt has been made to revive the Renaissance derivation from materiale ‘coarse > bastard (poetical form)‘, it may be of value to call attention to the arguments against this etymon and in favor of matricale.
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- Copyright © 1940 Linguistic Society of America
References
1 Rightly rejected by Meyer-Lübke, REW3 §5290, s. v. mandra.
2 L. Biadene, Rassegna bibliografica della letteratura italiana 6.329–336 (1898); accepted by Bloch and Gamillscheg in their French etymological dictionaries s. v. madrigal. No mention is made of this etymology, presumably through oversight, by Meyer-Lübke, REW3 §5416, s. v. matricale.
3 L. Spitzer, ZRPh. 55.168–170 (1935).
4 First proposed by Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua, Book II; repeated by Doni, Compendio dei trattati dei generi della musica 113 (Roma, 1635), and by Crescimbeni, Commentarî intorno alla volgar poesia 1.1.22.
5 Grandgent, From Latin to Italian 87; Hirsch, ZRPh. 9.565–567 (1885).
6 Cf. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians 3.275–279 (reprint, 1935) and further references there cited.
7 In the Latin glosses of Francesco da Barberino (1318–1325), cited by G. Cesari, Die Entstehung des Madrigals im 16. Jahrhundert (Cremona, 1908).
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