A young maiden of Palermo, seized with violent love for the King, begged Minuccio to help her.

Not being a verse-maker himself, he hastened to the poet Mico of Siena, who wrote a poem setting forth the maiden's woes.

This Minuccio set at once to exquisite and heart-moving music and sang it for the King to the accompaniment of his own viol.

The poem is in the main strophic and the melody is of similar nature.

Whether Boccaccio or Mico wrote the poem matters not in the historical sense.