romanze

Romanze is the plural form of romanza in Italian, used to denote short narrative poems or ballads. In other Romance-language contexts, related terms describe traditional pieces that tell stories in verse or song, often transmitted orally before being written down. The word also appears in discussions of the Romance language family, where lingue romanze is the Italian term for Romance languages.

In medieval Spain and Portugal, a rich tradition of popular ballads known as romances circulated widely. These romances—often anonymous—told legends, historical episodes, or romantic adventures and were passed along in oral form before appearing in printed collections called Romanceros in the early modern period. They influenced later national literatures and folk-song traditions.

In Italian literary history, a romanza is typically a lyric or brief narrative piece related to folk or courtly themes. The term survives in scholarly discussion of medieval and early modern verse and in some regional song traditions, where short songs or ballads retain a simple musical and narrative structure.

Today the term romance in English and other languages generally denotes a love story in prose or film. The specific word choice varies by language: romanzo in Italian, romance in English, romance or romance narrative in Spanish and Portuguese contexts. The broader category of Romance languages—descended from Latin—is referred to in Italian as lingue romanze.