"Li Solfanzini di Siena": il canto identitario di una compagnia senese del secondo Cinquecento

The paper presents an anonymous, carnival-like chant, "Li Solfanzini di Siena", which turns out to be the only attestation of the existence of a youth-group of Sienese nobles, active in the second half of the 16th century. The text has come down to us in a ms. preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati in Siena and was published, with some alterations, by Curzio Mazzi in 1882 in vol. II of "La Congrega dei Rozzi di Siena nel secolo XVI". A brief historical reconstruction of the identity of the company is followed by the publication of a new edition of the chant, based on the ms. and followed by a thematic and stylistic-rhetorical commentary: the possible literary inspirations of the poem are identified and an attempt is made to highlight the author’s cultural profile and the group’s worldview.