Italian

Abstract The supposed mystery of the apparent disappearance of Italian music between about 1415 and the rise of the strambotto in the 1470s must be accepted as fact. The rich Italian patrons spent enormous amounts of money on French and Flemish singers as well as German instrumentalists; but the account books are evidence that they spent almost nothing on Italian musicians. Even so, the evidence of the cantasi come lauda demonstrates that much French song was known in Italy. All the same, the most famous Italian song of the century, Fortuna desperata, cannot possibly have begun life with its present text.