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Notes
Journal of Italian Translation
1 For comprehensive biographical information on Francesca Turini Bufalini,
see the “Introduction” to: Francesca Turini Bufalini, Autobiographical Poems: A
Bilingual Edition, edited by Natalia Costa-Zalessow. Translations by Joan E. Borrelli,
with the participation of Natalia Costa-Zalessow (New York: Bordighera
Press, 2009), pp. 7-36. In her introduction, Costa-Zalessow points out events in
the poet’s life which parallel events expressed within the sonnets. She likewise
places Turini Bufalini’s poetry in critical context, as influenced by the emerging
Baroque style (and diverging from the earlier Petrarchan model), as she argues
successfully for the novelty of its content within the Western tradition. See also:
Natalia Costa-Zalessow, “Francesca Turini Bufalini,” in Seventeenth-Century Italian
Poets and Dramatists, edited by Albert N. Mancini and Glenn Palen Pierce,
Dictionary of Literary Biography, volume 339 (Detroit: Gale, 2008), pp. 271-276.
2 Turini Bufalini, op.cit., p. 187. In poem number 128 of the Autobiographical
Poems, Francesca clearly laments her son’s opposition to her writing. In two later
sonnets numbered 140 and 141 (ibid., p. 199), she addresses the title character of
her narrative work, Florio, declaring that writing has remained her only solace
through years of grief.
3 Ibid., pp. 51-53. For more complete information on Turini Bufalini’s experimentation
with sonnet structure, see my “Note on the Translation.” Any deviation
from the fixed end-rhyme pattern of ABBA ABBA or ABAB ABAB in the quartine
was considered, during the Renaissance, to be unacceptable in standard literature,
but was, however, acceptable in poetry intended be set to music.
4 The Italian madrigal originated during the Trecento as a musical form meant
to be sung. Evolving into the Cinquecento as a metric form, the madrigal was
no longer required to be set to music. For a history of the form, see: Francesco
Paulo Memmo, Dizionario di Metrica Italiana (Roma: Edizioni Dell’Ateneo, 1983),
pp. 87-88. See also: Francesco Bausi and Mario Martelli, La metrica italiana: Teoria
e storia (Firenze: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 1993), pp. 104-105.
5 Marino: a town southeast of Rome in the Colli Albani near Lake Albano—and
the birthplace of Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547)—where the Colonna family held
possessions. Turini Bufalini more than likely visited there while in service to
Lucrezia Tomacelli Colonna. This sonnet is taken from Rime (Città di Castello:
Molinelli, 1628), p. 79.
6 This madrigal, with a rhyme scheme of: aBBcDDCbb (small letters representing
lines of 7 syllables or settenari; capital letters representing lines of 11 syllables
or endecasillabi) is taken from Rime (1628), ibid., p. 284.
7 This madrigal, with a rhyme scheme of: aBaBccdD, is taken from Rime (1628),
ibid., p. 295.
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