The Ritmo lucchese is an anonymous vernacular poem in a Tuscan koiné. It is reckoned one of the earliest pieces of Italian literature

Italian literature

Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....

, composed in or shortly after 1213. It records a battle between Lucca

Lucca

Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...

 and Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

 near Massa

Massa

Massa is a town and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, the administrative centre of the province of Massa-Carrara. It is located in the Frigido River Valley, near the Alpi Apuane, some 5 kilometers from the Tyrrhenian Sea....

 fought in mid-January that year. The Pisans opposed to the Visconti

House of Visconti

Visconti is the family name of two important Italian noble dynasties of the Middle Ages. There are two distinct Visconti families: The first one in the Republic of Pisa in the mid twelfth century who achieved prominence first in Pisa, then in Sardinia where they became rulers of Gallura...

, along with the Massans and the Pistoiese

Pistoia

Pistoia is a city and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno.-History:...

, were led by William I of Cagliari

William I of Cagliari

William I was the giudice of Cagliari from 1188 to his death.William was one of the greatest of medieval Sardinian giudici...

 and his father-in-law, Guido Guerra III, while the Luccans, along with a Pisan faction, were led by Ubaldo I Visconti

Ubaldo I Visconti

Ubaldo I Visconti was the de jure overlord of the Giudicato of Cagliari from 1217. He was a member of the Visconti family of Pisa, controlling Cagliari on behalf of his brother, who was judge jure uxoris from 1218....

 and the deposed Pisan podestà

Podestà

Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...

Goffredo Musto.

The Ritmo is preserved in manuscript of Burgundio of Pisa's Latin translation of Nemesius

Nemesius

Nemesius , was a Christian philosopher, and the author of a treatise De Natura Hominis . According to the title of his book, he was the Bishop of Emesa . His book is an attempt to compile a system of anthropology from the standpoint of Christian philosophy.Nemesius was also a physiological theorist...

' De natura hominis, now codex 45 in the library of the Collegio di Spagna

Collegio di Spagna

The Collegio di Spagna is a college for Spanish students at the University of Bologna, Italy, which has been functioning since the 14th century. Its full original name in English translation was the College of Saint Clement of the Spaniards...

 at the University of Bologna

University of Bologna

The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...

. It was discovered by Francesco Filippini and first published by Amedeo Crivellucci (Studi storici, XXII, 2). It was studied by Giovanni Dinelli in "Una battaglia tra Pisani e Lucchesi presso Massa in una cantilena storica in volgare del principio del sec. XIII" (Giornale storico della Lunigiana, VI [1915], fasc. 5, 201ff).

Editions

• In "Ritmo volgare lucchese del 1213". Vincenzo de Bartholomaeis, ed. Studi romanzi, XII. Rome: 1915.
• In Rime giullaresche e popolari d'Italia. Vincenzo de Bartholomaeis, ed. Bologna: Zanichelli, 1926.