Francesco Buti, poesia e drammaturgia.

The first part of this essay explains the poetry features for music of abbot Francesco Buti from Narni. The second one contains the modern edition of poems for Li Fiori, a group of polyphonic “villanelle” set to music and published in 1632 by the German nobleman Girolamo Kapsperger. Performed in a private concert in Rome, probably under the patronage of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, this work is the unique example of a music collection of 16th-century Italy entirely devoted to flowers. Buti’s poetry resumed the ancient Greek legends of the jasmine, violet, rose, purple anemone, hyacinth, narcissus and iris aiming at transforming them as means to enhance the catholic ethic. In some cases, e.…