![Early modern handwriting and drawing on paper. In cursive, “fine” [the end] with decorative flourishes before and after the word. The decorations are dense and thorny. There are some curves, spirals, and flowers, but the overall look is spiky and menacing. Think millipede, barbed wire, burr, sweetgum seed, tarantula, hedgehog, drain clog](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nowuqzm62jza7dp6xu74t42g/bafkreid625wilvqrrjw6kbbakgczvzd4uhftky2f4cnyfc6pch5eu4yoey)
Maggie Fritz-Morkin
@emeffem.bsky.social
2.5K followers 3.8K following 1.1K posts
Medievalist/ italianist/ tennist, associate prof UNC-Chapel Hill, Boccaccio, prose and other cons. Up with the stars
Medievalist/ italianist/ tennist, associate prof UNC-Chapel Hill, Boccaccio, prose and other cons. Up with the stars
![A sonnet in an Italian college textbook on medieval literature. The professor crossed out the first word ‘Or’ (‘now’ in Italian) and replaced it with ‘Bruh’ to bring out the stoner philosophy major voice of the poem. Rough translation:
Bruh, how does such a big lady get through my eyes, which are tiny? How does she fit inside my heart?? I’m like, lugging her around everywhere I go.
No clue how she got in there and I’m kinda flipping out. It’s like she’s a flashlight that shined through my eyes.
The light goes right through the glass without breaking it, so I guess the same thing happens when she goes from my eyes to my heart.
Not her body, I mean, just her shape. Love turned me into a whole new dude, she’s tattooed on my heart”
Giavomo da Lentini’s original poem (ca. 1235):
Or come pote sí gran donna entrare per gli occhi mei, che sí pic[clioli sone?
e nel mio core come pote stare, che 'nentr'esso la porto laonque i' vone?
[Lo] loco laonde entra già non pare, ond'io gran meraviglia me ne dòne; ma voglio lei a lumera asomigliare, e gli oc[c]hi mei al vetro ove si póne.
Lo foco inchiuso, poi passa di fore lo suo lostrore, sanza far rot[t]ura:
cosí per gli oc[c]hi mi pass'a lo core, no la persona, ma la sua figura.
Rinovellare mi voglio d'amore, poi porto insegna di tal criatura.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nowuqzm62jza7dp6xu74t42g/bafkreichpgjgjuvgkomtnqplvpxqc4eigbqre5afuynesuwzpe3eqh27qy)
