San Viti (Arezzo). He was a member of the fi nal genera-
tion of Italian Trecento composers and is a connecting
fi gure between Francesco Landini of the earlier genera-
tion and Andrea da Firenze of his own, both of whom
he seems to have known well. Paolo is supposed to have
accompanied one patron, Cardinal Angelo Acciaiuoli, to
Rome c. 1404; and one of his madrigals, Godi, Firençe
(with a text from Dante’s Commedia: Inferno, 26), was
clearly composed to celebrate Florence’s conquest of
Pisa in 1406.
Paolo was not only an active and admired composer
but a learned and distinguished music theorist. Though
the issue is hotly contested, some scholars have argued
that he played a crucial role in assembling the famous
Squarcialupi Codex. If so, it is ironic that, although his
supposed portrait appears in the codex, the place re-
served for his own musical works was left as seventeen
blank folios; his surviving works are preserved in other
Tuscan manuscripts.
These works comprise, beyond two scant Latin
liturgical pieces, a sizable body of Italian vocal music.
Attributed with relative certainty are twenty-two ballate,
variously for two or three voices; and eleven madrigals,
all for two voices. There are also two more ballate that
survive as fragments; and thirteen other ballate, vari-
ously for two or three voices, which are preserved in one
manuscript where the attributions of his name have been
erased, leaving us uncertain as to their authenticity.
On the one hand, Paolo impresses for his conserva-
tism. He is unusual in clinging to the madrigal, an older
form bypassed by most musicians of his generation.
In both, of his vocal forms, Paolo generally seems to
continue the traditions of his older colleague, Landini.
On the other hand, Paolo’s writing clearly shows an
assimilation not only of more progressive Italian styles
but also of some infl uence from French styles of the
late ars nova. Though his vocal lines are simple and
clearly Italianate in tradition, he attempts to go beyond
earlier fl exibility and construct compositions with an
overall logic of motivic development. His two liturgical
works also show him combining Italianate vocal lines
with cantus fi rmus material after the French polyphonic
manner. He seems to have known something of Johannes
Ciconia and Ciconia’s work. Paolo belongs to a trend
that envisioned a fusion of French and Italian elements
at the dawn of the Quattrocento.
See also Ciconia, Johannes; Landini, Francesco
Further Reading
Becherini, Bianca. “Antonio Squarcialupi e il codice Mediceo
Palatino 87.” In L’Ars nova italiana del Trecento: Primo con-
vegno internazionale 23–26 luglio 1959, ed. Bianca Becherini.
Certaldo: Centro di Srudi sull’Ars Nova Italiana del Trecento,
1962, pp. 140–180.
Corsi, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento. Bologna: Com-
missione per i Testi di Lingua, 1970.
Fischer, Kurt von. Studien zur italienischen Musik des Trecento
und frühen Quattrocento. Bern: P. Haupt, 1956.
——. “Paolo da Firenze und der Sqnarcialupi-Kodex (I-Fl 87).”
Quadrivium, 9, 1968, pp. 5–29.
Fischer, Kurt von, and F. Alberto Gallo, eds. Italian Sacred Music.
Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, 12. Monaco:
Éditions de L’Oiseau-Lyre, 1976.
Königsglow, Annamarie von. Die italienischen Madrigalisten
des Trecento. Würzburg: Triltsch, 1940.
Li Gotti, Ettore, and Nino Pirrotta. “Paolo Tenorista fi orentino,
extra moenia.” In Estudios dedicados a Mendénez Piáal, Vol.- Madrid, 1952, pp. 577–606.
Marrocco, William Thomas, ed. Italian Secular Music. Poly-
phonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, 9. Monaco: Éditions
de L’Oiseau-Lyre, 1975.
Pirrotta, Nino. “Paolo da Firenze in un nuovo frammento dell’Ars
Nova.” Musica Disciplina, 10, 1956, pp. 61–66.
——. ed. Paolo Tenorista in a New Fragment of the Italian Ars
Nova. Palm Springs, Calif.: Gottlieb, 1961.
Pirrotta, Nino, and Ursula Günther, eds. The Music of Fourteenth-
Century Italy, Vol. 6. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 8(6).
Rome: American Institute of Musicology, n.d.
Seay, Albert, “Paolo da Firenze: A Trecento Theorist.” In L’Ars
nova italiana del Trecento: Primo convegno internazionale
23–26 luglio 1959, ed. Bianca Becherini. Certaldo: Centro
di Studi sull’Ars Nova Italiana del Trecento, 1962, pp.
118–140.
Wolf, Johannes. “Florenz in der Musikgeschichte des 14. Jahrhun-
derts.” Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft,
3, 1901–1902, 599–646. (Leipzig.)
John W. Barker
PASCHAL II, POPE (d. 1118, r. 13 August
1099–21 January 1118)
Pope Paschal II (Rainerius) was born of a noble family
at Bieda, south of Faenza in central Italy; his parents
were Crescentius and Alfatia. While still a young boy, he
was put into a Benedictine monastery. A general belief
that he entered the monastery at Cluny was dismissed
by Odericus, who confi rmed that the monastery was
Vallombrosa, between Florence and Arezzo. Rainerius
was highly esteemed by his superiors and at age twenty
was sent to Rome, where he gained the trust and favor of
Pope Gregory VII, who made him cardinal priest of San
Clemente. Under Urban II, Rainerius served as legate to
Spain. He later became abbot of San Lorenzo Fuori le
Mura. His intellectual and spiritual qualities made him
an excellent candidate for the papacy and helped secure
his election to succeed Pope Urban II. He was highly
educated, a promoter of learning and culture; he was
also pious, merciful, and forgiving. It was reported that
during the conclave, when he realized that the consensus
was turning toward him, he attempted to avoid being
elected by fl eeing, deeming himself unworthy of such
an important position.
His pontificate as Paschal II was to prove very
diffi cult because of the struggle between church andPASCHAL II, POPE