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15, 2022 Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Lecturae tropatorum, Costanzo Di Girolamo / Article in Italian The essay retraces the genesis of Lecturae tropatorum, established by Costanzo Di Girolamo in 2007, and serves as a tribute to its creator, who passed away in 2022. Over the last fifteen years, Di Girolamo also organized the International Colloquia linked to the journal, in addition to personally managing all editorial phases. Additionally, the bibliography highlights articles published following Di Girolamo's death, which attest to the scholarly depth of the academic's profile on one hand, and on the other, the legacy he left, both scientifically and humanly.
Ruth Harvey Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Richard the Lionheart, Dalfi d’Alvernhe, Peire Vidal, Auvergne / Article in English Richard I’s poetic exchange of sirventes with Dalfi d’Alvernhe (BdT 420.1 and 119.8), together with the long razo which accompanies them, represent precious evidence for what is otherwise a very poorly documented episode in the king’s conflict with Philip Augustus and his allies in the late 1190s, to the point where historians’ accounts of the Auvergne rely primarily on this literary testimony for their account of events. The aims of this article are to flesh out the historical context, allusions and implications of the poetic texts as much as possible, in order to supply an accurate and up-to-date basis for future research, and to situate in more detail the dialogue which Richard initiated within the context of his relations with Peire Vidal, one of whose cansos (BdT 364.16) supplies the model and the tune for the exchange.
[The poem Senhors, l’autrier vi, ses falhida] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimon Escrivan / Article in Italian The poem Senhors, l’autrier vi ses falhida (BdT 398.1) by Raimon Escrivan – devoid of historical, geographical or chronological references, and therefore not datable on an internal basis – presents an allegorical dialogue between two war machines, the cata and the trabuquet; it is classified as a fictitious debate and is considered a political text written on the occasion of the siege of Toulouse (June 1218). The article intends to offer a new reading of the contrast: a re-examination of the structuring elements, as well as the exegetical possibilities of the allegorical integumentum, allows the debate to be assessed as an authentic licentious and burlesque "pastrourelle" free of the serious political overtones peacefully accepted by critics.
Sergio Vatteroni
[The poem Gent es, mentr’om n’a lezer] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Peire d'Alvernhe / Article in Italian The article proposes a new critical edition of Peire d’Alvernhe’s religious vers Gent es, mentr’om n’a lezer (BdT 323.18). The critical text is preceded by the stemmatic discussion and followed by the interpretation of the vers, based primarily on comparison with texts of the Church Fathers. A detailed commentary concludes the edition.
Stefano Milonia [The poem Peirol, cum avetz tant estat] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Bernart de Ventadorn, Peirol / Article in Italian The identity of the authors of Peirol, cum avetz tant estat has been widely discussed, as it is commonly assumed that Bernart de Ventadorn and Peirol (mentioned in the tenso’s rubrics) belong to different generations, making an encounter between the two unlikely. In this new edition of the text, which proposes new readings for several obscure or ambiguous passages, I argue that the recipient of the tenso is certainly the Auvergnat Peirol (BdT 366) while the identity of the other author, Bernart, remains uncertain. However, considering the revised chronology of Peirol’s activity and the intertextual connections linking the debate to the works of Bernart de Ventadorn, his involvement should not be ruled out.
14, 2021 [Alba devil: Reis glorios jealous] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Alba / Article in Italian
The paper starts from the Reis
glorios interpretation,
already provided by the author in a article of 2009, as a lo divino alba, in which the figure of a guardian angel would be
concealed behind the conventional character of the gaita. Reviewing the most recent studies and focusing on the cobla
trasmitted by R1T3, in which reference is made to
the gilos, the author
clarifies the possible link between this character and the devil, noting
that while it is true that the Latin adjective zelosus (from which ‘jealous’) never seems to refer directly to
the devil, it is equally true that jealousy and envy are its distinctive
traits.
[The song section in the M-songbook: a reading of the lyrics of disamour] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Chansonnier M / Article in Italian
This paper provides an analysis of the compositions transcribed in the song section of the ms. M that contain one or more modules of disamour, from the comjat, to the mala canso, to the chanson de change. The purpose is in fact to take as a starting point and observation point the song section of a songbook, M specifically, and to try to read it by tracing, where present, the modules that characterise the song of vituperation, abandonment and/or exchange.
[The poem Assaz m'es bel by Raimbaut d'Aurenga] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Chansonnier M / Article in Italian
The Raimbaut d’Aurenga’s
song Assatz m’es bel (BdT 389.17) in handed down from
manuscript distributed between the Eastern and Western tradition. The text is characterized by a unique
pattern, on coblas ternas, with rhyme-words permutation and
repeated concepts that allow to identify the main themes of the song.
The proposed reading focuses on the first three coblas, where
Raimbaut explains his reasons in terms of style to defend himself from
detractors. Here, through allusive lexicon and particular expressions,
emerges the close relationship – not always peaceful – with
Marcabruno. The discourse on style and the opportunity to express or not
the contents (hidden in the heart) delineate a field of tension where
traces of dialogue with Giraut de Borneill and Bernart de Ventadorn
emerge. Possible interlocutors and stylistic elements help to re-discuss
the chronology of the song, probably composed between 1170 and 1171.
[The poem Iesucrist per sa merce by Bertolome Zorzi] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Bertolome Zorzi / Article in Italian The lectura of the Venetian trobadour Bertolome Zorzi’s religious song, a new edition of which is given, aims to highlight its thematic originality, in relation to the tradition of religious trobar (of which a historical-literay panorama is reconstructed in broad strokes). The song is transmitted by the ‘twins’ songbooks IK, as the last composition of the tripartite section also including the Genoese troubadours Lanfranc Cigala and Bonifaci Calvo. After giving a brand new hypotesis of the canonic strategies on which the section is based, the lectura aims to give an account of the relationship of direct influence of Lanfranc’s religious poetry on Bertolome’s song, highlightning however the decisive stylistic element of difference, linked to the contingent necessities of Zorzi’s ‘wanting to say’ and to his condition as a captive poet. The last part of the essay offers a contextual reading of the song Mal aia cel que m’apres de trobar (BdT 74.8).
Carolina Borrelli [The poem A Dieu, en qu’es totz poders by Guilhem d’Ieiras] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guilhem d’Ieiras / Article in Italian A Dieu, en qu’es totz poders is a religious poem only transmitted by the Provençal chansonnier C. This text is heavily damaged by the cut-off illuminated initials that characterize the manuscript. The indexes of the chansonnier and the readable part of the rubric enable us to claim that the author of the text is Guilhem d’Ieiras. The article provides a new critical edition of the unicum copied in C, and analyzes its codicological, metrical and interpretative aspects. The first part of the contribution discusses the main hypotheses on the historical background and the biographical coordinates of Guilhem d’Ieiras: De Conca places the work of the troubadour in the second half of the 13th century, along with the other unica of C; Gerardo Larghi proposes a different chronology, relating the composition by Guilhem d’Ieiras to the religious poems at the end of the 12th century. The second part of the article exposes the exegetical problems caused by the many lacunae in the text, and examines the philological choices of previous editors. The third part deals with the genre of the penitential song, starting from the classifications of the religious texts contained in the main repertories of the troubadour poetry. In fact, the composition by Guilhem d’Ieiras can be related to other chanted prayers (Gebet) of the Occitan tradition and in particular to Dieus verais, a vos mi ren (BdT 27.4b) by Arnaut Catalan and to Cor ai e volontat (BdT 159.1) by Fraire Menor. The fourth part of the contribution exposes the metrical and stylistic characteristics of A Dieu, and it aims to underline, following Larghi, how this song is part of the most lively period of the troubadour production rather than that of its decline.
13, 2020
Fabio Barberini [The poem Bels Segner Deus, s’ieu vos soi enojos by Rostang] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Rostang / Article in Italian The first part of this paper consists in the critical analysis of Saverio Guida’s hypothesis, which claims that the author of Bels Segner Deus, s’ieu vos soi enojos could be the Provençal nobleman Raimon Rostaing d’Eyguières, one of the members of the court of Ramon Berenguer V, count of Provence. Examination of Provençal chansonnier N, the only manuscript that transmits the text, highlights that the chronological and cultural background of this lyric collection can be fixed in the courts of Blactaz and Dalfi d’Alvernhe, then it seems like more probable that the author of this tenso was an anonymous Provençal troubadour related to the Bacatz court. The second part offers a discussion about text interpretation read as a comic poem but whit theological and serious meaning. The last part sets up a new critical edition of the poem and examines the most problematic points of the text.
Andrea Giraudo [The exchange of coblas between Folquet and Porcier] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Folquet, Porcier, Raymond VII Count of Toulouse / Article in Italian This paper offers the first critical edition of Porcier, cara de guiner (BdT 186.1 [but now 152.1] = 382.1), a dialogue-poem preserved in the chansonniers P and T and which has until now been published only by Raynouard. The first part of the paper suggests a reason for its particular placement in P; moreover, it proposes that Porcier’s interlocutor is not the Count of Toulouse, Raymond VII (BdT 186), but rather Folquet (BdT 152), who was likely bound to the Count’s household by political ties. Raymond VII, however, plays a role in the exchange of the coblas, possibly acting as the patron of a contest of poetry. The second part of this paper examines the most problematic points of the text and suggests hypotheses for their resolution. The linguistic analysis, carried out principally in the commentary, highlights the presence of linguistic traits peculiar to the South-West and which are consistent with the expected language of the authors.
Rosanna Cantavella [The theory of the rims diccionals in Occitan poetic treatises and its context] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Medieval poetic treatises / Article in Catalan A classification, cataloguing and contextualization of the theory of a praiseworthy practice called by the Leys d’Amors rim dictional. These rhymes share the fact of being built on the rhyming words (by ending, similarity, variance or fragmentation), not only on sounds. The following types are exposed and characterized: rim maridat; rim equivoch leyal (with its frawed counterpart, motz tornatz); three types of rim equivoch contrafag, rim accentual, rim utrissonan, rim trencatz, and rim sillabicatz., with an added reference to rim fenix. The fortune of rim dictional in troubadour and Latin poetry handbooks is also traced, as well as its continued existence in traîtés de seconde rhétorique.
Francesco
Carapezza [The musical dimension of the troubadours] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Troubadours’ melodies / Article in Italian Synthesis on the musical aspects of troubadour lyric, concerning the poetic text more closely. After an introductory paragraph on the disciplinary split between philology and musicology and its consequences at the hermeneutic level (§ 1), the written tradition of troubadour melodies is presented: musical songbooks and traces, indirect and latent tradition (§ 2). We then discuss the conception of sonum among the troubadours and the question of musical authorship, the function of the musical structure of the strophe (cantus divisio) and its impact on metric and textual interpretation (§ 3). Finally, some general issues about the relationship between music and text in the various poetic genres are considered, including that of melodic reuse (§ 4).
Luca Barbieri [Arnaut de Maroill and the Italy of the troubadours] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Arnaut de Maroill / Article in Italian This contribution questions the hypothesis of a stay in Genoa of the troubadour Arnaut de Maroill advanced by Tobias Leuker, on the basis of his analysis of Arnaut’s three songs addressing a “Genoes”. Examination of the three texts, extended to the rest of the troubadour’s production, highlights Arnaut’s predilection for some favourite themes and motifs, often of Ovidian derivation, fixed in formulas and images that enjoy great success in contemporary and later troubadour production. The presence of Arnaut’s influence links some of the great troubadours active in Italy at the end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth, reinforcing the probability of Arnaut de Maroill’s presence in Italy, although not necessarily in Genoa. This suggests he may have played a significant role in the diffusion of Occitan poetry in the north-western courts, as well as in the emergence of the first circle of Italian troubadours composing in Occitan. [Guilhem de Saint Gregori and a hitherto neglected area of the Provençal literary patronage map] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guilhem de Saint Gregori / Article in Italian In a document dated 1214, among the companions of Ramon III of Mévouillon, a W. de Sancto Gregorio appears, which the analysis leads to identify with the troubadour. The article also identifies the coms d’Uzes cited by Guilhem de Saint Gregori in BdT 233.4 with Rainieri III d’Uzès, husband of Garsenda, the mother of Count Raimon Berenguer V of Provence, and recognises William of Sabran in the Sabran cited there. The analysis of Auzir cugei lo chant e·l crit e·l glat (BdT 231.1) leads us to recognise in the Sanguiniers there cited with the same Ramon III of Mévouillon. The land of Sanguin mentioned in Guilhem Rainol, Auzir cugei, would therefore be the territory over which the Mevouillons had jurisdiction and at the centre of which rises Mont Ventoux, known for the massive presence of Cornus Sanguinea, a plant called sanguin in Occitan. The troubadour may have been born near Gap, and between 1210 and 1216 attended the courts of the valley of the Durance. In the early 13th century, and in any case before 1218, Guilhem de Saint Gregori was a guest of the Counts of Valence to whom he dedicated Ben grans avolesa intra (BdT 233.2).
12, 2019 [The exchange of coblas between Raimon Guillem and Ferrairi] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem Raimon, Ferrarino da Ferrara / Article in Italian This paper focuses on Amics Ferrairi ~ Amics en Raimon, an exchange of coblas between en Raimon Guillem and Ferrairi, according to the text of the single manuscript P. The analysis of the manuscript tradition and the chronology of other compositions related to the court of Este and its cultural milieu suggest identifying the partenaires with Guillem Raimon and Ferrarino da Ferrara: the coauthors have composed a piece in praise of a marquis of Este, who can be identified with Azzo VII. A new critical edition with commentary is provided.
[The poem En
aquelh temps que·l reys mori N’Anfos by Aimeric de Peguillan] / Keywords:
Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Aimeric de Peguillan / Article in
Italian
This article proposes a new reading of En aquel temps que·l reis mori
n’Anfos and focuses on the author’s point of view, describing the
possible circumstances in which the song was composed. At that time,
troubadours in Italy experienced a ‘courtesy crisis’ due to the
unexpected death of the most important patrons of the Northern Courts.
The new Emperor Frederick II, to whom the Meggia is dedicated,
brought new hopes both to feudal lords and to poets. Aimeric de
Peguillan expressed these expectations composing a song that is unique
of its kind.
Giorgio Barachini
[The poem Li
fol e·ill put e·ill fillol by Aimeric de Peguillan] / Keywords:
Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Aimeric de Peguillan / Article in
Italian
This reading proposes a shift in perspective on the well-known sirventes
of Aimeric de Peguilhan Li fol e·ill put e·ill fillol. Abandoning
the idea that it was a spiteful invective due to personal reasons, as
proposed so far, this satirical poem must be situated in the context of
the troubadour performances characterised by a “realistic-comic style”
(not serious, not concerning love) which took place in the
Ligurian-Piedmontese territory for the entertainment and guidance of the
courts. This way it is possible to remove the inconsistencies of the
previous interpretation and to place the poem back in its historical and
geographical context. In addition to clarifying some of the dynamics of
the manuscript tradition, the new perspective connects with the
linguistic and historical level and leads to a deeper understanding of
the polysemous vocabulary used by Aimeric, to the confirmation,
strengthening and sometimes revision of the historical information given
by De Bartholomaeis and to a better understanding of the message the
author aimed to leave to his audience. This audience, which has been
ignored by scholars until today, was directly addressed by the author
and becomes essential to understand the text. As a result, we shift from
an invective to a courtly game defined more or less by actual
situations. In the critical edition, the new perspective highlights the
textual, lexical and interpretative problems, from the meaning of the
words of the incipit to the famous verse concerning Sordello and the dice,
from the date and place of composition to the frequent double entendres.
Giovanni
Borriero
[The poem
Savis et fols by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras] / Keywords:
Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras / Article in
Italian
The main aim of this study is to investigate the rhetorical devices
involved in the building of the opposita which, from the first
cobla onwards, continue over the next stanzas, with special
attention to the pairs of antonyms savis ~ fols, humils
~ orgoillos, cobes ~ larcs, volpills ~
arditz. In particular, the analysis focuses on the strategies of
inventio which set up a relationship between cardinal virtues (Prudentia
~ Stultitia, Fortitudo ~ Inconstantia), capital
vices (Superbia ~ Humilitas, Avaritia ~
Liberalitas), courtly values (gauzens ~ marritz,
plazens ~ enojos, vils ~ cars, vilans ~
cortes) with their relative opposites. The articulation of the
opposita is then regulated on the level of dispositio with
balanced criteria of distributional symmetry which recall, through a
centrifugal movement, Curtius’ Summationsschema.
Francesca Sanguineti
[The poem Ara
sai eu de prez qals l’a plus gran by Bertran de Born] / Keywords:
Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Bertran de Born / Article in
Italian
The Crusade song Ara sai eu presents two different versions, one
trasmitted by DcFIKd, and the other by M. The M version is curiously
preceded by two stanzas addressed to the jongleur Fuilheta (Fuilheta,
vos mi preiatz qe ieu chan, BdT 80.17), while the part dedicated
to the Crusade includes three stanzas and a tornada, of which the first
two resemble the corresponding stanzas in DcFIKd, while the third and
the tornada are isolated. The two stanzas, exclusive to M 232r,
are in fact a fragment of a sirventes joglaresc, which has been
transmitted as a single text along with the three stanzas that represent
an alternative, previous and ‘short’ version of the Crusade song.
Therefore, it is likely that the rest of the sirventes had been lost and
that the M scribe, influenced by the perfect identity of the metric
scheme and rhymes, replaced the missing strophes with those of Bertran’s
crusade song (which would constitute the metric model). Another problem
is the relationship between the two versions, because of the high number
of variants, beginning with the incipit, which in M is Ara parra de
prez qals a plus gran. By analyzing the divergent lessons, a sort of
sequence of the different versions may be traced and it is possible that
the DcFIKd version has been rearranged by the author, with the changing
of the historical events. In order to clarify the spacetime coordinates
and the historical background of these two versions, we follow the
careful analysis already carried out by Gérard Gouiran, trying to
examine his conclusions in depth and, in some cases, to reach a slightly
divergent view.
Stefano Milonia
[The poem
Coras que·m fezes doler by Peirol] /
Keywords:
Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Peirol / Article in Italian
In the song Coras que·m fezes doler (BdT 366.9) Peirol
informs us that he has abandoned the lady he courted for so long without
any profit and turned to a new lover. This change plays an important part
in Stanley C. Aston’s reconstruction of the troubadour’s biography. The
scholar interprets ll. 41-44 as an allusion to the fourth crusade and
dates the episode to 1202 accordingly. However, in the light of Pierre
Bersuire’s Repertorium morale it is possible to propose a different
interpretation of the passage, which excludes all reference to the
crusades and allows us to rethink the chronological frame of Peirol’s
poetic activity as well as the debated authenticity of the attribution of
his earliest and latest compositions. This essay offers a new critical
text, with an extensive note on the manuscript tradition, original
translation and commentary.
Samuele
Maria Visalli
[The
poem Ueimai dey esser alegrans by Marcabru] / Keywords:
Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Marcabru / Article in Italian
To go by its manuscript tradition, vers n. 34 of
Marcabru’s lyric corpus had limited success (only two songbooks: CR), but
there have been many interventions aimed at shedding light on the identity
of the Cabrieyra to whom the Gascon troubadour sent his vers. In the
final stanza, the messenger is sent to Urgel, place of residence of the
dedicatee of the poem, an exponent of the Cabrera family. This paper will
attempt to connect the theme of the composition to the historical reality
of the addressee, while at the same time trying to grasp the more typical
elements of Marcabru’s trobar: laus temporis acti, the controversy on the
bastardization of the lineage. Once the profile of the Catalan noble has
been reconfirmed, the argumentative structure and the content of the vers
acquire renewed interest. In this sense, it is useful to compare it with
the choice of dedicating Cortezamen voill comensar to Jaufre Rudel.
Indeed, by connecting characters and courts apparently very distant from
each other, we can understand the reasons for much of the poetic
production of those troubadours, including Marcabru himself, in constant
search of protectors and public.
11, 2018 [Observations on the early troubadours] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours / Article in French This paper points out the faults in the view that troubadour poetry developed expressing a new culture in medieval courts (fin’amor, ‘amour courtois’), as well as in the view that it developed expressing broadly religious issues (this of course does not mean that religious education and culture in many a troubadour is called into doubt). The new feature in comparison with ‘traditional’ sung poetry was the fact that performing songs and listening to them had become a social habit in aristocratic courts, so that singing could─in some instances─take on a public as well as a political meaning. Thus, the preservation and trasmission of poetic texts, and the interest in their authors as particular individuals, became important as never before, but this dates only from the time of Guilhem IX. The paper surveys some features in the poetry of early troubadours (Guilhem, Jaufre Rudel, Cercamon, Marcabru) and argues that before Bernart de Ventadorn there are only isolated statements of the so-called fin’amor poetics, which can be considered as fully developed only in Bernart’s works. [Translating the troubadours: a Poundian example, Arnaut Daniel, Chansson doil mot son plan e prim] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Arnaut Daniel, Ezra Pound / Article in Italian This article focuses on Ezra Pound’s translations of Arnaut Daniel and aims to show the transformations in method and style which occur between the first prose exercises prepared for The Spirit of Romance (1910) and the most mature verse translations of the whole corpus of Arnaut Daniel, only partially published in The New Age literary magazine (1911-1912) and in the collection of essays Instigations (1920). Analyzing the various stages of Pound’s poetic technique, it is possible to throw new light on his ‘philological’ attitude toward the Provençal texts and the current critical editions (e.g. Canello 1883, and Lavaud 1910). Arnaut’s Chansson doil mot son plan et prim (BdT 29.6) is taken as a representative example of this creative re-elaboration, also because it undergoes an additional experimental translation, included in Hesternae Rosae (1913), the anthology of troubadour songs with piano accompaniment by Walter Morse Rummel. [The poem Si·l gen cors d’estieu es remas by Guillem Godi] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem Godi / Article in Italian This article offers a new edition, based on Occitan Chansonnier R, of the canso-sirventes Si·l gen cors d’estieu es remas by the troubadour Guillem Godi. Moving from a textual and documentary analysis, as well as a material-philological perspective, the lectura proposes a later date for the composition (late 13th - early 14th century); moreover, a possible identification of the author with the cardinal Guillem de Peire Godin (1260-1336) is cautiously suggested.
Margherita Lecco [The plazer in Occitan and Italian poetry] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Genre plazer / Article in ItalianFew studies have been devoted to the classification and analysis of the plazer in Provençal and Italian lyric poetry between the XII and XIV centuries. This article aims to examine some of the results obtained from Otto Gsell’s somewhat dated research, suggesting the possibility of adding some little known and titles, that have received even less attention, as well as attempting a synthesis of the structure of this poetic genre (introductory formulae, objects or feelings of ‘pleasure / joy’, comparisons about love). [The anonymous poem Si tuch li dol] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Bertran de Born / Article in Italian The anonymous Si tuch li dol e·l plor e·l marriment (BdT 80.41) is a planh which stands out for its intensity and for its refined rhetorical construction among the 45 surviving examples of this particular lyric genre dating back to the 13th century; the surviving, scanty and late tradition contrasts with the fortune that the composition seems to have had in Italy already in Dante’s time (where the attribution to Bertran de Born was perhaps already widespread). Probably composed in 1183 – the year of the death of the young king, namely the eldest son of Henry II Plantagenet – the planh is only transmitted by three manuscripts: a2, which attributes it to ricartz de berbeziu, c, which assigns it to Peire uidal and T, which ascribes it to Beutran dalborn. None of the three attributions can be considered as certain, but the third has had a great success since the second half of the nineteenth century, and the composition is present among those of Bertran de Born in all editions. Even the BdT classifies it under the number corresponding to the troubadour, and it is also mentioned as belonging to Bertran in many very recent studies, sometimes without the caution that Martín de Riquer still shows in his anthology, even though he includes it among the authentic poems. But the ascription to the troubadour of Autafort of BdT 80.41 (of which this study offers a new critical text) is the least probable, as I try to prove. I will discuss alternative attributions: the two indicated by the manuscript tradition, but also others, taking into consideration the troubadours who could have publicly lamented the death of the young king. [The poem Non an tan dig li primier trobador by Guilhem de Montanhagol] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guilhem de Montanhagol / Article in Italian This contribution provides a close examination and a new critical edition of Non an dig tan li primier trobador by Guilhem de Montanhagol (BdT 225.7). In the context of the explanation of its rhetorical strategies, the possibility of an intertextual relationship between Non an dig tan and Dante’s Tanto gentile is assessed, as well as the hypothesis of Montanhagol’s conceptual debt to Andreas Capellanus’ De amore. [A few notes on Reis glorios] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Giraut de Borneil / Article in Italian The article constitutes a return to the textual and interpretative questions concerning the famous alba by Giraut de Borneill, starting from the important studies that have been dedicated to this poem over the last ten years. A new examination of the tradition and a commentary on relevant places in the text are presented, followed by an overall interpretation of the poem, placed within the perimeter of the love dawn song but reconsidered and ‘contested’ in the light of Giraut’s moralism. [Between fiction and reality: the conplancha for Robert of Anjou, a voice for an imagined king] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours / Article in ItalianThis article proposes a new reading of the conplancha for the death of Robert of Anjou (d. 1343). The main line of the study considers the combination of the poetic text with the illustrated miniature that accompanies it as a sort of promotional manifesto, similar to the well-known propaganda policy of dynastic legitimacy adopted by the first Angevin house since the dawn of its establishment. The hypothesis advanced is that the clear historical falsification offered by the text and underscored by the miniature intended to express an unambiguous political position, supported by the Provencal party headed by the de Baux, in favor of a male hereditary line in the county of Provence and the Regno. The conplancha is thus part of the turbulent climate of the struggles for the right of succession to the throne following the death of the Angevin king. Further lines of investigation concern the particular setting of this lyrical-narrative text within the troubadour space of the fourteenth century. Both the metrical form and the narrative structure place the composition within the contiguous Italian tradition of the ‘historical lament’ (‘lamento storico’) – which in those same years was expressed by the serventese – and of the cantare on political subjects, whose typical rhetorical-narrative procedures are identifiable. Finally, peculiar linguistic and artistic details in the figurative style contribute towards the clarification of the two main components of Provençal and Neapolitan origin that characterize the composition.
10, 2017 [The poem Amors e iois e luecs e temps by Arnaut Daniel] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Arnaut Daniel / Article in Italian The basic tenet of this paper is that the song by Arnaut Daniel under discussion is an ironic and polemic, or perhaps a sarcastic and polemic hymn to the masochism of fin’amor of the hard and fast kind, the kind that involves impossible love leading to endless suffering caused by constant, insatiable desire for satisfaction. Bearing this in mind, the paper argues that up to the end of the sixth cobla, the lyric voice is both masochistic lover, a dedicated follower of fin’amor, and disillusioned censurer of this form of love, which borders on pathological deviance and mania: thus, at the same time it is both the patient and the illness’s conscience. [The poems Ja no cujey by Aimeric de Pegulhan and S’ieu hanc chantiei] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Aimeric de Pegulhan / Article in Italian This paper will provide new editions, with critical apparatus, commentary and translation, of Ja no cujey que·m pogues oblidar (BdT 10.30) and S’ieu hanc chantiei alegres ni jauzens (BdT 10.48). In particular, the analysis will focus on a new hypothesis concerning authorship of S’ieu hanc chantiei: the planhs Ja no cujey and S’ieu hanc chantiei, dedicated to Azzo VI d’Este and Bonifacio di Sambonifacio (count of Verona), are transmitted, respectively, by CDEIKR and CR. Although the whole manuscript tradition assigns the texts to Aimeric de Pegulhan, there are some elements that could cast doubt as to the authorship of S’ieu hanc chantiei, first of all the fact that songbooks CR assign to the same troubadour two planhs dedicated to the same noblemen. This new hypothesis on authorship is also illustrated by an analysis of the entire manuscript tradition of Occitan planhs. [The poem Nulhs hom no sap by Aimeric de Pegulhan] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Aimeric de Pegulhan / Article in Italian Nulhs hom no sap is one of the love songs by the troubadour Aimeric de Pegulhan. The analysis of the content cobla after cobla casts light on some connections between this and other poems by Aimeric, together with possible relations between Nulhs hom no sap and other compositions by troubadours and Italian poets of the 13th century: Dante da Maiano, Guittone, Mazzeo di Ricco and others. This new interpretation sometimes differs from that of the two previous editors, William P. Shepard and Frank. M. Chambers. The analysis of the versification points out the absence of the tornada – which is rather uncommon in Aimeric’s production – and the proximity of this poem, from a thematic viewpoint, to Hom ditz que gaugz non es senes amor (BdT 10.29). Moreover, the analysis of the relations between the manuscripts (four manuscripts in all: C, R, O, c) shows that the stemma drawn up by Shepard and Chambers is based on unsubstantial evidence. In fact, we do not possess sufficient data to establish relationships between the manuscripts, except for O and c. [The poems Sert es qui a mal vezi and Escrig truep ieu en Salomo by Guilhem Olivier d’Arles] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guilhem Olivier d’Arles / Article in Italian In his coblas Sert es qui a mal vezi (BdT 246.14) and Escrig truep ieu en Salomo (BdT 246.22) Guilhem de l’Olivier d’Arles translates the traditional poetry of the troubadours into the new ideology of urban chivalry that was governing the municipalities along the river Rhone. In these two poems the themes of ‘word’, of friendship, of the Court and wisdom are adapted to the urban environment. The semantic analysis, the identification of the sources used by the poet, place these verses in the midst of a campaign to build a new municipal culture, different and distant from feudal culture. [The poem Dire vos vuoill ses doptanssa by Marcabru] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Marcabru / Article in Italian The aim of this article is to reflect on a ‘borderline’ textual typology, well represented by this vers by Marcabru, which is the ‘reworking’ or ‘rewriting’ of a text. Manuscript C includes an alternative version of the text, thanks to numerous indifferent variants and to the insertion of a series of coblas unique to this songbook. Moreover, this occurs within the context of a complex tradition, which features important alterations in the order of the stanzas in the manuscripts copied in Languedoc and in a. We will try to propose a new key to the interpretation of these cases of alteration, ascribing them to an oral process that can ultimately be traced back to the role of the jongleurs. The existence of this process and its later incorporation into the written tradition suggest the need for an approach to troubadour poetry that goes beyond the old dualistic distinction between oral and written tradition. [The poem Valenz senher, rei dels Aragones by Paolo Lanfranchi di Pistoia] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Paolo Lanfranchi di Pistoia / Article in Italian This article presents a new edition, complete with commentary, of the Provençal cobla by Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia. The poem is only attested in the esparsas section contained in songbook P (ff. 55-66); it is a «Sirv.[entes] in Form eines Sonetts» (BdT, sub 317.1) and it occupies an extremely important position in the framework of the reception and reworking of Sicilian and Provençal lyric poetry in central Italy. The cobla has been the object of numerous studies (see f.i. the recent publication by Mascitelli 2015), however as of today it is only available in an edition (Kleinhenz 1971) that, while significant in terms of exegesis and historical contextualization, appears questionable in several places with regard to specific textual choices, and still deficient as regards linguistic analysis. The article in particular proposes the hypothesis that Paolo Lanfranchi may have had an active role in setting up the communication channel between Tuscany and Catalonia which is clearly traceable in the P songbook. [One or three? The letters of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras to Marquis Boniface] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras / Article in Italian This article intends to reopen the debate about the structure of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras’ epistles to Marques Boniface I, in order to establish whether they are actually three autonomous texts concerning the poet’s friendship with his patron, composed at different times, or whether the text was composed at one specific time in the Orient. The first hypothesis, put forward by Schulz-Gora, would appear to be confirmed by the fact that each text refers to events that occurred at different times and in different places. The second hypothesis, supported by Crescini, claims that the tradition of a single poem in antichronological order as found in the manuscripts is the correct structure and that the poem was composed at Thessalonica or Constantinople in the spring of 1205. This paper will reconsider Schulz-Gora’s interpretation and argue that the theory of a single text is inadequate because it does not give proper consideration to the different setting of each text, nor to the difficulty of placing their composition just before the disastrous defeat at Adrianopoli.
9, 2016 [The poem Er quan vei glassatz los rius by Bonifacio Calvo] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Bonifacio Calvo / Article in Italian This paper reviews the bibliography concerning Bonifacio Calvo and underlines the need for new research into his role within troubadour literature, focused mainly on his poems. In particular, the study analyzes Er quan vei glassatz los rius (BdT 101.3), one of the clearest examples of the poetical influence of Arnaut Daniel’s style in the second half of the 13th century: the poem derives its coblas dissolutas and some of its rhymes from Er vei vermeils, vertz, blaus, blancs, groecs (BdT 29.4), which is its primary poetical model. [On the Munich witness of Reis glorios: linguistic and textual notes] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Giraut de Borneil / Article in Italian Within the hybrid language of the Munich manuscript of Reis glorios, this paper points to the presence of a northern Italian layer, previous to the Sicilian stratum, already recognized in a recent essay by Costanzo Di Girolamo. These different linguistic strata shed light on the path followed by Giraut de Borneil’s alba on this side of the Alps: an Italian tradition beginning in northwestern regions, more in contact with Provence, and hence proceeding towards Sicily. Besides, the new interpretation of some forms suggests the possibility that the final cobla, found only in this manuscript, was written by an Italian interpolator. [The poem Aissi com arditz entendenz by Raimon Bistortz d’Arles] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimon Bistortz d’Arles / Article in Italian Raimon Bistortz d’Arles belongs to the group of troubadours active around the middle of the 13th century, who were connected to the Este court, and to whom particular attention is paid in the final section of Occitan chansonnier F. This song stands out for its length: 96 ll., in 3 coblas singulars. Its metrical structure (Frank 233:4) is similar to that of the pastourelle by Joyos de Toloza, L’autrier el dous temps de pascor (BdT 270.1), as well as of the exchange of sirventes between Lanfranco Cigala and Lantelmo (BdT 282.13 and 283.1). Compared to previous critical editions (Kolsen, 1928, and Rivière, 1986), the few corrections of the text mainly concern evident errors. The few problematic readings at ll. 9-12 and at the end of the song (ll. 81 and following) are characterized by a logical and semantic ambiguity, which suggests the need for an overview of previous translation proposals. [The poem D’una leu chanso ai cor que m’entremeta by Guillem Peire de Cazals] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem Pere de Cazals / Article in Italian This article proposes a new critical edition of D’una leu chanso ai cor que m’entremeta by Guillem Peire de Cazals and a comment aimed at contextualizing the song as belonging to the poetic mode of the mala canso. The text, which can be dated to the years 1229-1230, consists in an authentic ‘disaffection song’ and it represents a change of course by the troubadour from Cahors, both thematically as well as stylistically. This change is apparent from the initial pair leu chanso – that conceals a particular rhetorical meaning – and it continues within the récit, where the use of vocabulary and themes typical of the ‘mode’ of disaffection may be found. [Giraut de Borneil’s dawn song in Italy] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Giraut de Borneil / Article in Italian The discovery of a Sicilian witness in the manuscript tradition of Reis glorios (Di Girolamo, 2010), as well as a translation of the song from north-west Italy (Bertoletti, 2014), show the question of the circulation of troubadour lyric in Italy in a different light, in particular at the time that the Sicilian school was forming. Bearing this in mind, we may reconsider the problem of the origin of chansonnier T, which contains a version of Giraut’s alba which is closely related to the southern Italian version copied in the Munich manuscript, as well as to the northern Italian version in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. These three versions also provide information about a much more widespread circulation of troubadour poetry beyond the beyond the courts. Some linguistic features present in the Munich alba, described by Bertoletti in his article in this same issue of the journal, provide a definitive confermation of the newly discovered north-west passage. [The poem L’autrier el dous temps de pascor by Joyos de Tholoza] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Joyos de Tolosa / Article in Italian Very little is known about Joyos de Tholoza. He probably came from the County of Foix and lived in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. In the third stanza of his only extant song it is the poet who claims to be called Joyos and to come from Tholoza. This is probably not a real name but functions as a rhetorical device to create a contrast with his true state as a sad and suffering lover. L’autrier el dous temps de pascor (BdT 270.1), is Joyos’ only poem, copied in Chansonnier C; it is a text that contains a series of peculiarities both from the metrical and the thematic viewpoint. This paper proposes to look again at the poem’s versification and rhyme structure, as well as its polyphonic nature on the basis of its themes and lexicon. [The poem Atressi cum lo camel by Bartolomeo Zorzi] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Bartolomeo Zorzi / Article in Italian Atressi cum lo camel is one of seven love songs by Bartolomeo Zorzi, a poet who composes in the tradition of trobar prim. Zorzi weaves into the sentimental theme, embellished by some original features and references to the classic Occitan auctores, a close network of similes, metaphors and comparisons, together with numerous rhetorical figures and the use of rimas caras. He has recourse to images deriving from nature and from the Bible, or borrows characters from literature to express the state of mind of the lyric persona. Through the use of these rhetorical skills, the poet reveals a multifaceted personality that has enabled him to enhance his lyric production with all the knowledge acquired in the municipal milieux of the northern Italian cities.
8, 201 5[For a new edition of Guiraut Riquier’s libre: with a note on Riquier etymologies] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guiraut Riquier / Article in Italian The first part of this paper illustrates the project for a critical edition of Guiraut Riquier’s libre, which intends to follow the chronological order of the poems as indicated by the poet in the rubrics present in the two manuscripts (C and R) which transmit the texts. It will also consider the position that should be occupied in the edition by the group of tensos copied in R alone, but in a different part of the manuscript and without rubrics naming the author. The second part of the paper moves on to the texts themselves and will discuss the meaning of the connection set up by Riquier-Alfonso between inventores and trobador (Declaratio, vv.136-137), suggesting that the research should examine the classical tradition of rhetorical inventio, and give particular emphasis to Brunetto Latini’s translation of the term as trouvemens (Tresor (III, 11), trovamento in the Italian translation.
Dominique Billy [The anonymous poem L’autrier cuidai aber druda] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours / Article in French L’autrier cuidai aber druda is one of a small group of texts written in a mixed linguistic variety that has both French and Occitan features and which includes the lais Markiol and Nompar, that are moreover transmitted by the same French manuscript, the so-called Chansonnier du Roi, among a collection of troubadour poems, most of which are also copied in a mixed variety. The accommodation of this kind of text in trouvère songbooks would seem to point to a specific tradition in which troubadour songs would circulate not in their original language, but in a gallicized version, which allowed for the prestige of the source language to be retained as well as maintaining the most important formal features of the poem: versification and sophisticated rhyme schemes. This tradition seems to have encouraged some trouvères – who remain anonymous – to compose poetry directly in this mixed variety, in forms that tend to be characteristic of trouvère poetry. The present text is a lyric adaptation of a parody of Ovid’s Amores, known as De Vetula, the interpretation of which has given rise to different opinions, which will be discussed here along with a closer study of the language.
Fortunata Latella [The poem Pus ubert ai mon ric thesaur by Peire Vidal] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Peire Vidal / Article in Italian The sirventes-canso Pus ubert ai mon ric tezaur by Peire Vidal is characterized, especially in the central part (coblas II-VII), by a particularly creative use of language which culminates in verbal invention; although commentators have grasped the allusive and etymological value of the toponymic creations in the text, the meaning hidden under these euphemisms has so far not been explained. The analysis carried out here seeks to highlight this secondary level of reading, that reveals a distinctly erotic and sometimes indecent scenario, which neverthless always remains on a playful and humorous level.
Charmaine Lee [The poem Daufin, je·us voill deresnier by Richard the Lionheart] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Richard the Lionheart / Article in ItalianRichard the Lionheart is known to have composed at least two songs, the famous rotrouenge, Ja nus homs pris ne dira sa raison (BdT 420.2), and the much lesser known sirventes, Daufin, je·us voill deresnier (BdT 420.1). This paper consists in a first approach to this latter, and will attempt to place the text in its historical context and suggest a date of composition. It will also argue that the language of the poem, transmitted only in Occitan songbooks, is an example of the western French scripta associated with the Plantagenet area during the twelfth century. This discussion will constitute a first step towards an edition of the text, which meanwhile is offered here in the version copied in B, probably the best manuscript.
Rosa María Medina Granda [The partimen between Cavaire and Bonafos, Bonafos, yeu vos envit] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Cavaire / Article in Spanish The aim of this paper is to study the use of the senhal Bonafos, that occurs in l. 27 of the partimen between Cavaire and Bonafos, as a satirical-parodic senhal. We propose to analyse Bonafos in the same way as we previously examined the use of its opposite, Malafos, in contexts containing a discourse that is far from that of the Canso. This would be the case of the pastorela and the partimen. The use of an echoing irony and its interaction with parody and satire would have made possible the conversion of a previous discursive modalizer into a satirical-parodic senhal in this partimen. We also take into account the use that Jews from the south of France made of the anthroponym Bonafos. The conclusions from previous works as well as the data deriving from the Geopatronyme have provided us with this interesting information. However, we do not believe that in this partimen Bonafos is the real name of the jongleur. On the contrary, we argue that Bonafos, even if an anthroponym, might have continued to ‘encapsulate’ the echo of its hypothetical origin: the discursive modalizer (anc) bona fos.
Caterina Menichetti [The poem Lo joi comens’en un bel mes by Arnaut de Tintinhac] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Arnaut de Tintinhac / Article in Italian The paper proposes a new critical edition, followed by a comment, of Lo joi comens’en un bel mes, the text by Arnaut de Tintinhac with the widest manuscript tradition. The vers, which can be dated to the middle of the 12th century, consists in a broad reflection on fin’amor, presented as a discipline leading to individual refinement requiring of the lover the right behaviour and the ability to understand correctly. The paper presents a close reading of Lo joi comensa, in which the methods of literary investigation as well as critical edition are brought into play. The poem’s manuscript tradition is quite corrupt: the vers is complete in only four manuscripts (CERc), which nonetheless offer two different stanza orders and a large amount of indifferent variants. The new edition is based on the western tradition represented by CER, but systematically confronts this with the text transmitted by the c-DaIK group. [Apocryphal inserts and indefensible attributions: delving into the unica of Provençal manuscript Sg] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Provençal manuscript SgThe central section of the Occitan songbook kept at the Biblioteca de Catalunya (ms. 146), generally known as Sg since it originally came from Saragossa (from Gil y Gil’s library), continues to prove to be of great interest for the study of the reception of troubadour poetry in Catalan milieux, at a time when a new poetic tradition was taking shape, influenced by the Toulouse tradition of the Consistori de la Gaia Sciensa. These particular circles and period naturally influenced the selection of authors and texts – with the resulting inclusions and exclusions – as well as the accompanying attributions. The latter may in part be due to a tradition that was already corrupt, but also, especially as far as the unica are concerned, to a form of mimetic parasitism, accompanied by a tendency for illicit inclusions in the case of some particular texts for which, as in previous articles, I have tried to point out the degree of ‘impertinence’ and to decide whether to add them to the list of suspects, to place them under interrogation, or – in the most clearly arbitrary cases – to simply remove them. This paper will focus on a planh attributed to Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (394.4a), which Sg shares with Ve-Ag, and on three unica which Sg alone attributes to Giraut de Borneil (242.18a, 52a, 69a).
Francesco Zambon [The poem Ara farai, no·m puesc tener by Guilhem Anelier de Tolosa] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Anelier de Tolosa / Article in ItalianFollowing the publication of Richard E. F. Straub’s study in 1995, his suggestion of dating the four surviving sirventes by Guilhelm Anelier de Tolosa between 1270 and 1285 has generally been accepted; therefore his being identified as the same Guilhelm Anelier de Tolosa who, around 1280, wrote the Song of the Navarrese War has also been acknowledged. The present paper, accompanied by the critical edition of Arai farai, proves the inconsistency of these dates of composition (unacceptable for a variety of historical, ideological and literary reasons) and discusses in particular the date of the sirventes in question, whose composition is to be placed between 1216 and 1222, most probably in the period going from May-June 1218 to June 1219. A central point of the argument consists in identifying the enfans mentioned in the composition with the future count of Toulouse Raymond VII.
7, 2014 [The contrafacta of Arnaut Daniel’s sestina] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guilhem de Saint Gregori, Bartolomeo Zorzi / Article in Italian This paper provides a commentary and translation of two contrafacta of Arnaut Daniel’s sestina: Guilhem de Saint Gregori’s Ben gran avolesa intra and Bartolomeo Zorzi’s En tal dezir mos cors intra. For the first song, I will highlight the new contexts and meanings given to Arnaut’s images (which are taken from his sestina and other poems) within Guilhem’s invective against Aimers II of Poitiers, in order to evaluate its literary qualities and innovations. Through lexical analysis, this paper will reveal the strong connection between Zorzi’s and Guilhem’s songs. In particular, the paper analyses specifically their common theme of Hell, suggesting Bartolomeo’s text is most likely an answer to Arnaut’s sestina, which clearly expresses a desire of sensual pleasure. The study pays particular attention to the relation between sexual love and the matter of eternal damnation: Zorzi attacks Arnaut’s ferm voler, advancing his argument by evoking Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval (references to which are spread throughout the text, and not only in l. 18) and through his constant stress on the duties towards one’s family.
Fabio Barberini [The anonymous poem L’autr’ier al quint jorn d’aprieu] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours / Article in Italian Although published more than once, L’autr’ier al quint jorn d’aprieu continues to pose problems, due especially to the large number of anomalies that affect the versification. This paper offers a new edition of the poem based on a first-hand examination of the only manuscript that transmits the text (Chansonnier f): in the manuscript, lines 7 and 8 of each stanza are never separated by a dot, which leads to the hypothesis that in line 7 of each cobla, the anonymous song had not two tetrasyllabic verses, as suggested by previous scholars, but a single octosyllabe with internal rhyme; the only exception is in the last stanza where the absence of internal rhyme underscores the ideological (and anachronistic) positions of the Anonymous troubadour, inspired by Marcabru. This new structure coincides with the (very rare) rhyme scheme (but not in the type of verses) of Cerveri’s sirventes, Ara∙m lunya joy e chan (BdT 434a.4), which in turn is a contrafactum of Thibaut de Blaison’s pastorela, Hu main par un ajornant. The presence of a French model in Catalan lands and the fact that the anonymous text was composed in Languedoc neighbouring Catalonia, suggest the possibility that the anonymous troubadour came into contact autonomously with Thibaut de Blaison’s pastorela, without the mediation of Cerveri’s poem.
Paolo Canettieri [Guillem de la Tor, En vos ai mesa, and the anonymous poem Finamens] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem de la Tor, lai, descort For more than a century discussion has taken place as to the relationship between the descort and the lai, two forms that reveal clear structural affinities to the point that Jeanroy published all the Old French poems belonging to both genres in a single volume. Nevertheless some scholars have suggested a possible polygenesis, also considering the greater structural freedom displayed by the lai compared to the more rigid structure of the descort, which is more typical of troubadour and courtly poetry. The relationship between the two texts examined here is that of a contrafactum, though it is hard to say which inspired the other: a comparison between them points out the distinguishing features of the two genres and in some instances enables some problematic lessons in both texts to be resolved.
Costanzo Di Girolamo [The poem Molt jauzions mi prenc amar by Guillem of Peiteus] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem of Peiteus / Article in Italian Many scholars have seen the song Molt jauzions mi prenc amar as the earliest manifesto of fin’amor and as representing the courtly side of the first troubadour, thus as an evident contrast to his comic and satirical side. Roncaglia, however, believes that the poem contains a clearly obscene reference («la désignation triviale du sexe féminin») which would shed doubt on the image of a two-faced poet. The interpretation proposed here will also argue against the view of a poetical production played out on two opposite levels, but provides an entirely different explanation of the «mot scandaleux» compared to that of Roncaglia and will suggest a different approach to the parodical aspects in Guilhem de Peiteus’ poetry. The text has been reedited and is accompanied by a detailed commentary.
Linda Paterson [The anonymous poem Finamens] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, lai, descort / Article in English The essay re-examines and re-edits this highly problematic piece in order to attempt to understand it as a response to the crusading movement. The focus is on elucidating meaning rather than analysing in extenso its linguistic and metrical features, which primarily characterised Dominique Billy’s approach in 1995. The lai dates from before the end of the thirteenth century and some indications suggest a time around the first half or middle of the century. The assumption has previously been that nothing is known of the author, but the name Nompar has been used from the Middle Ages to the present by the aristocratic family of Caumont La Force, and it would appear that there were three noblemen of that name during the thirteenth century which could be identified, or at least associated, with the author. Particularly problematic parts of the text have been re-interpreted and in some cases reconstructed, and an appreciation offered of the poet-musicians considerable skill in the delicate interweaving of words, melodic themes and stanzaic forms, in a song which artfully exploits the common theme of the crusader’s reluctance to leave his lover.
Oriana Scarpati [Three poems by Bertran Carbonel (BdT 82.9, 18, 15] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Bertran Carbonel / Article in ItalianIn three poems of Bertran Carbonel (a fictive tenso between Lover and Heart, a sirventes, and a planh) an unknown person is referred to by the initials «P.G.». In the tenso, this mysterious person figures as the impartial judge of the tenso itself; in the sirventes he is bitterly blamed; in the planh he is mentioned as the object of the lament. On the basis of a metrical, rhetorical and stylistic analysis, the present article aims to demonstrate that these three poems are to be interpreted as progymnasmata, and that, although several scholars have assumed that the reference is to the troubadour Peire Guilhem, no real person is actually hidden under the fictive persona «P.G.» In the article a new critical edition of each poem is also provided .
6, 2013
Francesco
Saverio Annunziata [The poem Si co·l flacs molins torneia by Tomier and Palaizi] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Tomier, Palaizi / Article in Italian This paper provides a new commentary of Tomier and Palaizi’s sirventes Si co·l flacs molins torneia. The joint work of these two troubadours, who were active during the Albigensian Crusade, represents an unusual case of collaboration among the Occitan poets. The authors address their sirventes to the southern partisans, in order to encourage them and attack both their usual enemies (the French and the Clergy), as well as the Occitan barons who supported the Crusade, like Guilhem del Baus prince of Orange. In addition to a new interpretation of some historical and literary issues, the paper also analysizes the political and propagandistic function of the Occitan sirventes written during the Albigensian Crusade.
Marco Grimaldi [The poem Bon’aventura don Dieus als Pizas by Peire Vidal] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Peire Vidal / Article in Italian The poem examined here, probably composed in Italy, is mainly known for its historical interest and as a satire of the Germans. In Bon’aventura, in fact, Peire Vidal seems to be siding openly with the Marquis Boniface I of Monferrato and the Lombard communes, that were at war with the Emperor Henry IV, who had invaded Italy at the end of 1194. This paper, which reproduces Avalle’s edition and basically confirms the usual date between autumn 1194 and April 1195, will discuss the precise relationship between poetry and politics in Peire Vidal’s work through an analysis of the song’s value as a document in relation to contemporary sources. Thus it will examine the troubadour’s attitude to the events of his day and attempt to outline a fluid and ‘regional’ political loyalty which the poet from Toulouse shares with his contemporaries.
Saverio Guida [A discussion of Tavani 2008] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras / Article in Italian The aim of the present paper is to return to the discussion on the authorship of BdT 392.5 and argue for attributing the poem to Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. I believe that the affinities in theme, situation and expression between [Oi] altas undas que venez suz la mar and the song Belh Monruelh (BdT 70.11), that I tried to link to Raimbaut in a previous study, should not be overlooked. An important clue is that the wind motif, present in the latter song, also occurs several times in the Occitan troubadour’s production, to the extent that it would seem a tried and tested semiotic marker. Neither should the underlying narrative quality of the text in search of an author be ignored, nor the popular tone that characterizes it, which are both compatible with attitudes expressed by the «fill d’un paubre cavaillier de Proensa», who frequently makes use of popular song and does not shun the adoption and elevation in a classless manner of features of more ‘humble’ origin. Moreover, of utmost importance is the use in l. 10 of BdT 392.5a of the verb-form aportai, an imperative form (confirmed by the rhyme) found in northern Italy (and in particular in the Liguria-Piedmont area, where Raimbaut spent many years) and which is employed, as a clear dialect feature, significantly in l. 27 of the tenso between the Occitan troubadour and the Genoese lady (BdT 392.7). [The two sirventes by Guillem Fabre] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem Fabre / Article in English The historical circumstances of Guillem Fabre’s two surviving sirventes has given rise to widely divergent views. This essay builds on Parducci’s contextualisation of BdT 216.2 during the War of the Sicilian Vespers and the so-called Aragonese crusade by the French against Pere III of Aragon in 1284-1285. It argues that Guillem is likely to be referring to events say entre nos because Narbonne was the focal point of the gathering French army and preaching of the crusade. All other textual details are compatible with this period and best explained by this context. But while Parducci places the sirventes in May 1285, it must in fact have preceded the death of Martin IV on 29 March, since his speedily-appointed successor Honorius IV could not be blamed for not having preached a crusade against the heathen before the conflict degenerated into further atrocities. Furthermore a slightly earlier timing better explains the allusion to «the best-known man in the world», the obvious candidate at this time being Charles of Anjou. Guillem probably composed BdT 216.2 during the build-up to war in 1284, before the death of Charles in January 1285, during the period of war preparations and propaganda speeches. It is also argued here that, pace Parducci, BdT 216.1 did not necessarily precede BdT 216.2.
Linda Paterson [The poem Sendatz vermelhs, endis e ros by Peire del Vilar] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Peire Vidal / Article in English This sirventes presents a number of hermeneutic difficulties, both detailed and global. The issue of dating is also problematic, with some strong arguments in favor of either 1242 (Jeanroy) or 1285 (Kendrick). Jeanroy understands the sirventes to be announcing the imminent arrival of King Henry III of England to join forces with the southern uprising against France in 1242; Kendrick, as an attempt to persuade the audience, and specifically the count of Rodez, to oppose the attack on Aragon by Philip the Bold of France during the so-called Aragonese crusade. Fresh examination of a number of linguistic details suggests that stanzas I-IV are ironic in tone, and the historical references, including some not considered by previous scholars, vitiate Kendrick’s arguments and support Jeanroy’s dating.
Federico Saviotti [The poem Era·m requier sa costum’e son us by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras / Article in Italian The lack of studies on the more traditional love songs composed by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, compared with the great success of his more experimental poems amongst scholars, has been repeatedly stigmatized. This paper offers a global and detailed reading of a canso which is emblematic in the troubadour’s poetry. The vocabulary and stylistic features have been analyzed comparatively in order to correct an erroneous interpretation based on the story told by the razo and to recognize the poem’s importance within Raimbaut’s production. This poem, no less than others by the same poet, reveals the most significant marks of its author’s poetic spirit: his curiosity towards reality and his receptiveness. A new critical edition of the text is provided here, based on the revision and a more extensive study of the manuscript tradition. [A discussion of Petrossi 2009] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Sordello, Charles of Anjou / Article in Italian The rereading presented here of the exchange of coblas between Sordello and Charles I of Anjou belongs to the literary genre of consequences. In this case the consequences are not due to love or other such noble sentiments, but to what might be termed the metamorphosis of a wife. The outcome of this metamorphosis redefines relationships between the two speakers, bringing about some unexpected and not at all trite results.
5, 2012
Francesco Carapezza [The poem Belha m’es la votz autana by Daude de Pradas] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Daude de Pradas / Article in Italian The attribution of this love song to the troubadour from Rouergue, Daude de Pradas, according to the only Occitan testimony, i.e. song-book C, was considered impossible or at least suspicious by many scholars for the mere fact that its first verse is quoted, as a chançon auvrignace, in the Roman de la Rose (or Guillaume de Dole) attributed to Jean Renart and initially dated to the earliest years of the XIIIth century. However, in the light of the recent dating of Daude’s poetic activity between 1191 and 1242, the chronological criterion alone cannot resolve the issue of attribution. This paper, where a more conservative edition of the text than that by C. Appel (1890) is proposed, will now present for the first time codicological – i.e. order and sources of Daude’s section in Ms. C – as well as metrical, stylistic and musical data, on the basis of the notation present in Ms. W. The discussion leads to the hypothesis that the song might be the work of an author belonging to the group of Marcabru’s imitators and therefore relatively early (third quarter of the XIIth century), setting aside the isolated attribution to Daude de Pradas. [A debate about monacal life (Blacasset and Pujol) and a dialogue about marriage (Alaisina and Carenza)] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Blacasset, Pujol, Alaisina, Carenza / Article in Italian This paper provides a new critical edition of Se·l mals d’amor m’auzi ni m’es noisens by Blacasset and Dieus es amors e verais salvamens by Pujol. These two poets discuss a topic that is entirely new to Occitan lyric poetry: two young women about to enter a convent. While Blacasset expresses sadness about their choice of life in a convent, using elements of the funeral lament, Pujol praises it and believes it to be the only remedy for the corruption of the world. The tenso between women Na Carenza al bel cors avenenç seems to be conceived as a parody of this lyric debate: in the dialogue Alaisina and Yselda, who have doubts about becoming mothers, ask Na Carenza whether it is better to stay virgins or to marry; the latter advises them, in cryptic terms that are difficult to interpret, to become nuns, thereby gaining a husband (God) but not children. I will suggest that the question of female authorship for this text be reconsidered, while proposing a new interpretation in the light of the lively debate in the medieval period about the suitability and prerogatives of virginity. [The sequence of anonymous coblas in chansonnier P (BdT 461.126, 193, 246, 217, 133)] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours / Article in Italian My paper provides a new critical edition, with critical apparatus, comment and translation of a set of anonymous coblas, copied as a sequence in the anthology present at ff. 55-66 in chansonnier P: BdT 461.126; BdT 461.193; BdT 461.246; BdT 461.217; BdT 461.133 (all of which are unica). I will examine in particular the attributions suggested so far for one or more of these coblas (a name that has frequently been put forward is that of Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia, author of the sonnet in cobla form copied in P immediately preceding the poems discussed here) and address the hypothesis put forward by several scholars (and upheld with convincing evidence by Stefano Asperti) that the sequence under consideration points to the strong presence of a Tuscan tradition in chansonnier P, clearly contributing, among other things, to outline a «fundamental coherence» (Asperti) between some aspects of Dante’s literary culture and this particular songbook.
Linda Paterson [The poem [No s]ai qui·m so tan suy [des]conoyssens] by Austorc de Segret / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Austorc de Segret / Article in English Discussion of this sirventes, composed in the aftermath of Louis IX’s second crusade and death at Tunis in 1270, raises two main issues: the identity of «Haenric», and Austorc’s introduction of his song as a devinalh in the tradition of Guilhem de Peitieus and Raimbaut d’Aurenga. Contrary to the hypothesis that «Haenric» is the Infant Henry of Castile, the lines «qu’era de sen e de saber ses par / e tot lo mielhs era de sos parens» point conclusively towards the son of Richard of Cornwall, Henry of Almain. The speaker’s mental and spiritual confusion faced with the defeat of the Christian faith is attributed to some unknown force, either God Himself or a devil, and following on from this unspecified dïables, esperitz suggests an evil spirit and may refer back to Charles of Anjou. The rhetorical evocation of the devinalh tradition serves both to express dismay at Louis’ failure and to focus blame on his brother. Essentially propagandistic, it lacks the subtlety of earlier examples of the riddling tradition, though the undeveloped potential for this hovers around the possibility of God destroying his own religion.
Linda Paterson [The poem Ar es sazos c’om si deu alegrar by Calega Panzan] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Calega Panzan / Article in English This Ghibelline sirventes of 1268 celebrates the expedition to Italy of Conradin, the young heir to the Hohenstaufen dynasty, claimant to the imperial crown, challenger to Pope Clement IV and his ally Charles of Anjou, and object of a political crusade against Christians. The most significant work on its historical circumstances was carried out by Jeanroy and, jointly, Sternfeld and Schultz-Gora in 1903. Their arguments are often confusing, and are now out of date. The discussion here attempts to clarify their arguments, the text and the historical situation in the light of a new critical edition of the text and more recent historical and other research. Contrary to Jeanroy’s claim, the troubadour appears to be well informed of the events he evokes, and his virulent polemic may have contributed to Angevin attempts at censorship.
Gianluca
Valenti [The poem D’autra guiza e d’autra razo by Arnaut Daniel] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Arnaut Daniel / Article in Italian This paper will focus on some specific aspects of Arnaut Daniel’s D’autra guiza e d’autra razo which, despite its success in its day and age (some verses were reused by Petrarch in the opening sonnet of the RVF), has received little critical attention in modern times. In particular, I will examine the incipit (whose alterity with respect to the rest of the Occitan lyric tradition points to an explicit declaration of intent on the part of the author), the lack of a tornada and, finally, the possibility that Arnaut Daniel was influenced by the section in the Rhetorica ad Herennium devoted to mnemonic technique. Moreover, the hypothesis that material concerning the art of memory has been used here helps to explain some particularly problematic textual loci, such as ll. 5-7 and 34.
4, 2011
Pietro G.
Beltrami [The poem Can lo glatz e·l frechs e la neus by Giraut de Borneil] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Giraut de Borneil / Article in Italian This paper provides a critical edition, with a new hypothesis concerning two difficult loci, of Quan lo fregz e·l glatz e la neus, one of the most significant love songs by Giraut de Borneil. For l. 48 (according to the order of the stanzas in Kolsen’s edition which is confirmed here), I will argue that gers, present in nearly all the manuscripts and editions, but never explained satisfactorily and unique from the lexical viewpoint, is a ghost word. Thus I will suggest accepting the lesson of ms. B as a suitable, ancient conjecture: «of those who are inside (the beseiged castle and forced to surrender) que an grans guerriers, (who have great enemies)». For l. 58 none of the solutions put forward so far are convincing, thus I will tentatively propose a new conjecture: the lover fears that his life will become «plus breus... que del quint dels quars», «shorter that the fifth of the quarter (of the day)», that is, it will be cut off. This restores a rhetorical figure of repetition that marks the end of each stanza after the second and which has been lost in nearly all the manuscripts and editions. My reading of the text will underline its distinctive aspects: a large number of quite difficult similes, emphasis on the figure of the lover, a lack of the author intervention and of the sententiae and forms of argument that characterize this poet, a fast pace created by the syntactic and rhetorical structure. I will also examine all that may serve to place the text within a particular historical context, although despite the many hypotheses, the only sure element is that it was written for a courtly occasion in the presence of Richard the Lionheart.
Maria Grazia
Capusso [The poem Ges de chantar no·m voill gequir by Rambertino Buvalelli] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Rambertino Buvalelli / Article in Italian Among the poems by the Italian troubadour Rambertino Buvalelli, nearly all of which are love songs, Ges de chantar no·m voill gequir does not present particular problems as far as the text’s literal sense and language is concerned: but, unlike other poems by the Bolognese poet (such as the salut [BdT 281.3] or the floral tribute to Beatrice d’Este [BdT 281.4]), it has rarely been included in anthologies and has so far received little critical attention. Yet a rereading of the text in the manuscript and in the different editions (from Casini to Melli) leads to the identification of different possibilities for divergent interpretations (contrasting translations and different punctuation), suggested integrations (cf. the tornadas) and conjectural emendations: a case in hand is the state of the fourth cobla. From the point of view of form, the author reveals a good literary knowledge: his background is wide and varied as is proved by an examination of motifs and formulae that range from those from the Occitan area to northern Italy.
Alessio Collura [The poem Be·m plagr’ueymais qu’ab vos dona·m valgues by Guillem Peire de Cazals] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem Peire de Cazals / Article in Italian This paper proposes a new edition with commentary of the poem Be·m plagr’ueymais qu’ab vos, dona, ·m valgues by Guillem Peire de Cazals and represents a first critical and hermeneutical reassessment of the poetry of the troubadour from Cahors, that has long been neglected. The text presents the classical structure of a love-story (springtime exordium, singing brought on by love, the theme of improvement, courting with no hope of a reward, a request for mercé) and invites the fin aman to be patient. The song is examined from the viewpoint of its metrical and stylistic relations to other troubadour poems (Bernart de Ventadorn, Can par la flors josta·l vert folh [BdT 70.41] and La dousa votz ai auzida [BdT 70.23] and Lanfranc Cigala, Ioios d’amor farai de ioi senblan [BdT 282.12]), and represents an early example of the mannerisms and experimental tendencies that characterize Guillem Peire’s poems. The article also attempts to date the composition to the twenties or thirties of the 13th century.
Massimiliano
De Conca [The poem Sols sui qui sai lo sobrafan qe·m sortz by Arnaut Daniel] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Arnaut Daniel / Article in Italian With the poem Sols soi qui sai Arnaut turns to lyric poetry proper, moving away from the other two compositions in the ferm voler cycle (BdT 29.17 and 14). While in these two the rhetorical and metrical element is dominant to the detriment of content, Sols soi qui sai begins a series of courtly considerations and introduces poetical images destined to be reflected in the rest of the poet’s production. Not surprisingly it is a song of excess: metrical, stylistic and iconic. With this song Arnaut ceases to be a joglar and becomes a true court poet, as he himself candidly declares in l. 15, destined to wander here and there, though intent on firmly maintaining his feelings for the lady who has every virtue. He will live thinking only of her and his life will hover between the compulsion to possess her, embarrassment in the face of perfect love and the humility of suffering his own inadequacy. This pleasant dilemma will translate into a continuous poetic experimentation, witness to an untamed soul that struggles, despite itself, to follow mesura ni taill.
Wendy Pfeffer [The poem Subrafusa ab cabirol by Jofre de Foixa] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Jofre de Foixa / Article in English Jofre de Foixa’s verses Subrafusa ab cabirol (BdT 304.4) merit attention for the light the two coblas shed on Jofre’s familiarity with his Occitan predecessors, for the information the text provides regarding food practices in his time, and for the use of a food term rare in the Iberian peninsula, unyo. The resources of culinary history, specifically fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Languedocian and Catalan cookbooks, allow us better to understand the meaning of Jofre’s lyric.
Francesca Sanguineti [The poem Gui d’Uisel, Ja non cujei qe·m desplagues amors by Gui d’Uisel] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Gui d’Uisel / Article in Italian This paper offers a new critical edition with commentary of Gui d’Uisel’s mala canso against Love, Ja non cujei qe·m desplagues amors, a poem that is less well-known and has received less critical attention compared to the other, better known, mala canso addressed to the mala dompna by the same author, Si be·m partetz, mala dompna, de vos (BdT 194.19). The paper will investigate all those aspects of the text – vocabulary, style, themes – that enable it to be classified as a song against love. As far as this is concerned, a number of features would appear to be of particular interest, such as the use of the rhyme-word fais; the equivalence of love service and feudal service that justifies abandoning Love, seen as a bad lord; the motif of ladies who have become chamjaritz; the theme of the decadence of courtly values; the poet’s need to place limits on his complaint faced with the corruption of fin’amor. Although the archetypes of many of the poem’s themes and motifs may be found already in the earliest troubadours, Gui d’Uisel’s songs, and this one in particular, stand out because their author is well aware that he is adopting a classic genre while at the same time attempting to renew it from the point of view of content.
Adriana
Solimena [The poem Molt m’es bon e bell by Peire Vidal] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Peire Vidal / Article in Italian The poem by Peire Vidal, Molt m’es bon e bell, has mainly been examined from the viewpoint of its versification and its belonging more or less justifiably to the «formal grammar of trobar», but it has never been studied as a text. The obsessive repetition of the same rhyme-words has tended to conceal its poetic and narrative discourse. The present analysis will propose an interpretation that takes into account formal as well as textual aspects. Both metrical structure and poetic discourse iconically represent the passing of a measurable length of time: a period that corresponds to the time to be devoted to love’s service, or feudal service, that has never been studied in troubadour poetry. Thus we may speak of a song dedicated to the «time for love and for waiting» as far as both the text and its metrical structure are concerned. It is also quite possible that the metrical structure alludes to the astronomical model of the rotation of the planets, thereby confirming the temporal interpretation of the poem.
3, 2010
Francesca Andolfato [The poem Be·s cuget venjar Amors by Gausbert de Poicibot] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Gausbert de Poicibot / Article in Italian This paper offers a commentary and a new critical edition of Gausbert de Poicibot’s poem Be·s cuget venjar Amors, which apparently belongs to the genre of the mala canso, that was particularly popular during the period that the Limousin poet was active. To abandon love enables the poet to recuperate reason and sen and to justify, almost in didactic terms, his separation from the lady, thus clearly showing that he had so far sung the praises of a lady who was not worthy of receiving them. The song is also compared to other typical examples of the subgenre to which it belongs, such as Si be·m partetz, mala dompna, de vos by Gui d’Uissel (BdT 194.19), considered to be paradigmatic of the mala canso and probably familiar to Gausbert de Poicibot, though it will be pointed out that this poetic mode has roots in the work of troubadours of previous generations, such as Bernart de Ventadorn and Raimbaut d’Aurenga, whom Gausbert seems to use as models.
Paolo Di
Luca [The poem Ma bella dompna, per vos dei esser gais by Falquet de Romans] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Falquet de Romans / Article in Italian Ma bella dompna per vos dei esser gais by Falquet de Romans has been taken for a courtly song for a long time. However, the poem’s metrical form is derived directly from that of the epic, as illustrated by the use of monorhymed décasyllabes with non-systematic epic caesura and the presence of a petit vers at the end of each stanza. The poem may thus be defined as stanzaic but not lyric because its versification is that of the chanson de geste and its music must be that of an epic chant. Moreover, its content reflects the rhetorical structure of the salut d’amor, an epistolary genre in which the lover sends a letter to his lady asking her to respond to his love. Thus, Ma bella dompna should be considered a formal hybrid between salut d’amor and chanson de geste; in this sense it is to be compared to those few compositions of an epistolary nature that employ epic form, such as Raimbaut de Vaqueiras’ famous letter to the Marquis Boniface of Monferrato, which is probably the prototype of this poetic experiment, along with two pairs of laisses exchanged between Gui de Cavaillon and Bertran Folco d’Avignon.
Francesca
Gambino [The poem Ab la dolchor del temps novel by Guillem de Peiteus] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem de Peiteus / Article in Italian This paper will put forward some possible new interpretations for selected passages in Ab la douzor del temps novel by William of Aquitaine. The term vers, for example, has always been paraphrased in different ways, but its primary meaning might be that provided by the naturalistic context: in the spring birds twitter among the branches, they produce a ‘verse’. Thus the literal meaning of vers could be that of «a characteristic sound produced by the vocal organs of a particular animal (mainly a bird)». As for l. 15, instead of the traditional image of the hawthorn branch tremblan (trembling) on the tree, the alternative reading entrenan (the branch «stands firmly on the tree», «resists the elements») is preferred, which could well be a lectio difficilior. The paper will end by providing a commentary to the text. The edition used is Eusebi, with some corrections.
Marco Grimaldi [The anonymous poem Totas honors e tuig faig benestan] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours / Article in Italian This paper will examine an anonymous planh, Totas honor e tuig faig benestan, for the death of Manfred of Swabia, illegitimate son of Frederick II, who was killed in the battle of Benevento in 1266. The text is copied in a section of the ‘twin’ chansonniers I and K which contains mainly lyric laments (an exception in the troubadour manuscript tradition) and for this reason will serve as a basis for a discussion of the concept of ‘documentary series’. The paper will also consider the author’s origin, probably Italian on the basis of the linguistic and metrical evidence, and attempt to place the planh more precisely within the context of the struggle between Charles of Anjou and Manfred, as well as illustrate the role played by political troubadour poetry at the Italian court of the last Swabians. [The ‘exchange’ (?) between Guillem Figueira and Aimeric de Peguillan (BdT 217.1a and 10.9)] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem Figueira, Aimeric de Peguillan / Article in Italian This paper will examine the ‘exchange’ between Guillem Figueira and Aimeric de Peguillan in order to explore the possibility that the two coblas were linked and then merged together in a second phase for editorial purposes. In reality, in Chansonnier H, the coblas by the two troubadours (conventionally numbered 199 and 200) are placed within a larger section, nos. 194 to 200, that includes jongleuresque disputes and insults that perhaps took place around 1220 in Florence and Brescia. The hypothesis is that the order of these texts is the result of an anthological plan devised by whoever compiled H and ordered together texts that were typologically similar due to the frequent presence of the same protagonists and a tavern-like atmosphere in background. Consequently, that which has so far been classified as an ‘exchange’ between Guillem Figueira and Aimeric de Peguillan, could actually be more simply a succession of coblas that share the same stanzaic structure, rhymes and similarities from the viewpoint of material philology as well. [The anonymous poem Mout home son qe dizon q’an amicx and its macrotext] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours / Article in Italian This paper will offer a new edition, with critical apparatus, commentary and translation, of an anonymous poem (BdT 461.170) that has so far not been edited (nor commented) yet it appears of great interest for some linguistic aspects as well as for the fact that it reflects a later period and a mentality that might be termed protobourgeois. The poem will also be placed in context within the macrotext to which it belongs, because it forms a meaningful sequence together with the two stanzas that follow it in Chansonnier P (BdT 461.173 e 461.162, of which an edition with commentary and translation will be provided). Furthermore, the paper will examine the intertextual relationships of BdT 461.170 with other poems belonging to the same genre (short troubadour poems of a sententious and gnomic type): as far as these are concerned, the text reveals surprising links with the cobla BdT 461.123b that opens the anthology of esparsas in Chansonnier J (a new edition of this latter cobla will also be given here).
Linda Paterson [The poem Quant aug chantar lo gal sus en l’erbos by Guillem Rainol d’At] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Guillem Rainol / Article in English Despite appearing in several editions and interpretations, this piece continues to pose problems. To what poetic genre does it belong? Should it be regarded as ‘fictive’ in some sense? How coherent is it, and to what should be attributed any incoherence? Are the interlocutors married or not? How many dramatis personae are involved and who are they? It is argued here that any apparent incoherence derives from the manuscript transmission and the difficulties posed by the unusual vocabulary and popularizing register, the narrative situation is simpler than has been previously thought, and wordplay or semantic ambivalence works primarily as humor rather than jongleuresque display. The piece would appear to be designed for performance as a comic sketch, imaginable in dramatized form with appropriate costumes, props and gestures, with the troubadour possibly coming on stage in his own persona as a ‘knight’, being interrupted by a ‘woman’ whose part could have been sung and acted by another man, a woman, or even the troubadour himself. The text may be aptly described as a fabliau in dialogue form.
Giuseppe Tavani [The poem En est son fas chansoneta novelha by Peire de Blai] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Peire de Blai / Article in Italian This particular text, defined by its author as a chansoneta novelha, is attributed by C to Uc Brunenc and by M to Peire de Blai (Peire de Brau in CReg). It is no masterpiece, but within the troubadour corpus figures as an interesting example, from the viewpoint of technique, of an unusual and complex enlacement of riche rhymes. At the same time it is a unique example of an almost perfect application of the rules of capfinitio, used here as a linking of verses and stanzas (capfinitio per bordos and per coblas). For a long time the poem received no critical attention, then a few years ago it was edited twice almost simultaneously: once by the present author and again by Paolo Gresti, who quite rightly rejected the attribution to Uc Brunenc. This article will offer a new edition of the text based on both manuscripts, but also closely following the structural principles intended by the poet (who most certainly is the Peire de Blai indicated by M). Furthermore, it will examine the questions raised by the chansoneta’s particular position in M, with a view of providing a ‘material’ reassessment of the chansonnier and of describing the possible circumstances in which it was compiled, the period in which it was assembled and then recopied – by a single hand – at a later date than is generally believed.
2, 2009
Pietro G.
Beltrami [The poem Ben cove, pus ja bayssa·l ram by Giraut de Borneil] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Giraut de Borneil / Article in Italian This paper will offer a revision, with a translation and commentary, of the text of Ben cove, pus ja baissa·l ram by Giraut de Borneil, with a new examination of the manuscript tradition after the monographic editions by Adolf Kolsen and Ruth Verity Sharman. In particular the paper will offer a new reading of l. 20, transmitted only by Chansonnier a, while the other manuscripts have a lacuna that seems to have been crudely corrected by Sg. The interpretation of «e leis s’embla, que a miralh» as «and she, who holds a mirror, is elusive» restores an image of the lady filled with pride on seeing her own beauty reflected in a mirror that is also in Raimbaut d’Aurenga and Pons de Capduoill. In the Introduction the text is interpreted as an example of two different aspects of Giraut’s poetry, expressed through two different voices in the text, the author’s ‘self’ and the lover’s ‘self’. The former, who speaks in the first stanza, gives importance to his aiming for excellence; the latter, who speaks in the following stanzas, presents contents and forms belonging to a discourse on love. Finally, the point is made that where the two parts meet, at l. 9 «E per ma guerreira cui am» «and for my enemy whom I love», the text is of great poetic intensity.
Gilda Caiti-Russo [The poem Domna, tant vos ai prejada by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, contrasto / Article in French This paper will attempt to read Raimbaut de Vaqueiras’ contrasto from the viewpoint of its explicit addressees: the late twelfth-century imperial nobility of north-western Italy, as embodied by the Malaspina family. The text’s distinctive bilingualism thus assumes social and political significance since it pits the claims of the feudal aristocracy of the hinterland against the power of the Genoese bankers and merchants. The dialectical relationship of the two sides involved, played out by the voices of the jongleur and the Genoese lady, is nevertheless also literary: Raimbaut appears to match popular poetry, poetry which is «non regulata» as Dante would later call it, against a century of courtly Occitan poetry distinguished by an extremely formal tradition. A carnivalesque dimension is thus present in the reciprocal illumination of the two poetic voices: if popular poetry is unregulated despite its expressive qualities, troubadour poetry is confined, by means of the parody of the genre of the salut, to topics far-removed from reality. Raimbaut’s aim then is to restructure trobar by going back to the beginning: to the Count of Poitiers and his political and cultural act of inventing a secular poetry of aristocratic inspiration and in the vernacular. A ‘male’ poetry that will be formulated by the surprising gap at the end of the poem.
Massimiliano
De Conca [The poem Lo vers comens quan vei del fau by Marcabru] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Marcabru / Article in Italian Lo vers comens quan vei del fau belongs to the poet’s earliest cycle of poetry (1130-1135), which Carl Appel has termed the «poitevinischen Zyklus». The vers, conceived in the milieux surrounding William X of Poitiers, has recourse to themes characterizing Marcabru’s production: the polemic against his colleagues’ mystifications and, in particular, moral decadence, so far removed from the ideals of Joi and Proeza that should form the basis of courtly society. From the point of view of the form, the text offers metrical and lexical structures, as well as rhymes repeated elsewhere in his work. This paper will offer a new interpretation of the text, beginning with two key expressions, «entrebescar lo vers» and «trobar naturau», the ideological crux of all his later production and a source of discussion between his ‘respondents’, in particular Raimbaut d’Aurenga and Bernart Marti. Marcabru should be credited with having made explicit, by bringing them together, the morality of love and its poetic realization, conceived as being dependent on each other. Thus, the poet has been set the moral task of writing a poem that does not confuse, but rather facilitates «secundum naturam vivere».
Costanzo Di
Girolamo [The poem ... [nu]ils hom tan ... [n]on amet by Raimbaut d’Aurenga] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimbaut d’Aurenga / Article in Italian This paper will examine a poem attributed to [Raim]baut de [Vaque]iras by chansonnier E, which Bartsch and later Pillet attribute to Daude de Pradas, due to the confusion caused by the fragmentary incipit. It was first edited by Cusimano (1959), who accepted the manuscript’s attribution, while Linskill republished it (1964) and tentatively assigned it to Raimbaut d’Aurenga; more recently Perugi (1985) has indicated a late follower of Arnaut Daniel. This paper will confirm the attribution to Raimbaut d’Aurenga on the basis in particular of the series of rhyme-words, and will also reassess the song’s importance as the first example of a genre that will appear more frequently from the final decades of the twelfth century, the mala canso. The text is that of Cusimano’s impeccable edition.
Giuseppe Noto [The tenso between Granet and Bertran d’Alamano, De vos mi rancur, compaire] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Granet, Bertran d’Alamano This paper will provide a new edition, with critical apparatus, commentary and translation, of the tenso between Granet and Bertran d’Alamano, De vos mi rancur, compaire. This text is only transmitted by chansonnier P and it is not only incomplete but also quite incorrect in parts: as far as this latter is concerned I will consider the suggestions by previous editors and, where necessary, put forward new solutions. The tenso belongs to a well-attested typology in troubadour lyric: a debate between a jongleur and someone of a different social status (usually his lord and patron), but in this case the type has been altered in some quite interesting ways that hint at judicial contests and end up by overturning the viewpoint to reveal the true nature of the poem. This should not be read realistically, but as a parlour game, a divertissement that is not necessarily linked to the biographies of the participants and whose aim is to amuse the group of companhos who accompany Lord Bertran. [The tenso between Raimon de las Salas (?) and Bertran Folco d’Avigno (?), Bertran, si fossetz tant gignos] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimon de las Salas, Bertran Folco d’Avigno This paper will offer a new edition, with critical apparatus, commentary and translation, of the tenso Bertran, si fossetz tant gignos, transmitted by chansonniers ADIK and perhaps ascribable to Raimon de las Salas and Bertran Folco d’Avigno. It is a debate (that takes place within the framework of the Albigensian Crusade and was most likely composed in northern Italy) aimed at establishing whether, as far as military prowess, hospitality and courtly values as a whole are concerned, the Lombards (where Lombardy obviously means northern Italy as a whole) are better than the Provençals (that is the exponents of the feudal culture of all the courts of southern France put together). Of particular interest is the contrast between Occitania and its typically courtly ethics and the exclusively economic (indeed economicistic) outlook of the Lombards. [The exchange of coblas between Sordello and an unidentified respondent] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Sordello, Charles of Anjou / Article in Italian The paper provides a new commentary and a new edition of the brief exchange of coblas between Sordello and an unidentified respondent. The text is copied on folio 65r of Chansonnier P at the end of a long section of coblas esparsas (ff. 55-66). It is made up of two stanzas of six lines each and from the thematic viewpoint offers a lament for the disappearance of a lord’s generosity. Although the text is rather marginal to Sordello’s lyric production, it nevertheless contains elements that are relevant to understanding the troubadour’s life and works. The poem, in fact, represents a literary transfiguration of the rift between Sordello and his respondent, identified as Charles I of Anjou, a rift that occurred after the conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily, when the king completed his plan to go beyond an ideological framework based on a courtly and chivalric outlook, of which the troubadour was the best representative at the time.
Francesca
Sanguineti [The poem Donna pros e richa by Albertet] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Albertet / Article in Italian This paper will provide a commentary and a new critical edition of Donna pros e richa by Albertet, a poem with an exceptional metrical structure, halfway between a canso and an isostrophic descort. Its structure is identical to Raimbaut de Vaqueiras’ Carros (BdT 392.32): most likely Albertet’s poem is the original while Truan, mala guerra is a contrafactum, considering the fact that it is comparable to a sirventes. The lyric self urgently requests the love of a Genoese lady, complaining of her indifference and cursing her quite violently at the end of each stanza. The passionate tone that characterizes the poem becomes less so towards the end where God is finally called upon to protect the lady. What is clear here is, on the one hand, the poem’s conformity with the characteristics of the ‘mala canso’, and, on the other, its similarity with another poem by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, the contrasto with the Genoese lady (BdT 392.7). Thus Albertet’s poem is curious from different points of view: for its metrical form, uncommon in a canso; for its linguistic register which resembles that of narrative genres such as the fabliaux; for its rhymes which offer a series of analogies and exchanges of rhyme-words with the two Raimbauts, the previously mentioned Raimbaut de Vaqueiras and Raimbaut d’Aurenga.
Oriana
Scarpati [The poem Gran esfortz fai qui chanta ni·s deporta by Sail d’Escola] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Sail d’Escola / Article in Italian The only extant poem by Sail d’Escola, Gran esfortz fai qui chanta ni·s deporta, must have been quite successful with the troubadours since its melody was reused several times. Without a doubt its interest also lies in the fact that it mentions another (or others?) poem in which the troubadour has recourse to the mala canso, believing, quite rightly, that he may offend the lady who proved to be a bad amigua. The text is ambiguous: it appears to be a love song asking for forgiveness to a lady who had previously been treated badly, but it also contains hidden threats of abuse, should the lady not show herself to be once more well-disposed towards her lover. This paper will propose a new interpretation of the simile in ll. 5-7, as well as some corrections to the previous edition (Chabaneau).
1, 2008
Francesco
Carapezza [The poem Nueyt e jorn suy en pessamen by Garin lo Brun] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Garin lo Brun / Article in Italian The article provides a commentary and a new interpretation of Garin lo Brun’s poem Nueyt et jorn. The unusual typology of this dialogical poem has led to problems concerning generic classification, since it starts with an introductory stanza in the first person, where the theme of the inner debate is presented, followed by the opposed precepts of Mezura (Measure, Moderation) and Leujaria (Levity) in reported speech; moreover, the two personifications always address the lyric subject without really speaking to each other. Composed around 1150, when a system of dialogical genres had not yet been fixed, Nueyt et jorn has been classified in different ways by scholars. The poem contains some archaic features which connect it to the Occitan tenso specimen by Uc Catola and Marcabru, as well as to Guilhem IX’s ironically dilemmatic poem Companho farai un vers convinen. Furthermore, a closer examination of the fifth stanza’s varia lectio provides evidence of the affinity between Nueyt et jorn and Marcabru’s didactic poem Cortesamen vuelh comenzar, thus leaving room for the hypothesis that the latter has been a clear and direct source of inspiration for Garin. The collected data allow for the assumption that Nueyt et jorn carries out a transposition of the biblical conflictus between vices and virtues in the courtly context of troubadour lyric.
Paolo Di
Luca [The poem Rics pres, ferms e sobeirans by Peire Bremon Ricas Novas] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Peire Bremon Ricas Novas / Article in Italian This article provides a new critical edition and a commentary of Peire Bremon Ricas Novas’s Rics pres, ferms e sobeirans, a courtly love song composed between 1228 and 1257 and dedicated to Audiart del Baux. Built as a eulogy of the lady, the song focuses on the central theme of the moral and material ricor (richness) of the latter. The complexity of the metrical form, which displays a systematic use of the technique of rim derivatiu, is paralleled by the semantic obscurity of a number of verses and hapaxes, all discussed in the commentary. Stanzas III and IV show echoes of Jaufre Rudel’s amor de lonh, since the lover-poet declares that the distance and the ethnical difference between himself and the lady are abolished by the strength of his feelings. The use of ethnonyms in stanza IV is closely examined: the lover-poet reveals that he loves a Castilian lady who looks like a Serrana (the name of an Iberian population), admitting that he would like her even if she were Catalan or Syrian. These references to the lady’s ethnical origins are puzzling: they can be read as a calembour with burlesque overtones, as well as a climax aiming to define the real provenance of the lady or as a rhetorical device to underline that courtly love does not know any kind of boundary.
Aniello
Fratta [The poem Lancan son passat li giure by Arnaut Daniel] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Arnaut Daniel / Article in Italian The article provides a commentary of Arnaut Daniel’s Lancan son passat li giure, a moralistic song whose main theme is fals’Amor (sensual love). The song holds strong intertextual relations with Raimbaut d’Aurenga’s Apres mon vers vueilh sempr’ordre, as is shown primarily by the use of the same rhymes -il et -iure, which do not appear elsewhere in the troubadour corpus. Raimbaut’s song, whose verses 37-54 are interpreted differently by W. T. Pattison, its main editor, also deals with fals’Amor. But if Raimbaut praises the pleasures of physical love, which is portrayed as an irresistible cajoler, Arnaut condems and refuses it, after having experienced it. In this instance, Lancan son passat li giure seems to be a kind of polemic reply to Apres mon vers. In Arnaut’s view anyway, fals’Amor, though criticized, turns out to be the winning pattern of courtly behaviour, given its seductive and persuasive skill, to which it is difficult to resist. The text of Arnaut’song is the one established by M. Eusebi, with substantial modifications.
Marco
Grimaldi [The poem Entr’Arago e Navarra jazia by Cerveri de Girona] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Cerveri de Girona / Article in Italian The rubric in Chansonnier Sg classifies Entr’Arago e Navarra jazia by Cerveri de Girona as a sompni (dream). Thirteenth-century Occitan and Catalan arts of poetry define the sompni as a minor thematic genre in which the poet recounts events which took place in a dream (en durmen). On the basis of the rubric in Sg and the definition in the treatises, the only hints at the existence of the genre, this paper will outline a small corpus of five/six troubadour poems based on the narration of a dream and significant examples of sompni. The hypothesis that a genre defined as sompni existed and circulated beyond Occitania is furthermore linked to similar compositions by Paolo Lanfranchi, a thirteenth-century poet from Pistoia, and to some cantigas de amigo by Johan Mendiz de Briteyros, a Galician-Portuguese troubadour. The paper will also seek to demonstrate the loss of a line in the final stanza, so far unnoticed by previous editors, and suggest a date for the poem around 1276.
Walter Meliga [The tenso between Ricau de Tarascon and Cabrit] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Ricau de Tarascon, Cabrit / Article in Italian The article provides a commentary and a new critical edition of an Occitan tenso between Ricau de Tarascon and Cabrit. The latter, previously identified with the troubadour Gui de Cavaillon, is now generally believed to be a noble man from Arles. Built as a judicial duel, the tenso is started by Ricau who accuses Cabrit of misconduct in his regards. Cabrit’s defense is based on comic ordeals, which are rejected by Ricau, who aims instead for a resolution of the conflict by combat. This dispute probably was caused by real private controversies that arose between two landowners, though in the tenso allusions to two ladies romantically involved with them, as well as the jongleuresque tone of the entire dialogue poem, transpose their conflict into a courtly and somehow ironic context. [The tenso between Joan d’Albuzon and Nicolet de Turin] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Joan d’Albuzon, Nicolet de Turin / Article in English The article provides a commentary and a new critical edition of an Occitan tenso between two Italian troubadours, Joan d’Albuzon and Nicolet de Turin. The tenso presents a dream and its interpretation: Joan claims to have dreamt of a terrifying eagle flying through the air, accompanied by a huge ship of fire sailing across the land from Cologne. Nicolet in turn interprets the dream in terms of an emperor sweeping through Lombardy with a great army of German soldiers at his command, paid from his vast supply of treasure. Joan’s dream concludes with a vision of the eagle blowing out the fire, shining a great light over Montferrat, and settling in a high eyrie from which the whole world, now joyful, can be surveyed. Nicolet expounds this as the emperor’s desire for peace after vengeance, the Marquis of Montferrat’s submission, the emperor’s position of supreme command, and the prospect of appropriate rewards. The emperor is Frederick II Hohenstaufen and the author of the article proposes a new dating of the poem: it was probably composed in 1238 when the emperor, after his victory at the battle of Cortenuova in 1237 and subsequent subjection of several cities of the rebellious Lombard League, was arriving in Turin to receive the homage of Boniface II of Montferrat.
Francesca Sanguineti [The poem En amor trob tantz de mals seignoratges] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Albertet / Article in Italian The article provides a commentary and a new critical edition of Albertet’s poem En amor trob tantz de mals seignoratges, in which the troubadour praises some of the most courtly ladies of his time. The poem can be linked to the genre of the collective eulogy, where the enumerated ladies are praised essentially for political reasons, since the commendation is clearly addressed to the men hidden behind them: famous specimena of this genre are the tournoiements des dames by Huon d’Oisy and Richard de Semilli and Raimbaut de Vaqueiras’ Carros (BdT 392.32). Albertet’s song starts with a misogynic tone, since the poet declares that celebrating or loving ladies is worthless, given their immoral behavior, and with a polemic against the strict rules of courtly love. This misogyny, as is further discovered, is a rhetorical device to praise women as well as a tool to renew the genre of the love song from a thematic point of view.
Oriana
Scarpati [The anonymous poem Ab lo cor trist] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours / Article in Italian The article provides a commentary and a new critical edition of the anonymous Catalan poem Ab lo cor trist, envirollat d’esmay, a lament composed around the second half of the 14th century (even though the presence of lyrical and Italian caesuras might lead to advance the dating). This poem, composed in a female voice for the death of a lover, makes use, though with some interesting variations, of all the major topoi typical of the Occitan planh. The analysis focuses on two controversial verses (19-20) for which a new interpretation is proposed.
Paolo Squillacioti [The poem Las frevols venson lo plus fort by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras / Article in Italian The article provides a commentary of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras Las frevols venson lo plus fort, a poem commonly classified as a devinalh (riddle), an Occitan poetic genre whose real existence is debated among scholars. There are two major interpretations of the poem: one, by Tobler, claims that each stanza contains a riddle whose solution is unrelated to the others; another, by Lawner, explains all the riddles of the poem in sexual terms. The author of the article does not agree with either interpretation: he believes that the central focus of the poem is to be found in the pairs of antithetic elements listed in each stanza (strong vs. weak; nothing vs. universe; sweet vs. bitter; death vs. life; cold vs. hot; rich vs. poor), in their interactions with one another as well as in the paradoxical consequences of this interaction, i.e. that the natural order of things can be subverted and so the impossible can become possible. The whole poem might be affected by biblical influences.
Giuseppe Tavani [The poem Altas undas by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (?)] / Keywords: Old Occitan Literature, Troubadours, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras / Article in Italian The article proposes a new authorship for Altas undas que venez suz la mar, a poem attributed by ms. Sg to Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. This authorship has long been debated by scholars. Altas undas is almost without a doubt a specimen of cantiga de amigo, a Galician-Portuguese lyric genre which flourished in the 13th century, slightly after Raimbaut’s death. This leads to some crucial problems. Is Raimbaut the inventor of this genre? Did he imitate a Galician-Portuguese model? If so, did Galician-Portuguese lyric begin earlier than is generally acknowledged? Did Raimbaut draw inspiration from another extravagant lyric genre, the French chanson de toile, to compose Altas undas? The critical history of the poem is summarized by Tavani, who concludes that Altas undas may be attributed to Cerveri de Girona, a 13th century Catalan troubadour.
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