Giacomo Vagni

The sonnet Euro gentil, che gli aurei crespi nodi has been ascribed to Baldassar Castiglione since the edition printed by Gabriel Giolito, Rime disperse, in 1545. Not long after Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinzio, in his Discorso intorno al comporre dei romanzi (1554), suggested Ercole Strozzi (1471-1508) to be the real author of the sonnet. In spite of that, Euro gentil has been included in Castiglione’s vulgata until modern days. The article investigates the tradition of the sonnet, which include six MSS witnesses; five of them attribute it to Strozzi. A new edition of Strozzi’s lyric poems is provided, with new readings from 16th century MSS. Two previously unknown Strozzi’s sonnets are published from MS. Piacenza, Bibl. Passerini- Landi, Pallastrelli 230. The double tradition of Euro gentil is reviewed and the text compared with the rest of Strozzi’s vernacular poetry, showing the most important common features.