The lauda (Italian pl. laude) or lauda spirituale was the most important form of vernacular sacred song in Italy in the late medieval era and Renaissance. Laude remained popular into the nineteenth century. The lauda was often associated with Christmas, and so is in part equivalent to the English carol, French noel, Spanish villancico,[1][2][3][4] and like these genres occupies a middle ground between folk and learned lyrics.[5]
^Viola Luther Hagopian. Italian ars nova music: a bibliographic guide to modern editions (1973), p. 36. "Lacking the international flavor of other European lyric monodies, the Italian lauda in its simplicity more nearly resembles improvisation and reflects the popular oral tradition."
^Thomas Gibson Duncan. A companion to the Middle English lyric (2005), p. 166. "Much closer in form to the English carol are the Italian lauda and the Spanish villancico. Both lyric genres are interesting, not because they can be assumed to have in any way contributed to the rise and popularity of the English carol ..."
^Julie E. Cumming. The Motet in the Age of Du Fay (2003), p. 333. "See Strohm, REM, 327–39: the English cantilena and carol, the Italian lauda, and the Central European cantio"
^Tess Knighton, Álvaro Torrente. Devotional music in the Iberian world, 1450–1800: the villancico (2007), p. 9. "Their influence can be found in the origin of several forms of devotional music in the Middle Ages, including the Italian lauda, the Franch[sic] noel or the English carol."
^Richard Leighton Greene. The early English carols (1977). "Like the English carol, the Italian lauda occupies the middle ground between folk-song and learned lyric; it is the production of an individual author, but directed to an audience without special education or refinement, and patterned ..."