O Rosa Bella

O Rosa Bella is the title of two popular 15th century chansons, the earlier composed by Johannes Ciconia and the latter originally attributed to John Dunstaple, but now to John Bedyngham (see the article by David Fallows, [1]). The text is based on a poem written by Leonardo Giustiniani (1300-1446).

The text of the first verse is:

O rosa bella, O dolce anima mia Non mi lassar morire In cortesia, in cortesia.

Stanley Sadie in the Cambridge Music Guide gives as translation:

O lovely rose My sweet soul Let me not die In courtly love

The chanson was used as a basis for several other works, including that by Johannes Ockeghem, and masses attributed to Gilles Joye; however, Johannes Ciconia's early version shares the words but not the tune (see for example [2]).